By David R. Aquije

Hispanic group in North Carolina follows the way of Tar Heel missioner

God chose the road that Victoria Howard had to follow.

That's what she believes because of the surprising manner in which she went from working as an assistant director of a poultry company in her native Sonora, Mexico, to becoming coordinator of Hispanic Ministry at St. Mary's Church in Wilmington, N.C., and founder of the first Hispanic group of Maryknoll Affiliates in the United States.

It all began when Brian Howard, who works for a nuclear energy company and is an avid fisherman, went on vacation to the beautiful beach of San Carlos in Sonora.

"He went fishing and hooked me," says a smiling Victoria, an energetic and charismatic woman.

In a way, he too was "hooked." Not only did Brian Howard fall in love with Victoria but also with her faith and the devotion Catholics have for the Blessed Virgin.

"Now, he says that he feels he was always Catholic at heart," says Victoria, who married Howard and came to the United States in 2002. With her husband, who converted to Catholicism, she began attending Mass at St. Mary's.

A Hispanic seminarian invited her to be lector at the Spanish-language Mass. Victoria hadn't known of the growing Hispanic community in Wilmington, but she got to know them and their pastoral and social needs. When the position of Hispanic Ministry coordinator opened up, she was offered the post, which she has held since August 2007.

"There's been an explosion of Hispanics in North Carolina," says Victoria. Because of this growth, the Raleigh Diocese opened a Hispanic Ministry with a part-time position at St. Mary's Church, which has 200 Hispanic families on the parish registry.

A part-time position is insufficient for the needs of the parish's Hispanics, so Victoria dedicates much more time voluntarily, helping translate homilies into Spanish, organizing liturgies and working with groups of altar servers, youths, catechists, charismatic parishioners and the church choir.

"I go to the office in the morning but I stay, well, until we finish," Victoria says. "It's something precious. Sometimes it's difficult, but everything works out with the help of God."

Victoria sees God's path not only in bringing her to North Carolina and St. Mary's but also in her role with Maryknoll and Father Thomas F. Price, co-founder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, who was born in Wilmington. "He planted the seed," Victoria says of Price, the first native priest for North Carolina, where Protestants are still the majority.

Among the fruit of that seed is a group of English-speaking Maryknoll Affiliates at the parish, who carry on an AIDS ministry. "I learned through the church bulletin about the Affiliates and the activities and ministries that they carry out," says Victoria, who was excited about the passion and commitment with which the Affiliates serve others. "My vision of mission changed," she says. "I had the idea that missioners came to help us, but now I've discovered I too am a missioner."

Victoria sparked the interest of 10 other Hispanic women at the parish to start an Affiliate group of Hispanics. The director of the Affiliates, Fred Goddard, with Affiliate area co-coordinator Gail Kelley began the process of forming this first Hispanic chapter of Affiliates. The process consisted of 12 preparation sessions of four hours each in which the participants became familiar with the four pillars of the Maryknoll Affiliates' charism—spirituality, community, action and global vision—and with the concept of incorporating these into their work, homes and community.

With this new perspective, Victoria went on a short-term mission trip to Honduras and returned with a passion she wants to share with everyone.

The first ministry of the North Carolina Hispanic Affiliates focuses on a trailer park in Wilmington known as "Little Mexico."

"We looked for a place with a pastoral need, a place where the people couldn't get to church for lack of transportation," Victoria explains. "We came to Little Mexico and got to know the people. In December, we said the rosary, organized a posada (a Christmas procession commemorating Mary and Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem) and started a novena to the Virgin of Guadalupe." She says Father Robert Kus, the pastor of St. Mary's, helped the group and went to Little Mexico to say Mass.

North Carolina's Hispanic population grew by 55 percent from 2000 to 2006, the most recent period for which census data is available, after a nearly fivefold increase in the 1990s. The state's Hispanic population is estimated at almost 8 percent of North Carolina's 9.4 million people. A report from North Carolina's governor's office indicated that the majority of Hispanics receive fewer social services, have less access to the health system and are more vulnerable. In addition, many Hispanics fear the state will follow Arizona in enacting laws making it more difficult for the state's estimated 380,000 undocumented immigrants.

The Hispanic Affiliates are, as they say themselves, a group of Hispanic missioners helping Hispanics.

"We hope our spiritual strength grows and helps us to deal with adversity," Victoria says. "Those of us who have a little more can share it, and those who don't have can share their spirituality, to create unity among ourselves to help one another."

In a small mission of evangelization, the Hispanic Affiliates chapter has already trained lectors and eucharistic ministers in Little Mexico. They also gave the neighborhood a gift of a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

"The Virgin helped bring the neighbors together," Victoria says. Various neighbors worked together to build a small shrine to house the image of the Virgin.

Victoria believes God has, little by little, shown her the road of mission, and that mission sprang from a seed planted by Price.

"We follow in his footsteps to serve the people, and to be missioners in our own community is to follow his thinking," she says. "This little seed of Maryknoll's mission is the greatest gift."

For more about the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers visit www.maryknollsociety.org and for more about the Maryknoll Affiliates visit www.maryknollaffiliates.org