Tupelo, Canton host first youth encuentro
By Elsa Baughman
JACKSON — Tupelo St. James and Canton Sacred Heart parishes will host the first youth Hispanic Encuentro sponsored by the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry.
In Tupelo, the encuentro will be held Saturday, May 30, and in Canton Saturday, June 6, both from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Each event will have two sessions, one for youth ages 13-17 and one for young adults 18-28-years-old.
Brother Ted Dausch, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, considers the spiritual guidance we can offer to youth these days to be very important. “In the best of the circumstances, youth are experiencing lots of challenges and if these youth are immigrants, the challenges are more pronounced,” Brother Dausch said.
The circumstances are very different for immigrants, he said. “The reason for this encuentro is to let them know God loves them and we do too,” he said. “We want to show them we care for them and that they are important to us.”
Brother Dausch said immigrant youth have many concerns and questions and the encuentro will provide an opportunity to address these issues and will also offer a special time to help them deepen their faith.
According to Brother Dausch, 48 percent of Hispanics living in the United States are 30-years-old or younger. “If we don’t reach out to them now and find out what is important in their lives, what their needs are, and ask them how can we best serve them, we are not doing our job,” he said.
“We might lose them to other faith traditions . . . or watch them grow up without faith tradition at all. It’s part of the reality,” he added.
Sister Yesenia Fernández, pastoral minister of Forest St. Michael Parish, and Sister Ofelia Galicia of Belleville, Ill., who worked in Forest last year, will lead the sessions.
The theme of the encuentro is based on three themes taken from the first national youth encuentro held in 2006 at Indiana Notre Dame University: “An Encounter with a Living Christ,” “A Road to Conversion,” and “A Road of Communion.”
Cost is $10 in Tupelo and $5 in Canton.
For information call:
St. James in Tupelo
662-842-4881
Sacred Heart Parish in Canton
601-859-3749
