LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL EN LO COTIDIANO:

A Social Justice/Ministry Portrait of the Long Island Catholic Hispanic Community

Social Ministry and the Hispanic Community

Catholic Social Ministry has developed on LI from a specific cultural and historical development.

Hispanic immigrant communities bring a new “Catholic social imagination.”

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE LONG ISLAND HISPANIC CATHOLIC COMMUNITY Research of accompaniment with Hispanic parishes and

parishioners, The Hispanic community on Long Island is very diverse: Old and established Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican

communities Ongoing and steady stream of South American (Ecuadorian,

Colombian and Peruvian) communities. Major impact has been the El Salvadoran influx in the 80’s and

90’s followed by a major ongoing migration from Central America and the Caribbean.

Maintaining anonymity I researched four distinct Hispanic parish communities on Long Island.

Using Portraiture as the research method for this study I centered my narrative on public expressions of faith and accompanied with the interviews I conducted in each community.

The Via Crucis in Winchester

Perdona a tu pueblo, Señor

Dios de la fiel y eterna alianza,

en ti ponemos nuestra esperanza

La Pastorela in Summerfield

Estoy a la espera de una oración en silencio. Tengo miedo por la carga que llevo. En un mundo tan frío como la piedra, ¿Tengo que recorrer este camino solo? Estar conmigo ahora.

El Salvador del Mundo in Johnson City

Bendito seas Salvador Divino!Los hijos de tu pueblo, como hermanosa tus plantas, humildes nos postramos,Adorando tu excelsa majestad

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Windber

Que Vive Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Que Vive la Reina de las Americas!

*Hispanic Catholic identity

*Familia y Comunidad: A community that is defined by their family and community relationships. Intensely relational quality.

*Marginalización: They are aware of their marginalized role in society and sometimes in the Church.

*Fe y Fiesta: Faith is a central component of their identity both individually and as a cultural community. As a community of faith their ability to publically express and celebrate their hope filled faith (juxtaposed from their oppressive social reality) is very important.

*Movimientos: An important aspect of their social organization is to have smaller faith communities from which they can express their faith and social relationships as groups that share a particular devotion or practice.

Social Values of the Hispanic Parish Community

Dios y Dignidad: They recognize a sense of dignity that flows from a direct relationship with God that they perceive among themselves and with each other.

Solidaridad (y Subsidiariedad): There is a cosmic yet intimate relationship that they recognize with all people, this allows them to be in solidarity with everyone (especially those who share in their marginality) while preferring to organize around smaller local groups.

Compartiendo la Abundancia: God is the author of all things so everything that they have and everything that they are belongs to God. Because of this they feel a social obligation to share their talents and resources with one another, especially those in need.

Proposed Initiative for Hispanic Social Ministry Servidores Sociales: organize PSM programs that would

develop a specific volunteer corps for parish social ministry who are recruited from the movimientos themselves.

Engagement with the community: Intentionally engage the diocesan programs with religious events and feasts, especially those that have tremendous social significance for the community.

Formation: promote educational opportunities in Spanish to the parish and their movimientos.

Adaptability of services: Have the diocesan programs find creative ways to be more flexible with their ability to offer resources and social services so that it could address social realities that may not be standardized within the traditional social service programs.

INSIGHTS FOR CHRISTIAN ETHICS

The social values of the Hispanic parish communities identify a pattern of renewal for Christian ethics which Mahoney describes as the morality of “koinonia, or ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’” Koinonia calls us to build countercultural communities

(like the Hispanic parish communities I accompanied)that both demonstrate “loving and just structures of relationships” and prophetically denounce discrimination and social injustice that are absolutely inconsistent with the ethic of koinonia.

The Hispanic parish communities are able to raise moral principles of our Catholic social tradition that tend to be less developed (or even hidden) because of ideological concerns within the dominant culture. Common Good, Universal Destination of Goods, Solidarity