Hispanic ministry expands into the Indianapolis North Deanery

By Sean Gallagher

Hispanic Catholics on the northeast side of Indianapolis now have the chance to attend a Mass prayed in Spanish on a weekly basis.

The new ministry, which began in February at St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis, marks another milestone in the growth in outreach to Hispanic Catholics in the archdiocese.

There are now 19 parishes, spread across nine of the 11 deaneries in central and southern Indiana, that have a formalized Hispanic ministry.

St. Lawrence Parish was the first parish in the Indianapolis North Deanery to start such a ministry. According to Father John Beitans, the parish’s pastor, it was the right place to do it.

He noted the longstanding Puerto Rican community nearby, drawn there largely by the presence of the former Fort Benjamin Harrison. But other Hispanic Catholics from Mexico, Honduras and Panama have moved into the area in recent years.

Father Beitans said he is looking forward to the cultural gifts that Hispanic Catholics will bring to the parish, which is already cosmopolitan, including members born in Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Nigeria.

“I hope some liturgical customs would be more in evidence and some things like occasional processions or more emphasis on devotion would be something that they would bring us,” said Father Beitans, who was born in Germany to Latvian parents.

One particular devotion was on display recently on Nov. 2, traditionally called Dia de Los Muertos (“The Day of the Dead”) by Hispanic Catholics. During a bilingual Mass at St. Lawrence Church, some of the Spanish-speaking members of the congregation placed pictures of their deceased relatives at the altar during the offertory.

One person who did this was the aunt of Gustavo Dominguez, a member of the parish.

Originally from Mexico, Dominguez lives close to St. Lawrence. Many of his nine siblings, his nieces and nephews, and an uncle and aunt also live close by.

He said that they like to go to Mass together, but that this was difficult in the past when they had to drive to either St. Mary or St. Patrick parishes in downtown Indianapolis, where parking was often difficult to find.

“But this is here in the neighborhood,” Dominguez said. “It’s really close to us and very easy for us to come here. We’re here every Sunday.”

Although the ministry is attracting a relatively small Hispanic congregation to its weekly Mass in Spanish, Dominguez is working to make it grow by telling many of his Hispanic friends and relatives about it.

“I’ve told them that here at St. Lawrence we now have Mass in Spanish so they don’t have to drive all the way downtown,” he said. “So now they’ve started coming.”

Longtime St. Lawrence parishioner Hector Perez, a retired Army officer originally from Puerto Rico who has lived in Indianapolis for 25 years, is volunteering his efforts in his parish’s Hispanic ministry. One of his main efforts is to recruit liturgical ministers from among the more newly arrived Hispanics.

However, he also hopes to be able to help these people in other ways.

“We have been trying to be as welcoming as possible,” Perez said. “I hope that … we’ll be able to help them out in terms of their citizenship or to learn the [English] language or to help them out in whatever way that we can to adapt to the cultural changes.”

Franciscan Father Tom Fox, who has been ministering to Hispanics in the archdiocese for more than 10 years, said that it is important for parishes like St. Lawrence to reach out to newly arrived Hispanic Catholics who live nearby.

“The Catholic Church tries to be inclusive,” he said. “If we’re going to be what we say we are—the Catholic Church—then we would want to include everybody.”

Father Tom also said that Hispanic ministry is important for parishes to consider because the growth in Hispanic Catholics in the archdiocese will continue to grow in the years to come.

“If we want to be looking at the future rather than just to the past, then we need to reach out to the new people here who are ready and willing to become members of our parish[es],” he said. †