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Students of the School of Pastoral Leadership for Hispanics are pictured with their course instructor, Deacon Mario Zuniga. Applications are open for the fall term and interested parishioners should speak to their pastors for more information. (Courtesy Photo)
Feb. 24, 2020
Araceli Martínez
San Francisco Católico
The School of Pastoral Leadership for Hispanics is an opportunity for the faithful, leaders and catechists to deepen their faith and learn more about their church.
“This preparation helps to form leaders who, by getting to know the church, will defend it,” said Father Moisés Agudo, vicar for Hispanics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “Our church has to be defended because history – since the time of Jesus – shows us that it has always been persecuted. And when this happens it means that it is doing well. Something good is being done,”
He explained that although persecution in ages past forced the faithful to renounce their faith and resulted in martyrdom, it is now more serious.
“They are not asking you to renounce the church but they want to question the faith of the church,” Father Agudo said. “You need to be formed to respond to these attacks that want to sow doubt.”
The school was born four years ago with the advocacy of Father Agudo and the support of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.
The curriculum is taught over a five-year period by a seven-member teaching staff.
During the first year, students study introductory courses in ecclesiology, the sacraments and sacred Scripture. More theological studies are added every year including Mariology, Christology, eschatology, and fundamental, moral and pastoral theology.
The school operates in six centers twice a week. Four of them are located at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in San Francisco, one at St. Matthew Parish in San Mateo and the other one at All Souls Parish in South San Francisco.
Currently there are 164 students enrolled. The most advanced students are in their fourth year. The school is closed in July, August and December.
School secretary Socorro Aragon said the school’s first graduating class will complete its training in June 2021 with about 92 students from the hubs at St. Anthony and All Souls.
One of the students, Violeta Román, said that throughout the four years of her formation, she has learned to appreciate and recognize the richness of the Catholic Church. “It never ceases to amaze me,” she said.
It was precisely her desire to know and deepen her faith in order to be able to “give reason to hope,” in Father Agudo’s own words, that led her to enter the school.
Román’s experience has helped her to be able to enjoy reading the encyclicals, understand words she did not previously understand and know the context of the readings.
The school “has made me feel more confident in preparing children for their first Communion,” said Román, who is a catechist.
She encouraged the Catholic community to make the time and welcome the opportunity to enroll.
“I am going to graduate next year, but I would like to continue with a specialization because you never stop studying and learning,” she said.
After four years of basic formation the school offers students the opportunity to choose a specialty in spirituality, catechesis or canonical studies.
“It’s like going back to school. You have to make group and individual presentations and do homework. But I’m doing this because I love my community and my Catholic Church and it’s a commitment to and for our Lord,” she said.
Román is pleased that her newly acquired knowledge enables her to dialogue with people from other religious denominations.
“Without fighting, you can reply to them with facts and fundamentals when you have the preparation and knowledge,” she said.
Father Agudo said the school is designed to be a formation program with a defined structure.
”The study plan and the structure is something we did with the archbishop,” he said. “The schedule, the search for professors – that was something I had to do. They are excellent people of high quality. They all have degrees and doctorates.”
The faculty includes Carlos Ayala, an expert in St. Oscar Romero, and priests like Father Rafael Bemúdez and Father Jorge Arias, who not only bring their own priestly experience to the school but also have worked as professors in their home countries.
Father Agudo thinks that any age is right to “receive the formation and knowledge of the church, everything we can learn is always welcome,” and invites the faithful at large to enroll but begs parish leaders to take advantage of it.
Father Agudo recently spoke with a parishioner from Mission Dolores who is over 70 years old and is a student at the school.
“He told me about his experience, and I was impressed when he said that in spite of his age, he was learning to know his church, something he had always wanted,” Father Agudo said.
Father Agudo is asking pastors to help promote the school.
“It is essential that they do so,” he said. “The parish priest is the gatekeeper of the parish, and has the responsibility to form parishioners.”
He said the archdiocese, through the school, “offers an instrument for its parishioners to be formed and to be the next leaders of the parishes and of the church.”
Those wishing to enroll should talk with their parish priest. Registration is now open at St. Anthony and St. Matthew for classes beginning in September. Anyone 18 and older can enroll.