In-Depth Considerations for L.A.T.I.N.O.

L = Learn and Listen

A= Address Barriers

T =Truth Seeking

I = Inquire about one's neighbors

N= Name the needs

O = Offer ourselves over and over

We find out who we are as a Parish by what we do and how we see the world. What we do can vary from the way we worship to the ministries we undertake, support, or host. These practices say something about our history and how we understand ourselves and the Church; those who make up our congregations reveal how we see ourselves and the world around us as a community. Keep in mind that the composition of a congregation also reveals its cultural and social priorities.

Most, if not all, Parishes have the stated intention of welcoming all people. But intentions are useless if they are not coupled with intentionality, and our intentionality is revealed in who we have wound up being as a parish community. Please list a Parish's members and their common attributes and ask them how they see the parish and why they attend.

Once this is done, discuss active listening – the process of clearing one's thoughts so you can hear an individual without planning on how you will respond, why you agree or disagree, or how it fits with how you do things currently. Listening is not easy, and very few people listen in this way. In other words, TRULY LISTEN.

As any interaction between communities precedes, revisit this consideration.

Look at the community of people the parish is seeking to engage for the sake of the mission. Please list the attributes you ascribe to them as a community. Make sure these are both positive and negative, for if this is to work, one has to be honest. Remember, those unaddressed barriers will remain and crop up when least expected.

If there are already Latino members in the parish, include them in the discussion. If not, after initial talks, engage Latinos within the community who can help you understand cultural similarities and differences.

Truth Seeking is just that: look at each of these attributes and ask. "Where does each come from?" Are these perceptions based on personal experience? Are they based on anecdotes from others or hearsay? This project will be a conversation of leadership and membership alike. It will have to be organized to allow for small group conversations of ideally no more than 12 people. The truth sought and encountered needs to be shared. This work may be a process of several sessions until the truth is "distilled." Remember that the truth will resonate in scripture.

This component will be revisited and "distilled" many times as the interaction grows from communities interacting to individuals, regardless of community, interacting. Most group classifications crumble when we know, interact with, and love individuals.

Inquiring about our Latino neighbors begins with where we contact them: at work or through employment relationships, through community organizations or schools. All of these are places where we come in contact with our Latino neighbors to inquire: Who are they? From what countries do they come? What do they do for a living? Do they have families? What is their family life like? All of these inquiries can be made through our contact with them. If we have no contact with them, once we have been through a truth-seeking practice, we can at least welcome them with signage as we do everyone else to cultivate their inquiries, as long as we are not promising what we cannot yet deliver.

Again, listen actively.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25:31-40, Jesus talks about a Kingdom that we are given to inherit, and it is a Kingdom built on meeting needs. In that process, we serve Christ and also encounter Christ. This passage means that meeting needs is a two-way street and building the Kingdom we proclaim at every Eucharist is a process of matching need to need. As such, just as we may work on an inventory of the needs of our parishes, from our inquiries, we must also build a list of needs of our Latino neighbors. These needs should be tangible and intangible; for example, who from our wider community is missing in our Church, or how is the parish's spiritual life limited? Within our context in East Carolina, the Latino community meets many needs, from youth to diverse spiritual practices, that we as worshipping communities need. Inventories such as these help us develop a road map for engaging other communities.

Parishes need to understand that they will benefit as much (maybe more) from any interaction of the communities. This work should not become a Big Brother operation.

Conversely, Latinos should be able to recognize and feel comfortable in their inclusion and its blessings.

To meet these needs, we begin the process of offering ourselves repeatedly, not as a final goal but as an ongoing endeavor. This work may take various forms, ranging from the parish building as a host, the welcome as a parishioner, the friendship as a person, or the Love of a Christian. Context and needs will drive this practice, and the L.A.T.I.N.O. ministry will be underway in your context