The South East Pastoral Institute (SEPI) is the body of the Catholic bishops of the southeastern United States responsible for Hispanic ministry. Founded in 1979, today it brings together 30 dioceses. The Hispanic presence in the Country represents 19% of the total population and due to multiple social, political, and economic factors, it is a particularly complex reality. Two years ago, SEPI\u2019s general coordination decided to address the issues related to gender dysphoria, same-sex attraction, and the transgender experience pastorally.<\/p>\n
To set up the work properly, the team underwent an intensive one-week training, with the aim of understanding the phenomenon in its historical, cultural, anthropological, theological, and pastoral dimensions. During those days, they included moments of dialogue and prayer, to engage in mutual listening and discern together in the light of the Spirit.<\/p>\n
After this initial immersion, seven members of the team pursued a further six-month university course dedicated to the relationship between gender and education, with additional psychological and pedagogical insights. At the end of the training process, they developed two operational proposals to be launched in the dioceses entrusted to them.<\/p>\n
The first initiative is directed to the leaders of youth ministry in the region and aims to enable them to accompany young people in their questions about identity, with clear criteria and a well-rooted pastoral sensitivity. The chosen method is the \u201cpastoral circle\u201d, structured in four steps: listen, discern, act, and celebrate. The methodology invites starting from the concrete reality of young people (listen), reflecting in the light of the Gospel and Christian anthropology (discern), defining concrete steps of pastoral action (act), and recognizing the fruits in a climate of hope and gratitude (celebrate).<\/p>\n
The second project is addressed to family ministry leaders. This was decided so that they may be able to accompany the families of people living through these experiences, and who often find themselves alone or misunderstood.<\/p>\n
I was struck by the determination with which SEPI\u2019s general coordination took on such a delicate issue. They left no room for improvisation; instead, they first chose to undergo rigerous formation, investing their time and resources, in order to address the matter competently. They succeeded in integrating personal formation with communal discernment and courageously took up the most urgent challenges. Without haste and without pause; with prudence and prophetic boldness, which is the kind that opens new paths.<\/p>\n
by\u00a0Marta Rodriguez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South East Pastoral Institute (SEPI) is the body of the Catholic bishops of the southeastern United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24,177772],"class_list":["post-359886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-women-church-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}