Despite months of fear over federal immigration crackdowns in Baltimore, more than 400 Hispanic liturgical ministers, choirs and catechists gathered Aug. 1 at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park for a conference organizers say offered the community safety and comfort through spirituality and formation.
The conference featured two keynote speakers.
Father José Edmundo Zárate Suárez focused on passing on the faith, urging attendees to remember how they themselves had learned it from family and catechists so they could hand that knowledge down. He reminded them that faith is stronger when people connect through music, saying Mass isn’t just something to attend – it’s something to participate in fully, actively and consciously.
Theologian Marco Salas gave the second keynote, exploring the challenges and opportunities ministers face with artificial intelligence. While AI tools such as chatbots can help members of the church find answers, he said, attendees should lean on their personal connections instead of a chatbot for guidance and support.
The conference also offered two rounds of workshops for catechists, OCIA catechists, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, hospitality ministers and choirs. Salas, who taught a workshop on kerygma, said the gatherings help ministers grow in their calling.
“Having these spaces allows them to further their training, become more convinced of their calling and carry it out with greater passion and creativity,” Salas said. “What is offered here is in-depth training, training that provides tools with pastoral depth and a personal touch.”
Redemptorist Father Ako Walker, vicar for Hispanic Ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said the turnout was outstanding given the immigration concerns many in the community are facing. The pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown said he was struck by how many people felt safe enough to gather. Several attendees echoed Father Walker’s sentiment, noting how few places exist for the archdiocese’s large Hispanic community to come together.
“We need to be together, we need to celebrate church together and more than anything we are trying to find places where we can grow and we can learn and we can keep informing ourselves to be able to serve others,” said Jomaly Ruiz Sierra, coordinator for the young adult group at St. Francis de Sales in Abingdon.
For Lia Garcia, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the turnout showed a deep desire in the community to gather and grow spiritually, an opportunity, she said, to celebrate faith and share as one big family.
“They are also very special moments for me as a leader, because I get to see both the people who have served and participated in the ministry for many years and the new generations who are becoming involved,” Garcia said. “This confirms for me that the Catholic Church in Baltimore is a living Church, with a community that continues to grow, renew itself and journey together in faith.”
Mónica Centeno, 18, one of the younger attendees, represented the Community of St. Athanasius and St. Rose of Lima in South Baltimore. Though she worried immigration fears would keep many away, she was glad to reconnect with community members she hadn’t seen in years and said their faith proved stronger than their worries.
“We trust in God, that he is protecting us and protecting our journey here,” Centeno said. “And you can see that in the number of people here.”
Centeno came to the conference to grow as a catechist and hopes to share what she learned in the kerygma workshop with her students.
Eliana Monsalve, a volunteer at St. Athanasius and St. Rose of Lima, said the conferences do more than teach concepts. They help Hispanic ministers bring their knowledge together and learn to explain the faith clearly.
“It’s also about gaining a deep understanding, for instance, of the archdiocese’s regulations, how to speak to and treat parishioners and how to explain things clearly so that neither they nor we inadvertently commit an error that could harm the Catholic Church,” Monsalve said. “Attending these gatherings is crucial for our own formation and for helping to shape the community, allowing us to grow as Catholics in every respect.”
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