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Mission to Little Rock
By S. Mary Bodde

Charity ResourcesIn MemoriamSeton Enablement Fund

One week each month, S. Mary Barbara Philippart flies to Little Rock, Ark., to help educate deacons and their wives for ministry to at least 100,000 Hispanic Catholics. Sisters says approximately 60,000 Hispanics had come into the state in a 10-year period during the 1970s and 1980s mostly to work in the chicken factories and for Walmart – and they continue to come today.

While living in Little Rock from 1998 to 2003, S. Mary Barbara wrote and produced radio programs to reach out to Arkansas’ Hispanic immigrants to let them know where Catholic churches with Spanish-speaking priests were located and to educate them, especially in the faith. Marcelino Luna, who was a voice on the radio and whom Sister had helped when he was in the English deacon preparation program, became director of the Hispanic Ministry Office, and in 2008, invited her to be on the team to plan and coordinate the first four-year Hispanic diaconate program in the Diocese of Little Rock.

Without a seminary the permanent diaconate program has been located in the Chancery complex with a building for classrooms and overnight accommodations. Though S. Mary Barbara had transferred to ministry in Port Huron, Mich., Marcelino invited her to return to help with the monthly diaconate training. When Sister told him she did not want to live in Little Rock to work just one week a month, he said, “We’ll fly you down!” – which she has done now for more than three years.

“I love it,” she says. “I really love the people, and I’ve been able to review everything about the Church through teaching and sitting in to evaluate classes – and relate to all levels of students; some with only a sixth-grade education and others are doctors and attorneys. For a human development class the students are divided into three groups, according to their level of education and experience.

“I work with the first level where the men and women need a review of grammar, punctuation and spelling, and most have to be taught how to write a paper – very elemental. But you also have to be on hand for all kinds of exigencies,” she added.

The team takes responsibility for developing the curriculum; finding Spanish-speaking teachers (priests, religious brothers and sisters and laity) for the weekend courses; and organizing an annual weekend retreat.

“We started with 21 deacon candidates and their wives; we now have 17,” S. Mary Barbara says. “We try to help the students develop a community among themselves. They come from all over the state (the Diocese of Little Rock encompasses the entire state) and often drive four to five hours to get to Little Rock,” she explains. “It is astounding what the Spirit does with these people!”

Usually, each weekend, seven two-hour long classes begin Fridays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturdays, scattered between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.; and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a weekend Mass usually on Saturday. The deacons and their wives pray Lauds and Vespers together.

The four-year curriculum, recommended by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, includes several theologies, psychology, anthropology, apologetics, catechetics, evangelization, liturgy, philosophy, the Bible, human development, public speaking, social justice, homiletics and practicums for each of the sacraments (with 10 hours in every class, except 20 hours in the Bible, practicums, canon law, liturgy and spirituality). The men and women are separated in only one class in which they learn communication skills and talk about some of the difficulties that deacons and their wives have to face. The current bishop, Anthony Taylor, is bilingual and an expert in Biblical studies, so he teaches most of the Bible courses.

At the end of each year of their four-year program, deacon candidates pass a ‘milestone’: acceptance as candidates, invested as a lector, invested as an acolyte, and finally ordained a deacon. Their wives can take the courses to be accredited as a religion teacher or an administrator of a small parish or mission, or they can audit the courses.

“Deacons’ wives must understand their husband’s ministry,” S. Mary Barbara insisted, “its hardships, what it will mean for their own spirituality, and the development of themselves and their families. They pray the Office every day with their husband, and we interview them periodically. With them, as with the deacons, service is stressed. If the wife has doubts or reservations, her husband will not be ordained.

“Besides learning liturgical functions, deacon candidates are required to interview leaders of their towns to find problems and agencies for solutions,” she added. “We stress service as the ministry of deacons from its beginning (in the Bible). They are taught to listen, and then direct people to the agencies in the communities: for example, legal assistance, alcoholism, soup kitchens, etc. But they must also remember their family comes first.”.