Former Hispanic Ministry head becomes Intercultural Ministry director ‘to serve larger Church’

By Natalie Hoefer

Three years ago, Felix Navarrete reflected on the next chapter of his life as the archdiocese’s new coordinator of Hispanic Ministry.

“I know God does everything perfectly and beautifully when we let him lead, and I want to do his will no matter what,” he said in a Jan. 20, 2023, article in The Criterion.

Navarrete has accomplished much in those three years. Now, that desire to do God’s will has led him to a new role as director of the archdiocese’s Office of Intercultural Ministry. He began serving in that position on Feb. 2.

The office “provides guidance and promotes cultural events and activities that enhance ministry within the different cultural groups in our archdiocese,” Navarette explains, including those from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The archdiocese’s Black Catholic and Hispanic ministries fall under the intercultural office’s umbrella.

“With so many good things going on in [the archdiocesan] Hispanic Ministry, I felt the call to do something for the rest of the cultural groups” in central and southern Indiana, says Navarrete.

Looking at the “many good things” he accomplished in the last three years, “the rest of the cultural groups” have much to anticipate.

‘A great impact in our community’

Some of Navarrete’s successes involve programs that existed when he became Hispanic Ministry coordinator, including the annual Hispanic Family Camp and its “very intentional focus on spiritual enrichment,” he says.

The event takes place on the second weekend of September at the Catholic Youth Organization’s Camp Rancho Framasa in Brown County. Faith is a major component, including opportunities for confession, adoration and Mass.

“We were so blessed to have Archbishop [Charles C.] Thompson celebrate Mass with us for the first time in 2024,” says Navarrete. “And last year we were able to bring the National Eucharistic Congress monstrance to the Family Camp, and we offered this new experience of adoration under the stars.”

Another accomplishment he notes was a makeover of the existing Intercultural Pastoral Institute (IPI)—not of the program, but a physical makeover of the space where classes for the 2-year ministerial formation certificate program take place at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis.

Navarrete and his wife Paholla “worked really hard last summer to enhance every single room at the IPI,” he says.

A small gift shop, a conference room and a cafeteria were added, and the reception area was upgraded to include a front desk. Religious art and icons from Navarrete’s recent travels to France and England now decorate the space.

“We also added a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” he says. “That’s the first thing you see when you arrive at the IPI facilities. The students have expressed that the place really looks like an institute now.”

Navarrete’s accomplishments as Hispanic Ministry coordinator include new endeavors as well. One is the creation of a Hispanic young adult program called Pastoral Juvenil.

“It is a tool for formation and spiritual growth—and fellowship, of course,” he explains. “In the last year, we were able to serve more than 200 young adults through our various programs,” including a three-day mental health-themed retreat at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad attended by 35 young adults.

Another new endeavor was hiring a young adult intern for the Hispanic Ministry office.

“The job is focused on outreach to and developing programs for Hispanic and Latino young adults,” says Navarrete. “That is truly one of our greatest accomplishments because that has made a great impact in our community.”

While he accomplished much more as coordinator of Hispanic Ministry, the last success Navarrete notes was the inaugural Hispanic Ministry Gala, which took place last December and was attended by Archbishop Thompson.

Navarrete did more than move the Hispanic Ministry forward—he gained valuable experience that will assist him as the new director of the archdiocese’s Office of Intercultural Ministry.

‘They are all the people of God’

One useful insight Navarrete gained is “how important it is to be present and close to our people,” he says. “To devote time, to get to know them and accompany them in their faith journey is part of our missionary spirit.”

Navarrete also learned about the power of collaboration, “that working in collaboration with other archdiocesan offices and departments will always bear good fruit.”

The same spirit of collaboration is true among the ministries that fall under the intercultural office’s umbrella, he says.

“Our team, we are serving the Church of Christ,” says Navarrete. “We serve different people from different backgrounds and different languages and cultures, but they are all the people of God. … We want to promote that hospitality of the Church welcoming all her members to be part of the one body of Christ.”

Navarrete’s proven leadership and experience as Hispanic Ministry leader more than qualify him for his new role. But another experience makes him a particularly unique fit.

“Being myself an immigrant, people perhaps can relate to my own story, how I got here,” says Navarrete.

In 2018, he fled from Nicaragua with his wife and their four children to the United States as political refugees, settling near Paholla’s mother in Indianapolis. The couple and their children—now ages 25, 20, 15 and 10—are members of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.

With Navarrete’s experience—both professional and personal—he says he now feels called “to serve the larger Church” as director of the Intercultural Ministry Office.

Deacon Thomas Hosty believes Navarrete has the gifts to answer that call. The Office of Intercultural Ministry and its sub-groups fall within the archdiocese’s Department of Pastoral Ministries, for which Deacon Hosty has served as director since February 2024.

“Felix has a great pastoral presence with people and is resourceful and very hard-working,” he says. “He is patient, kind and never loses his cool. He is devoted to our Church and to Jesus Christ, and is motivated to bring others closer to Christ, to have their own encounters with him. Felix just has a natural heart for working with the beautiful diversity of cultural communities in our archdiocese.”

Deacon Hosty adds that, with Navarrete’s master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame, his three years of experience working for the archdiocese and his “strong administrative and pastoral skill sets, Felix is a natural fit to lead our Office of Intercultural Ministry.”

‘How diverse is the body of Christ’

Navarrete’s new role comes with specific responsibilities, including providing “direction in maintaining oversight of all ministerial activities associated with the Office of Intercultural Ministry,” he says.

His role also includes connecting international cultural community leaders in central and southern Indiana parishes and the priests who serve those communities to helpful ministerial resources.

Those community lay leaders are essential to the mission of the office, says Navarrete.

“A priority for this year is to reactivate an intercultural commission with members from the different cultural communities so we can work together, listen to what their hopes and dreams are and [discern] how the archdiocese can help make those hopes and dreams become real,” he says.

Navarrete also envisions bringing the diverse communities together on occasion.

“Sometimes we’re tempted to separate things, thinking that the best way of honoring the cultures is to keep people with their communities, like in their comfort zone,” he says. “Yes, we want to honor the different cultures, and we want to foster their communities.

“But I really would like to see the Interculture Ministry promote unity among the diverse cultural communities, perhaps seeing all of them coming together at least one or two times a year to provide that sense of fostering community. That would be just beautiful to see how diverse is the body of Christ.”

Deacon Hosty notes that Navarrete has already “worked to bring different cultural groups together, for instance, [the archdiocese’s annual Mass] to celebrate the feast of St. Martin de Porres—himself a saint of mixed cultures—and a bilingual Pentecost Vigil service at [SS. Peter and Paul] Cathedral.”

It is such unity in the midst of diversity that differentiates “multicultural” from “intercultural,” says Navarrete.

“We can certainly speak in terms of multicultural with the presence of different cultures,” he explains. “But in the context of intercultural community, promoting that unity and building those bridges between them, to have that relationship and that communion—that is what we are called to as Catholics.”
 

(Felix Navrrete can be reached at fnavarrete@archindy.org or 317-236-7312. Applications are currently being sought to fill the role of archdiocesan Hispanic Ministry coordinator. For more information, go to tinyurl.com/ArchIndyHispanicCoordinator.) †