Bishop Perez is chairman of the USCCB Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. He told CNA that some of the fruit of Encuentro has been the "emerging leadership, in so many ways, of the next generation of leaders and pastoral lay leaders in the church in the United States."
On the parish level, he said, 3,000 parishes and 350,000 Catholics participated in the Encuentro process over the last several years.
He said the emergence of new leadership, especially young adults, was immediately apparent. "That was really promising and very hopeful."
Junuee Castro, the director of youth and young adult ministry in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, seconded this. She told CNA the diocesan Encuentro meetings were very meaningful for her and that "young people have raised their hands and said yes, I am willing to go forward, I am willing to commit; I definitely want to see them in leadership roles."
Bishop Perez also noted that 250 U.S. parishes started Spanish pastoral outreach and began holding Spanish Masses as a result of the V Encuentro. He added that they have also seen several dioceses establish and staff offices with new lay leaders.
"The V Encuentro is really in so many ways the implementation of the joy of the Gospel. So the whole process, the spirit, the mysticism of the spirituality revolves all around the joy of the Gospel," Perez said.
He pointed to Pope Francis' description, in Evangelii gaudium, of the Church "as a community of missionary disciples that takes initiative, that accompanies, that is engaged, that is fruitful, that is joyful."
"This is the spirit of the V Encuentro," he said.
Noting that deportations have taken place in his diocese, Perez said one of the blessings of the V Encuentro was that "it comes at a time of that uncertainty and fear and became, in so many ways, a soothing balm where people would come together and support each other, accompany each other and strengthen each other in a very tumultuous time."
The delegation meeting with Pope Francis includes lay USCCB staff, members of the National V Encuentro Team, and other delegates with experience in diocesan and parish ministry.
Castro said, "what the Church can do is what the Encuentro process has done for us. They have paused and listened to us."
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"They have listened to us, which is key to anything we want to do as a Church; the mode of listening and accompaniment definitely. Being accompanied and being mentored by those who have been in ministerial roles we need their advice and we are willing to walk with them and them with us."
Delegates and married couple Mario and Paola Martinez are co-directors of the marriage and family life ministry in the Diocese of San Bernardino. They said they serve a range of people in their work, and it has been critical for them to see way in which mothers and fathers seek help for themselves and their families.
"They have this desire for their families to be healthy, for their families to find this peace and they just want the best for their families. That's what we see, that passion for family life among our Hispanic community. They have a love for their families and for their traditions and their cultures and you can just feel that in the communities that we serve," Paola said.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.