In the Parish of Our Lady of Loretto, diocese of Rockville Centre in New York, the Idente Missionaries established five years ago the CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP SCHOOL FOR HISPANIC YOUNG ADULTS, directed by Monsignor Luis Miguel Romero, auxiliary bishop of the same diocese and first idente missionary bishop. Under the patronage of St. José Sánchez del Río, the young Mexican martyr Cristero, the School accompanies and trains young Hispanic Catholics, so that they become protagonists and leaders of the New Evangelization.
It is about stimulating a new wave of faith formation, identifying, and promoting opportunities for these young people to serve in the context of their parishes and communities.
The pillars of the formation that is imparted are: Spiritual development, formation in the faith, service to the community and mission.
The program has the following curricular lines or modules: Leadership Techniques, Spiritual Development, Human Formation, Apologetics and Sacred Scripture, Internet and Social Media, Catechism and Morals, Missionary Formation and Today’s World. The focus, more than extensive, is on key themes such as the theology of the Body of John Paul II, Gender Identity and Woke Culture, the mission of Hispanic Ministry in the United States, the role of Catholic youth, the universal call to holiness, the humanistic dimension of our faith, the promotion of critical reading, etc.
The methodology of the course includes teaching hours, personal study, group work and complementary activities. Among these we will mention the opportunity to participate in the work of the Pastoral of Young Adults of the diocese, and also the opportunity to help the development of groups in specific parishes, collaborating in the organization of retreats for young adults and in the direction of communities or groups of young people, etc.
Throughout these years some two hundred young people from Our Lady of Loretto and many other parishes of the Diocese of Rockville Centre have benefited from this important apostolic work of the Idente Missionaries. As a result, the sense of unity and communion among the young Hispanics of the diocese is growing, which is leading them to share their dreams and to collaborate with each other in a spirit of synodality.
Many of the young people who graduate from the school join leadership roles in their parishes and groups, and others become part of the School’s Advisory Team, which is dedicated to helping other young people in their growth in the following years, to help in retreats and other general activities, and to develop workshops and advice on specific topics throughout the Diocese.
This School is one of the few in the whole country focused on leadership formation for young adults of the Hispanic Ministry, which responds to the main pastoral priorities detected in the V Encuentro of Hispanic Ministry in the United States, a process that involved hundreds of thousands of pastoral agents of the Hispanic ministry from all over the country: https://vencuentro.org/es/
For more details on the Conclusions of the V Encuentro follow:
https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/v-encuentro-conclusions-spanish/
In this year, the closing of the course and the delivery of certificates will take place on December 4, 2022.
We present below the testimony of two young people who have passed through the School.
“I believe that the School of Leadership has taught me to be a good leader, responsible, honest and above all to lead with authority and humility. It has also taught me to have the habit of reading. I have learned a lot about the Old Testament”. (Fernando Borja)
“The School of Leadership has been for me a tool that has enriched my knowledge. It has taught me how to become a leader in my work, family, friends, and society at large. I can say that thanks to the classes taught I have more capacity to achieve the objectives I propose, because we have been taught to overcome our fears and fill ourselves with courage…We have learned that a true leader works together with others, teaches, and makes shine the capabilities of his people and gives everything for others in order to grow all together”. (Luz de María Fernanda López Cortez)
