New Hispanic ministry director ready to serve Latinos

Sister Norma Muñoz has served in Hot Springs, Glenwood for past four years

Published: October 3, 2016

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Sister Norma Edith Muñoz, MCP, was appointed in August by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor to serve as the director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Little Rock.

Aprille Hanson

Sister Norma Edith Muñoz, MCP, was appointed in August by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor to serve as the director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Little Rock.

Sister Norma Edith Muñoz might win the prize for the longest vacation. In 1965, Sister Norma, then just shy of 17, traveled back to her native Mexico with the Missionary Catechists of the Poor who had a month-long mission at her church in Abilene, Texas. She told her parents it was for “a vacation” with the sisters.

Turns out, she was leaving to enter the convent. The sixth of 12 children, Sister Norma said it took a lot of begging and praying to convince her parents, particularly her mother, that God was really calling her to religious life.

“I told the Lord, ‘OK you want me to be a nun I’ll stay. Somehow you have to change my mom’s heart. If you don’t want me here even if they give me permission two or three years from now, I’m not coming back.’ I threatened the Lord, OK,” Sister Norma, 68, laughed, her signature wide smile spreading across her face.

After about two hours, she received her parents blessing. “And I’ve been on vacation the past 51 years.”

Answering that call changed her life and today, it’s changing the lives of Hispanics throughout the state as she steps into the role of director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Little Rock.

“Right now I’m just keeping my eyes wide open to see the needs and to hear what they want,” Sister Norma said. “I do ask God to give me an open heart … I’m not here to respond to their needs. I think I’m here to accompany the community in the process of faith.”

Since taking her final vows on Aug. 25, 1975, she has served in pastoral care in churches in Mexico and Texas, coming to Hot Springs for a year in 2011 and then four years at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Glenwood, building up Hispanic ministry and working with youth.

However, her experience for a combined 20 years as her congregation’s vocations director has prepared her for leadership. Director of Hispanic ministry was not a position she sought out — after all, she said, the prospect of being stuck in an office was hardly appealing, pointing to Pope Francis’ call to “go out from your desk,” she said, knocking on her own desk, “and meet the people” as her guide.

But with the implementation of the fifth national Encuentro pastoral program, which is being spread to dioceses nationwide, her work is hardly just an office job. It is a four-year process, part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops strategic plan for 2017-2020, that involves “missionary activity, consultation, leadership development and identification of best ministerial practices in the spirit of the New Evangelization,” according to vencuentro.org. It starts as a grassroots effort to minister and develop solid Hispanic ministries in parishes.

The first training session was Oct. 1 at St. John Center in Little Rock, training more than 50 people as leaders.

“We’re going to have teams in every parish that go out. They can have the sessions in the parish, but the best thing is they go out and meet the people where they are,” Sister Norma said. “… It excites me very much because I think the Latino presence is very evident everywhere you go.”

As hateful insults toward Hispanics and immigrants swirl around today’s society, Sister Norma said she can relate to Hispanics in the state who feel unwelcome. When many American men were off fighting in World War II, her father and other Mexicans were allowed to work in the United States for the railroad and in construction. After the war ended, her father continued to work as an undocumented immigrant while her family lived in Mexico City. When she was 11 years old, the whole family with green cards moved to Abilene, Texas. Because she did not know English, the public school moved her from sixth to third grade.

They were not allowed in “whites only” restaurants and were restricted to the basement at the hospital, she said. If children were caught speaking Spanish in school, like her brother, they were punished.

“The teacher would put him underneath the desk for the rest of the day,” Sister Norma said. “… I decided I would learn the language in no time. Thank God, I was blessed with a very, very good teacher that would take her time and sit with me and teach me individually. I was privileged, I always remember Mrs. Smith.”

They attended St. Francis Church for Hispanics in the area. Even when she began her work as a religious sister, priests were often prejudiced, and if they were able to start a Hispanic ministry in a church, they were only allowed in the basement.

Despite the intolerance then and now, Sister Norma said Hispanics need to rely on God and the Church to remain positive.

“I think what I try is to get people to not be bitter about it. Let’s see what we can do and not to let hatred grow within them because that will not solve anything,” Sister Norma said. “… We have to be a welcoming Church … we are all immigrants.”