In the 18 years since the last Encuentro the Hispanic Catholic community in the U.S. has gone through remarkable changes. For starters, 60 percent of Hispanic Catholics today were born in the U.S. and English has become the first language of a much larger portion of the Latino community.

As the leader of Baltimore’s Catholics, Archbishop Lori knows firsthand the way in which the issue of race has divided Catholics in his diocese. At this week’s V Encuentro, he spoke with The Tablet about how the legacy of MLK can help overcome segregation in the U.S. Church.

Thousands of clerics and lay leaders are packing a Texas convention center at the Fifth National Encuentro this weekend to strengthen Hispanic ministry in the U.S. – and they’re  turning to the next generation to guide them.

Scenes from the first day of the Fifth National Encuentro… The Tablet team was in place as Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, Texas, lead the opening prayer, and Editor Jorge I. Dominguez-Lopez had a chance to interview Sister Norma Pimentel.

Speaking with The Tablet on the first morning of the V Encuentro, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, highlighted elements of the Hispanic contribution to the Church in the U.S., and also enumerated its ongoing challenges.

Standing under a “Bienvenidos V Encuentro” banner, Catholics waited anxiously to check-in at the national Fifth Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas.

This week’s Texas gathering will bring together some 3,000 Catholics to conclude a four-year nationwide process of Hispanic/Latino missionary activity, consultation, leadership and pastoral discernment that took place in parishes, dioceses and episcopal regions in the United States.