After three months, they’ve finally replaced me at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston (for a summary of what I did my nine years there, see this post).
The new Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry is Roberto Navarro, and today was his first day on the job. He comes from the Diocese of Austin, where he was most recently with the Office of Hispanic Ministry, but had also worked with the Office of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry. Here’s a bio.
The majority of Catholic young adults in Houston are Hispanic, and I tried for several years to get an associate director who could work with them full time, without success. The Hispanic young adults are motivated, well organized, and committed to their ongoing formation. The cadre of volunteers I worked with did an amazing job–I’m exceptionally happy that our work has finally been recognized.
The main English programs of the office, Cafe Catholica and Bayou Awakening, should be able to continue as they have, again because of exceptional young adult volunteers. They just completed this year’s Cafe Catholica, and I hear it went very well.
I think campus ministry will suffer without an experienced campus minister at the helm, but I had expected this would not be a priority in the search, as the DiNardo administration does not share the vision that characterized the office during Fiorenza’s tenure.
Pax et bonum 