El Cuerpo de Cristo St. Michael’s a growing home for Hispanics Down East

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The Rev. Michael Sheridan had special words recently for some of the people attending Mass at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Cherryfield.

“El cuerpo de Cristo,” which means “the body of Christ” in English, Sheridan said quietly to a handful of Hispanics, one after another, as they took Communion.

The priest’s Spanish had taken everybody by surprise that morning.

But they look forward every Sunday to that portion of Mass and more, now that they know how Sheridan is making the effort to sprinkle bits of Spanish amid the service.

Sheridan’s gesture is one of a number of ways that Hispanics are starting to finally feel at home Down East in the local Catholic community.

Edith Flores, whose Mexican family arrived in Milbridge five years ago, has become a spokeswoman of sorts for the 100-plus Hispanics who live Down East year-round, many of them in Milbridge.

“To hear some words in Spanish, we feel more like we are part of the celebration every Sunday,” she said earlier this week. “Before, we just followed the Mass along in English because we know it by heart. Now we feel more a part of it.”

The Hispanic population swells to 5,000 or more for six weeks each summer when workers move in to handle the wild blueberry harvest, then move on.

Immigrants or migrants, virtually all the Hispanics share a culture rich in Catholicism. But until a few months ago, living or working locally meant enduring the absence of a formal religious celebration.

No longer.

Since a concerted effort began in January, Hispanics are being especially welcomed at St. Michael’s. Two priests, a nun, a seminary student, several lay ministers and parishioners are working together to reach out to the new community.

“This is important,” Sheridan said. “We are hoping to invite them into the church more socially, too, as well as liturgically.”

On an ordinary Sunday, 12 to 20 Hispanic people attend St. Michael’s alongside about 100 others, many of them summer residents.

During the harvest, maybe 25 or 30 Hispanics seek out the 10 a.m. Mass.

The Hispanics who stay after the service for the social hour downstairs now mingle over the American standard, doughnuts and coffee. But the day will come when Hispanic treats may grace the serving trays in an exchange of cultures. That’s one of Sheridan’s hopes.

Once word spreads that Spanish touches are making the Masses more meaningful, more Hispanics are expected to join in.

“It’s amazing how all this is suddenly taking hold,” Sheridan said.

The church’s first effort to reach the Hispanics came three summers ago, when the Rev. Frank Morin – fluent in Spanish after serving five years in Bolivia in the 1980s – drove down from Baileyville to celebrate a Mass in Spanish at the height of the blueberry season. The pews were packed, and that mid-harvest Mass has become a tradition.

When Hispanics asked the priest to hear confessions in Spanish last summer, Morin listened for hours.

Morin added a second annual service in Spanish Down East last winter: the celebration on Dec. 12 of Our Lady of Guadeloupe.

Morin has little time for work beyond his own two parishes in upper Washington County. But given how well-received the efforts at St. Michael’s have been, he will be making more time for helping out here.

“I can do the Masses periodically, but it will still be hit or miss,” Morin said. “This is a community that responds, that enjoys expressing their faith in their own language with their own cultural expressions.”

The plan to do even more for area Hispanics took root last August when a local group, Work for Peace, served as host for an evening forum at a church in Columbia. Two Mexicans spoke openly about concerns in the lives of the area’s Hispanics – Edith Flores was one of them.

She said what Hispanics living or working locally missed most was having their religious needs met. More Masses in Spanish was what they wanted.

But having a bilingual priest year-round wasn’t possible, so the Hispanics are savoring the smaller efforts.

Jennie Ashlock, a student at Bangor Theological Seminary, had heard about the wish expressed by Flores last summer. With a longtime personal interest in international communities, Ashlock took upon herself last winter the project of identifying resources that could help Hispanics Down East feel more fulfilled religiously.

She drew in Sister Patricia Pore, a member of the Sisters of Mercy in Portland. The Spanish-speaking nun has visited Milbridge and Cherryfield three times this spring. Her hope is to help develop religious education in Spanish for the growing community, coming up from Portland as often as she can.

Ashlock has also been the coordinator among people like Sheridan, who was more than keen to learn Spanish phrases for key moments during the Mass, and Robert Babcock, a retired University of Maine history professor. Babcock has become the primary liaison for the Hispanic families within the St. Michael’s congregation.

On a recent Sunday after the service, Babcock and Sheridan met with a half-dozen of the church’s lay ministers to review Spanish words that the congregation could be encouraged to try. Lilia Flores, Edith’s younger sister, helped with translation and pronunciation.

Someone asked Lilia how Hispanics of high-school age might feel to be greeted in Spanish.

“They would feel more comfortable and might come to church more,” Lilia replied.

Just last week, Morin performed the baptism of Elio S. Valencia, the newborn son of Peter and Teresa Valencia. The baptism in Spanish was a first for the area. That was followed by a Mass, attended by about 80 Hispanics.

Morin’s next Spanish Mass will take place in Cherryfield at 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 16.

All the new attention at St. Michael’s has not been lost on its intended audience.

Said Flores, speaking for her community: “All these few things since last year – to us, it’s a big step already.”