More than 200 campus ministers and Latino Catholic college students gathered July 29-31 at Dominican University in River Forest to pray together, learn from one another and share in the support of “communidad,” or community.
The fourth “¡El Futuro Is Here!” conference, with the theme “Igniting Hope, Cultivando Liderazgo (Cultivating Leadership)!” was hosted by the PASOS Network and included social time, prayer and liturgy, breakout discussions and keynote talks, including one presenting the results of a national study of Latino students in Catholic campus ministries, “Como en Casa: How Latina/o Students Thrive in Catholic Campus Life.”
Armando Guerrero Estrada, director of the PASOS Network, said that the focus of ““¡El Futuro Is Here!” has changed since the first time Dominican University hosted it in 2018. Then, participants were mostly campus ministers at Catholic colleges and universities with large Latino student populations who wanted to learn more about how best to serve them.
The next conference was planned for 2020, but held online in 2021 because of COVID-19 pandemic precautions.
In 2022, Dominican created the PASOS Network to work with Catholic colleges and universities and promote culturally sustaining ministry practices, Guerrero Estrada explained, as institutions see their demographics shift towards enrolling more Latino students.
In 2023, after Guerrero Estrada became involved, the conference involved more students, both on the advisory board and as participants.
This year, he said, slightly more than half of the conference participants were students, coming from about 40 mostly Catholic institutions of higher learning.
“These organizations have invested in their juniors and seniors,” Guerrero Estrada said. “These are the ones that are going to be leading in the next term. … The synodal approach that Pope Francis really encouraged was picked up by Catholic colleges and universities, and they are implementing it.”
That is one of the things Latino students want to see in their campus ministries, said Nabil Tueme, a senior research associate at Springtide Research Institute, which carried out the study. Tueme was part of a panel giving the July 30 keynote.
“It’s about the synodal thing primarily,” said Bryan Gonzalez Delgadillo, a 2025 Dominican graduate who was one of the student leaders at the conference. “It’s about creating the norms so that people can see themselves.”
Gonzalez Delgadillo attended the 2023 conference as a participant, and found it both enlightening and enjoyable. It’s important, he said, for Latino students to find their culture reflected on their campuses, including their culture of faith.
One of Tueme’s findings is that, while campus ministers said having students “thrive” in their ministry meant having students come to events, participate in sacraments and have a mature, personal relationship with God, students said thriving meant having a community where it is safe to explore and question, where they can grow and learn about their faith and where they can live their faith with friends and put their faith into action through service.
“The think I heard time and time again is, ‘My campus minister lets me ask anything I want,’” she said.
Liza Manjarrez, senior associate director of campus ministry in Austin, Texas, who was on the panel with Tueme, said campus ministers can also help students find their way by asking them questions about what they observe and what they believe.
Andrew Mercado, director of university ministry at Dominican and the third member of the panel, said that students are embracing Pope Francis’ image of a life of faith as a journey, walking together, where the important part is the walking, not the destination.
“We’re immersing ourselves in a lifelong journey of faith, and it’s a messy journey,” Mercado said. “But walking together, God reveals God’s self.”
Daniela Funes Rivera, who will be a senior at Dominican in the coming school year, said she used to think of campus ministry as “the people who organize the Masses.” But she became familiar with the staff from working in the nearby multicultural office and began spending time there, because she felt at home.
Neomi De Anda, executive director for the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, Ohio, gave the July 29 keynote, “Abundancia, Esperanza y Liderazgo (Abundance, Hope and Leadership): A Marian Perspective.”
She told the story of Our Lady of Aparecida, in which a broken statue of Mary was found in the Paraíba River, leading to an abundant catch of fish. The story, De Anda said, relates to a Latin American culture of abundance, of sharing whatever is available so that there is enough for everybody, as well as sharing the burdens that each person carries.
“We can call on one another, we can call on our elders, we can call on Mary for her leadership,” De Anda said. “We are ‘imago Dei.’ We are the image and likeness of God the creator. Abundance is the ability to ride the wave of creation and create out of what is available.”