Official Website of the
Catholic Diocese of Little Rock
Arkansans attend V Encuentro Nacional
Published: October 1, 2018
Nine delegates from the Diocese of Little Rock attended V Encuentro Nacional (Fifth National Encounter) Sept. 20-23 in Grapevine, Texas. They were: Bishop Anthony B. Taylor; Msgr. Scott Friend, VG, and diocesan vocations director; Sister Norma Edith Muñoz, MCP, diocesan director of Hispanic ministry; Deacon Arturo Castrejón of Rogers; and four lay delegates, Paola Salgado of St. John Church in Russellville; Jonathan Ramírez, Hispanic ministry and technology coordinator at St. Raphael Church in Springdale; Kimberly Colula of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Glenwood; and Martha Peña of St. Edward Church in Little Rock.
They joined 3,200 other ministry leaders, bishops and priests from across the United States who gathered as part of the Fifth National Hispanic Pastoral Encuentro, an ongoing, four-year process to discern how the Church can better serve Hispanic Catholics and strengthen their role as missionary disciples to all the faithful. The last national encuentro was held in 2000.
This initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops is based on the theme: "Missionary Disciples: Witnesses of God's Love." It started in 2016 on the parish level. Spanish-speaking Catholics met for parish, diocesan and regional encuentros before coming together at this nation-wide event.
“It was an amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” Sister Norma told Arkansas Catholic while attending the Region X Hispanic Ministry Directors meeting. “We all came to share our personal experience of Christ in our lives and also especially the pastoral concerns and the difficulties, the obstacles we find in our work and ministries and also the opportunity we have had to evangelize through the V Encuentro process.” Read this article to learn more.
