Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Hispanic ministry brings new life to Detroit parish
Hispanic ministry brings new life to Detroit parish
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 12, 2009
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Worshippers fill All Saints Church in southwest Detroit for the the noon Mass in Spanish. |
Detroit - When regular Spanish-language Masses began at All Saints Church in southwest Detroit in the fall of 2007, the 23 people who showed up had no trouble finding seats.
But now, it's necessary to get there early for that noon Mass or be prepared to stand at the back.
The pews are filled, as are the folding chairs set up behind them, and also the folding chairs set up in the narthex (the entry vestibule). Then, add in everybody up in the choir loft, and that makes for a congregation of about 500.
The growth has been so remarkable that another Spanish Mass was recently added at 6 p.m. on Sundays, and it is now attracting about 180 people each week. Even the one weekday Spanish Mass on Wednesdays will draw about 60.
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
PIME Frs. (from left) Kenneth Mazur, Christopher Snyder and Gian Battista Zanchi concelebrate Mass at All Saints Church in southwest Detroit. |
All that new life at the parish may have even helped boost attendance at the one English-language Mass. Attendance had dwindled to a few dozen people for the 9:30 a.m. liturgy, but has picked up to about 100 lately.
So dramatic has been the turnaround that, back in January, All Saints became the first parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit to be de-clustered under the Together in Faith process - that is, de-clustered and returned to independent parish status, not de-clustered only to be closed.
The roots of the transformation lay in the offer made by PIME Fr. Kenneth Mazur, provincial for North America for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, to make some more of PIME's priests available for parish work in the archdiocese.
PIME (its initials stand for the Latin version of its name) has its North American headquarters in Detroit, near the McNichols campus of the University of Detroit Mercy, and has traditionally staffed San Francesco Parish in Clinton Township.
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Rebeca Macias, 9, arranges the flowers in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin. |
But when Fr. Mazur returned to Detroit (he grew up in St. Gerard Parish, now Corpus Christi Parish) after 13 years in Japan and was elected provincial, he offered PIME's experience of working with other languages and cultures to further assist the archdiocese.
"I figured we'd been taking seminarians and money out of the Archdiocese of Detroit for years, and it was our turn to pay back," he says.
Working with former Auxiliary Bishop John Quinn (now bishop of Winona, Minn.) and Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Flores, and All Saints' then-pastor Fr. Ed Zaorski, it was decided to put PIME Fr. Christopher Snyder at All Saints as associate pastor.
Fr. Snyder, 38, had served as a PIME missionary in Mexico's Guerrero State, where he became fluent in Spanish and was immersed in Mexican culture. He was named administrator when the parish was de-clustered.
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Enrique Espinoza helps his son, Jean-Carlo, 6, light a votive candle at All Saints Church. |
With some of the other southwest Detroit churches with large Hispanic congregations filling up on Sundays, it turned out there was substantial need for yet another parish to serve the growing number of Catholics from Latin American countries living in All Saints' corner of the area.
But besides being closer to where many of its new parishioners live than the other churches, parishioners interviewed had high praise for Fr. Snyder.
Migdalia Rivera, who was one of those who attended that first Spanish-language Mass at All Saints, says Fr. Snyder "delivers the message."
"He is always there to help up, and is one of us. And he speaks better Spanish than I do," says Rivera, who has since moved back to Puerto Rico, but was at All Saints recently during a visit back to Detroit.
And he gets high marks from other parishioners, as well. "He is the kind of person you can talk to openly. And he encourages kids and teenagers, not just the parents," says Carmen Gallardo, a native of Mexico.
Enrique Espinoza, also from Mexico, says he appreciates that Fr. Snyder wants parishioners to grow in their understanding of the faith.
Juan Manuel Vazquez says he likes the welcoming atmosphere at All Saints, and added that Fr. Snyder is his idea of what a priest should be.
His son, Gustavo, 14, says of All Saints, "It's cool. I'm in the youth group, and we have lots of activities and games."
For Fr. Snyder, serving at All Saints is a way of using his missionary talents close to home. He grew up in St. Anthony Parish in Temperance - where his father, the late Deacon Robert John Snyder, was assigned - and was ordained to the priesthood there in 1998 by former Auxiliary Bishop Bernard Harrington.
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Christopher Snyder, PIME (right) talks with Socorro and Juan Manuel Vazquez (second and third from left), and their children, Marisol, 16, Jazmin, 6, Jesus, 11, and Gustavo, 14. |
"We have a very missionary outlook in this parish," Fr. Snyder says.
He tells how the parish just began religious education classes, and how there will be 27 for confirmation on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, and 24 for first Communion on Nov. 6.
And Fr. Snyder has plans to take the message out into the parish neighborhood across the Fisher Freeway from the church. Parishioners will go door-to-door with information about All Saints in both English and in Spanish, beginning at 1 p.m. on June 13, the day before Corpus Christi.
"I see further growth ahead in both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking members here. I see it as a real model for intercultural dialogue," he says.
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