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With increasing frequency, Catholic Churches are having bautizos instead of baptisms. Quinciñeras, a tradition many people hadn’t even heard of just 5 years ago, are now a normal occurrence in many Churches on Saturday afternoons. The numbers speak for themselves. As of 2008, more than 40% of the Catholics in the US are Hispanic, and what’s more, nearly 60% of the Catholic youth speak Spanish. The sad truth, though, is that so many of these people fall through the cracks because there are so few resources, qualified ministers, and programs for them. According to studies such as the Instituto Fe y Vida, the reason for this is a vicious circle- very few Spanish-speakers have the resources to study Ministry professionally, therefore dioceses have an extremely difficult time finding qualified leaders for their programs, few people write resources for Hispanic youth ministry in Spanish, therefore many Hispanic youth have poor religious formation, and the cycle continues. To add on top of this, there are many English-speaking people who have degrees in Youth ministry, experience working full-time in parishes, evangelization, doing missions, etc., yet the Hispanics can’t benefit from their work to the fullest because they don’t understand them. A similar problem occurs when Americans go to Latin America to do mission work and ministry. They would be so much more effective if they could communicate fully with the people and understood their culture and how to reach out to them more effectively. Recently, in 2007, a powerful new ministry was born to try to help make a difference with this problem. It’s called the Escuela del Maestro (www.escueladelmaestro.com)- the first Catholic Intensive Spanish Immersion and Hispanic Outreach school in the world. It’s a place that Catholics can go for 6 weeks to become bilingual in Spanish, knowledgeable about and immersed in Hispanic culture, and taught by professional Hispanic Catholic leaders to reach out and evangelize Hispanic youth. It is a unique program which encompasses intensive Spanish immersion classes, comprehension and accent reduction, Hispanic culture classes, cultural workshops, soccer, dancing, and cooking classes, ministry outreach, and classes that teach Catholics how to lead worship in Spanish, give talks, testimonies, lead Bible studies, and evangelize. Classes are taught by priests, ministry leaders, a nun and the bishop of Valparaíso, Chile. It is an amazing experience which changes lives forever. And it’s even ok if you don’t have a minimum Spanish level. According to past participants, even people who had the most minimal Spanish abilities (either no classes at all before, or Spanish 101), were able to leave here bilingual and prepared to do ministry with Hispanics in the US and in Latin America.
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Every day, it is becoming more important to be able to speak Spanish fluently to do ministry to Catholics in the US and Latin America. If If you feel called to share the good news of Jesus Christ within His Church, www.escueladelmaestro.com " target="_blank">click here to learn more about an incredible new Catholic Spanish Immersion program.
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