iAprenda Español!

second summer of Spanish studies completed

New Ulm - For the second consecutive summer, a five-week Spanish language and cultural immersion course iAprenda Español!, was offered for pastoral and parish leaders. The course is offered to increase the number of pastoral and parish leadership who are able to communicate with the rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population in the diocese. A one-evening-per-week conversation seminar was also added this summer in order to involve more leaders who wished to further their language studies but who were unable to attend the intensive course.

Priests and pastoral administrators from the New Ulm diocese receiving certificates of completion for the intensive course are: Fr. Jeffrey Horejsi (Spicer), Fr. Jeremy Kucera (Marshall), and Don Clasemann (Hector). Parish staff who completed the course are: Lori Clasemann (Hector), Joanne Pohland (Glencoe), Sr. Brenda TeVogt, SSND (Gaylord), and Sr. Elizabeth Gruenes, OSB (Glencoe). Diocesan staff participating were Mark Kemmeter and Christopher Loetscher. Other participants included: Sr. Janice Hoffman, OSF from Cherokee, Iowa and Fr. Tim Wenzel from the Diocese of St. Cloud.

Certificates of Completion for the Conversation Seminar were presented to: Fr. Eugene Lozinski (Glencoe), Fr. Tim Wenzel (Diocese of St. Cloud), Sr. Janice Hoffman, OSF (Cherokee, Iowa), Sr. Brenda TeVogt, SSND (Gaylord), Mary Toland (Marshall), and Pamela Osborne (Winthrop).

The course and seminar were conducted at the St. Alphonsus Retreat House in New Ulm. The faculty was comprised of Dr. Stewart James-Lejarcegui and Sr. Joanne O’Connor, SSND. Dr. James-Lejarcegui, who teaches Spanish at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, directed the academic program. Sr. Joanne teaches Spanish at Western Carolina University. She coordinated the pastoral aspects of the course including daily Mass in Spanish and the preparation of the liturgical ministers and musicians. Fr. Tony Stubeda, former diocesan Director of Hispanic Ministry and currently pastor of St. Patrick in Kandiyohi and St. Thomas More in Lake Lillian, also presented on parish ministry to the Spanish speaking.

Over the next several months, conversation groups will be established in various locations in the diocese to facilitate and support ongoing language study. According to Sr. Anna Marie Reha, SSND, the new diocesan Director of Hispanic Ministry, plans for next summer’s study are in the early stages. The grant that funded the immersion course for the past two years has been depleted. A smaller-scale program conducted by one professor could be sustained by the diocesan Continuing Education for Clergy Spanish Language Study Fund. Such a program could allow for tutoring and guided small group study on a regional basis next summer. Because of the previous level of the intensive courses and a familiarity with individual students, this approach could prove to be quite effective. Information about study groups and next summer’s courses will be made available to past participants and all pastoral leaders within the next several months.

Any person in the diocese who has some facility with the Spanish language and who is willing to share that ability with the local Hispanic ministry is invited and encouraged to contact a pastoral leader or to speak directly with Sr. Anna Marie Reha at the Pastoral Center. Your assistance with this important ministry of outreach would be greatly appreciated.