7 women, 1 team to be honored at Catechetical Conference

The confirmation team from Our Lady of Lourdes in Kendall will receive the 2014 Esperanza Ginoris Award, for best exemplifying excellence in catechetical ministry and providing a model for others to follow.

Seven catechists, all women, will receive the Lifetime Catechetical Leadership Award “in appreciation and recognition of outstanding ministry, faithful service, joyful commitment and visionary leadership.”
Following are brief summaries of their lives and work:

Our Lady of Lourdes Confirmation Team
The team provides formational leadership and catechesis to young people who expect to be confirmed at the end of the second year, including the unbaptized who are participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of adults. The team consists of 16 catechists, eight of whom work with children in the first year of preparation and eight of whom work with children in the second year of preparation. Maribel Castillo provides the overall catechetical leadership for the team, assisted by Cassandra Karmeris, who also serves as the lead catechist for the first year team. This team has been together, with some changes in membership, for over 10 years, and some of the members have served in catechetical work for more than 15 years. Several have completed the Archdiocese of Miami Lay Ministry Program.

The highlight of their two-year program is the Spirit Day retreat for all the candidates. In 2013, the Spirit Day retreat for the parish and school was combined, bringing the number of children participating to nearly 250. In addition to their regular classroom activities, members of the team invest between 30 and 60 hours per year preparing for Spirit Day. This team presents an outstanding example of catechesis at work in the lives of many young people.

Sister Clementina Givens
St. Patrick Church
Born Nov. 15, 1921, in Baltimore, and given the name Gladys, Sister Givens grew up attending a Methodist church. She was baptized Catholic at age 9 and began attending Catholic school in fifth grade. At age 14, she met Sister Mary Georgina, an Oblate Sister of Providence who was preparing the class for confirmation. “Sister Georgina was a ‘happy go lucky’ person, a real human person,” Sister Givens recalled. “She was not one to walk around with her hands always hidden in the big sleeves of her habit. And could she dance! ... I just loved her, and I hung on to her every word.”

She returned to public school after eighth grade but continued to visit Sister Georgina, who asked her to pray for “a young girl who God is calling to be a nun, but she doesn't realize it yet.” That turned out to be Gladys herself, who entered the Oblate Sisters’ convent right after graduating from high school, 74 years ago, taking the name Clementina. 

Sister Givens earned a teaching certificate from the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Baltimore, a bachelor’s from the Sisters of Loretto in St. Louis, Mo., and a master’s in theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She has directed religious education programs in South Florida for a total of 36 years, twice at Holy Redeemer Church in Liberty City and for the past 18 years at St. Patrick in Miami Beach.

Amparo Martinez
Retired
Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba. She came to Miami at age 14 as a refugee, without her parents, and eventually earned an associate’s degree in child development. Her catechetical journey began in 1976, when she went to her parish seeking formation for her eldest daughter and was asked to assist with the program. In 1994, she was asked to coordinate the Spanish religious education program at St. Joachim Parish in Miami. In 2004, she became director of religious education at St. Kevin Parish in Miami. Throughout her tenure, she encouraged her religious educators to become certified through the catechist certification program. She brought many courses to St. Kevin and St. Joachim and encouraged catechists as well as teachers from neighboring parish schools to enhance their spiritual formation. To continue her own spiritual formation, she attended the School of Ministry and was commissioned in family catechesis. She retired in 2012. Martinez has been married for 45 years to Emilio and they have three children and five grandchildren.

Lydia Cecilia Mayorga
St. Catherine of Siena
Born and raised in Nicaragua, Mayorga attended Universidad Centroamericana in Managua and studied psychology. She has served as director of religious education at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kendall for 16 years. Her responsibilities include overseeing the religious education program, the Rite of Christian Initiation for adults and children, and coordinating all the baptisms. She also volunteers her time with the Liturgy of the Word for children, the FOCCUS pre-marriage inventory for engaged couples, and serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Communion. In addition, she coordinates the parish’s fingerprint and Virtus training programs and volunteers with Encuentros Familiares (Family Encounters), a local apostolic movement. She has been married to Oscar Danilo for 36 years, and they have five children, all of whom have graduated from college and have strong interests in social justice and serving marginalized populations — a point of great pride for her. The couple also have two grandchildren.

Regina Medina
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs
Medina began her catechetical ministry in Ohio at the age of 14 as a teacher’s aide and has never ceased to respond to the call of service in different parishes, capacities and ministries. In religious education, she has ministered to children and parents at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church and School in Fort Lauderdale for over 30 years. One of 14 siblings, she always had a love for teaching and would have made it her career had she been able to afford college. Instead she dedicated her efforts to becoming certified as a catechist. 

When she was initially asked to head the religious education program at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, she felt unworthy, due to lack of a theology degree. But realizing that “God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called,” she attended practically every workshop, seminar, conference and certification course offered by the Office of Catechesis — even if it meant using vacation time from her fulltime job. She also did everything she could to learn from other catechists’ experiences.

Medina has been married for 47 years to Francisco, who served as her catechist aide until his recent illness. They have two children who both followed their parents’ example and are currently catechists in their parish.

Lorraine Salvatore
1939-2014
Salvatore died July 28 after a brief illness that was only diagnosed June 10. She received her award posthumously, at her funeral Mass at St. Gregory Church, where she had served as director of religious education for the past two years, after 32 years of similar service at St. Bernard in Sunrise. She was a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, born April 10, 1939, who married Frank Anthony Salvatore (he died in 2003) and raised three children. 

“She was constantly part of the ministry, for just as long as I can remember,” said her son Frank. “I’ve never seen a woman whose faith ran as deep as her own. She loved children, loved teaching, and all the wonderful things that go along with that.” He added, “She’s a very special woman who touched so many people in so many positive ways. The outpouring of love and support that we’ve seen is just overwhelming.”

Judith Sherlock
St. Paul the Apostle
Sherlock has been directing the religious education program at St. Paul the Apostle in Lighthouse Point since 1976. St. Paul’s program goes from Pre-K through eighth grade. Prior to serving as director of religious education, she taught in Broward County elementary schools as well as Nativity School in Hollywood. She is the widow of Raymond Sherlock and has six children, eight grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Looking back on her years of ministry, she said simply, “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?”

Leyda Vazquez
Retired
Vazquez traces the beginning of her vocation, and eventually her profession as a catechist to the slums near the Port of Havana, where she would go, along with a Franciscan religious, to teach catechism to as many children as they could find, eventually bringing them to the parish to receive the sacraments. The year was 1960, and she was 15. Since then, she has been uninterruptedly involved in catechesis. 

Upon her arrival in Miami in 1961, she began teaching the newly-arriving Cuban children in her parish, Corpus Christi in Miami. When her family moved to Hialeah, she became the first secretary of the newly created parish of St. Cecilia, “a volunteer position that required wearing many hats, including of course, organizing catechetical activity.” 

In 1975, she became the secretary and administrative assistant of the religious education office at Immaculate Conception Church in Hialeah, the right hand person to the parish’s director of religious education. She took over as director in 1979, supervising a catechetical program for 1,400 children from kindergarten to high school, in both English and Spanish, as well as a successful youth group. 

In 1982, her pastor at Immaculate was transferred to Epiphany Church in South Miami and invited her to go with him as director of religious education for the parish and the school, including youth ministry. In 1984, as the archdiocese was starting to implement the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, she created and directed the team that started the process at Epiphany. After her husband’s unexpected death, she decided to go back to school and eventually obtained a master’s degree in pastoral ministries. She has taught archdiocesan catechist certification courses, facilitated workshops at catechetical conferences, and served as an adjunct professor at St.  Thomas University in Miami Gardens.

 
In June 2011, after 29 years at Epiphany, she officially retired from employment but not from ministry. She is now volunteering as a teacher in the religious education program at St. John Neumann in Kendall.