The centers offer Spanish Masses, ranging from once a month to several times on a Sunday. Priests who speak Spanish have taken on the Hispanic ministries, but some drive miles to help with Masses, Pineda said. Volunteers who speak Spanish have gone out to camps to teach religious education classes. However, said O'Matta, the volunteers are getting older. When they can no longer do the work or when they die, there are no younger people to replace them.
Younger people are concerned with their own lives and work.
Pineda said some parishes have created collaborative ministries. They register the migrants who have become residents and provide them with religious education in their home communities. Pineda said the ministries are growing, particularly in Green Bay and that there is a need for more parishes to get involved. What the future will hold, he didn't predict. Like the rest of the diocese, the migrants will be affected by parishes merging or closing and by the priest shortage.