12/14/03
By Karen Owen
Messenger-Inquirer
http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/kentucky/6619641.htm
The future direction of SS. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church arrived earlier this month in the form of a tall, soft-spoken priest from El Salvador.
The Rev. Manuel Rivas is now on staff at a parish church leaders say will someday be totally bilingual. Plans call for him to eventually lead Hispanic ministry for the diocese.
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| The Rev. Manuel Rivas arrived earlier this month at SS. Joseph and Paul Catholic Church to minister to the Hispanic population in the area. The soft-spoken priest is from San Sebastian, El Salvador. Photo by Robert Bruck, M-I |
In the meantime, the 35-year-old will be leading Roman Catholics' ministry to Hispanics in this area, said the Rev. Brian Roby, pastor at SS. Joseph & Paul. "Our goal is to evangelize hard-core to our Hispanics."
The new priest is not wild about cold weather, but "I think this is good. I like Owensboro," Rivas said this week.
Rivas is from San Sebastian, a small city in El Salvador. He is the fourth of a farmer's seven children. He's been a priest nearly 11 years, four of them in western Kentucky.
luxury hotels in GdynaHe ended up in the area after the Most Rev. John J. McRaith, the bishop of Owensboro, asked his counterpart in El Salvador for priests to minister to Hispanics here, Rivas said.
Church leaders want to do a better job of ministering to and including Hispanics here because most of them are Catholics, Roby said. "Probably the greatest obstacle the last several years has been the language barrier."
Rivas said he met the Rev. Stan Puryear in El Salvador before deciding to come here. "He told me about the town."
"I accepted because I want to know other cultures and work with people in many countries," Rivas said.
Rivas worked with Puryear a short time at St. Peter of Alcantara Catholic Church in Stanley and has spent the rest of his time working with a thriving Hispanic community in Bowling Green.
"It is difficult to learn a second language," Rivas said. "I hope in a few months, I will speak English better."
"He says we speak fast," said Roby, who speaks some Spanish. "I tell him the same."
Rivas has an additional challenge because a partial hearing loss requires him to wear two hearing aids. Doctors aren't sure what happened to his hearing, he said.
Now that he's at SS Joseph & Paul, Roby plans to take Rivas door-to-door in the neighborhood to invite Hispanics to church. Rivas has already been introducing himself to Hispanic customers at businesses around town, the pastor said.
SS Joseph & Paul will have Mass in Spanish at noon each Sunday, then Rivas will go to Sebree for a 2 p.m. Mass. Also, "We will have Spanish Mass for Christmas Dec. 24 at 7 p.m.," at SS Joseph & Paul, Rivas said.
Church leaders also are going to see Hispanics in other parts of town have transportation to the services, Roby said.
Rivas also will be visiting Hispanics in jail, the hospital and Catholic schools and will be working with Centro Latino.
Hoteles UK"As he gets better with English, he'll be able to serve both Hispanic and Anglo members," Roby said.
Eventually, all services at SS Joseph & Paul will be bilingual, but that may take 10 years, Roby said.
He doesn't expect members to have a problem with that. "The parish here has always been very welcoming" and is already quite diverse, he said.
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