Above: Born in Colombia, Bishop Luis R. Zarama is the first Latino to lead the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo courtesy of Kendall McLaren, USCCB.
This article was originally published by the Glenmary Home Missioners; it is published here with permission.
Three years after his ordination as a priest, Luis Rafael Zarama was assigned to two parishes located in small towns north of Atlanta, Georgia. These were missions where Glenmary had served before the young priest arrived.
Zarama recalls that when he arrived, he saw “the fruits of the work, dedication, and generosity that they (the Glenmary fathers) had during the time they served in that place.”
A decade later, in 2017, Pope Francis appointed Zarama as the first Latino bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. As such, Zarama, who is originally from Colombia, now oversees 80 parishes and more than 140 priests, including two from Glenmary.
The bishop recently welcomed us to his office in Raleigh, where we talked about the growing presence of Latinos in the Catholic Church in the United States and the role of Glenmary, among other topics.
Q: So your first parishes had previously been run by Glenmary priests. Tell us a little more about that.
A: They were the ones who were there when Mass began to be celebrated in a social hall. Little by little, a church was built, and the community grew in a rural area where Catholics were few and far between.
Well, with the presence of the Glenmary Fathers, the few Catholics found in the Eucharist a way to unite, to begin to live their faith, to work for their faith, to be present in the town, to build a church, to form a community. And then, when I arrived, the church became too small, and we had to plan to build a larger one because of how the community had grown.
Q: What is your opinion of Glenmary's work in bringing the presence of the Church to small towns like these where you served as parish priest?
A: I think it's what the Holy Father talks about, going to the peripheries.
That is the reality, it is service where it is needed, in places where few are willing to serve or few are willing to go, and it is where it is needed, where service is needed.
Q: The Catholic Church in the United States is experiencing a significant increase in Hispanic parishioners. What is your pastoral approach to this reality?
A: Often what happens is that the Latino presence is not recognized, but the Hispanic presence, the Latino presence, is there. In many places, there is a fear of recognizing that reality. And if it is not recognized, it cannot be served.
Here in the diocese, I believe that half of the Catholic population is Hispanic, is Latino. The goal, at least in my ministry, is for all priests who are trained in the seminary to be bilingual, at least to celebrate the sacraments, so that they can provide that service, because we cannot ignore it, and if they are not bilingual, there is practically nowhere to assign them.
On the other hand, it is the fact of being able to make communities at least feel comfortable and recognize that they are there. Because often one seeks to force integration, and that is not healthy. It is a process.
People generally pray and worship God in their native language. The Catholic Church in the United States faces the challenge of having more and more priests learn Spanish to better serve the growing Latino community, Bishop Zarama points out. -Photo courtesy of Kendall McLaren, USCCB.
Q: Can you elaborate a little on what you said about integration not being forced, but rather a process?
The thing is, friendship cannot be forced. Friendship comes through a process. You cannot force someone to be your friend. And often, without meaning to or without understanding it, we force one another to accept each other, when that is not possible.
Friendship grows through a process of getting to know each other little by little, in moments, in events, in situations.
And that is what must be cultivated without pressure, without forcing, but simply with an open attitude. And see that, as in every family, when a new member joins the family, that new member completely changes the routine, not in a bad way, but because there is someone new and that new person changes what has been done. It is uncomfortable, but it is accepted with joy and one is open to what that new person brings.
It's the same with our faith, it's the same with our parishes. We are so diverse and we have a small example of catholicity in almost every one of our dioceses, because our Church is universal, it is catholic, and we have that reality in a small way.
Q: Although it may seem like a rhetorical question, why are we as Catholics called to serve those most in need, including undocumented immigrants?
A: First of all, the situation of undocumented migrants. It is a situation that has been going on here forever. And it is a situation that there is no political will to fix, because undocumented immigrants are the battle horse in election campaigns, where they are used and manipulated to win votes. Some talk about getting them out, others talk about fixing them. It's the battle, it's what they use to win votes, and once they've manipulated undocumented people, they simply ignore them. That's abuse. Besides, it's cheap labor that the country needs. So they have no intention of fixing their papers because they're cheap labor; undocumented immigrants are needed.
Faced with that reality, why should we help? Because they are human beings. And a human being cannot be mistreated, a human being cannot be used. A human being has to learn to be respected. We have to help a human being discover their dignity. In the midst of whatever circumstances they are living in, they have to find a place where they feel respected, appreciated, cared for. And that is our role as a Church.