On Sunday, St. Patrick Church in Kankakee held its first weekly Misa en Español, a new ministry of the Viatorians for the Catholics in the area.
Bishop Christopher Glancy, CSV moved back to the area last year, and he has noticed how the community has evolved. “When I was here thirty years ago as a deacon, we had very few Spanish-speaking people. Now, as we see the neighborhood change, and as most of the Viatorian priests in the area can minister in Spanish, we wanted to do this,” Bishop Glancy said.
St. Pat’s will have Spanish Mass at 4pm each Sunday.
Fr. Mark Francis, CSV, Provincial met with professed Viatorians in the area last year and discussed the idea with our priests who are serving there. The group wanted to pursue the idea, so they consulted with neighboring parishes and the local dean – the priest who helps organize area parishes and pastors – as well as Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet. They moved forward with a community meeting earlier this year, and the two dozen neighbors who came suggested offering a late afternoon Sunday Mass at St. Pat’s.
Bishop Glancy wanted to start strong, providing a great welcome to these neighbors who came to our Viatorian parish. He worked with his brothers to celebrate the Mass together as a big group: Bishop Glancy presided; Fr. Jhobany Orduz, CSV preached; Br. John Alexander Avellaneda, CSV served as acolyte; and Fr. Jason Nesbit, CSV and Fr. Moses Mesh, CSV from neighboring parish Maternity BVM concelebrated along with Fr. John Peeters, CSV, pastor of St. Pat’s who will retire this summer as Bishop Glancy steps into the role. All of these men can say the Mass in Spanish, and most of them are fluent and can preach in Spanish, too – not to mention other Viatorians in the province who may come to assist from time to time.
Several Viatorians came together to serve the holy altar for this new ministry: (left to right) Br. John Alexander Avellaneda, Fr. John Peeters, Fr. Jason Nesbit, Bishop Christopher Glancy, Fr. Jhobany Orduz, and Fr. Moses Mesh.
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Bishop Glancy also kept the St. Pat’s parish council in the loop and invited them to take part. Several non-Spanish-speaking parishioners indeed joined the congregation for this first Misa en Español.
As this weekly 4pm Mass continues, the next challenge will be to build up music ministry in Spanish. “We’ve been helping out with Hispanic ministry in the area for a while, especially in Momence and with the Camino y Esperanza movement. So, for the first Mass, Camino y Esperanza brought their music group to assist with music ministry,” Bishop Glancy said.
For the second Mass, Fr. Jhobany will pick up his guitar and help lead music, and the Viatorians are also working with a religious sister who does music ministry in Spanish.
The key thing for now is that Viatorians are striving to meet a stated need of the People of God. “A number of Spanish-speakers had been coming to English-language Mass and to religious education at St. Pat’s. Some had even been asking at our parish office for Mass in Spanish,” Bishop Glancy said. “We would offer Spanish-language Reconciliation or assist with some quinceañeras, but now we can offer this regular Spanish Mass to our community.”
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Thank you to the Kankakee community for responding to our outreach and coming together to celebrate the Eucharist!