The National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM) is an organization that provides a network and forum for the religious, social, professional, and civic advancement of Roman Catholic Hispanics in the United States. This, year, their annual meeting will take place in Puerto Rico, from November 30 to December 3, to discuss and work on pastoral priorities and what they have identified as their four main pillars of action: family, Hispanic youth ministry (pastoral juvenil hispana), social justice, and pastoral formation. This, to “deepen our common mission to the Hispanic community in the United States.”
NCCHM is the vehicle for communication, reflection, dialogue, networking, and collaboration among national and regional ministerial/professional organizations, institutes, movements, and religious congregations, and lay leaders within the Roman Catholic Hispanic community and the broader Roman Catholic Church in America.
Furthermore, NCCHM intends to empower Hispanics in both church and society by identifying, convoking, and developing leadership among member organizations and their constituencies.
To achieve its mission, NCCHM has established goals that include:
- Providing a forum for reflection on the status of Hispanics/Latinos in church and society at the regional and national levels.
- Being a network for mutual support and collaboration among religious, professional, and civic organizations serving Latino Communities.
- Promoting wider participation of Hispanics, especially youth and young adults, in church and society.
- Advocacy on behalf of Latinos in the area of human rights and working in collaboration with like-minded associations.
- Promoting the articulation of theological, pastoral, and social issues and concerns to Hispanics through forums, workshops, research, and publications.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, winner of the NCCHM award
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Nuncio to the U.S. will honor the NCCHM with his participation in the Puerto Rico annual meeting.
He will receive the award given annually by NCCHM to an outstanding personality in U.S. Hispanic ministry. Cardinal Pierre’s contribution, NCCHM claims, “is invaluable for his unconditional dedication to Hispanic ministry, being a profound motivation and impulse for our common mission as a Church that goes out to the peripheries, and that is synodal and prophetic.”