Attention to family and young people, spiritual support and formation are the greatest challenges facing the immigrant community in the United States, said Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjívar, in an interview in preparation for his recent pastoral trip to El Salvador, his homeland.

“There are many families who have not yet integrated into the reality of North American society, many people live in ghettos, marginalized, without integrating into society,” he explained. “I believe that the parish is the gateway to begin integrating into society, in an environment of trust.”

Regarding the purpose of his Jan. 25 to Jan. 30 pastoral visit to El Salvador, Bishop Menjivar indicated that Encuentro Region IV always makes an annual retreat and, this year, decided to do so with a trip to that Central American country to present to the directors of the Hispanic ministries to the reality of El Salvador.

Most Hispanic immigrants in Region IV – from Wilmington, Delaware to Richmond, Virginia – are Salvadorans, he recalled. It is important to know the reality of the people where they come from and how they are contributing, in addition to giving us the opportunity to get to know the emblematic places of St. Óscar Romero.

About this reality, he said “that people need relationships, first of all, with God and in our own community, because each personal relationship strengthens us each other.”

Salvadoran immigrants contribute billions of dollars to their native country every year, money and that have helped lift families out of poverty and build better homes, and have given young people opportunities to educate and train.

“In the United States, the human contribution, and its workforce, is expressed in the dynamism that Salvadorans bring,” bishop Menjivar said. “In general, they are entrepreneurs, they open small businesses, in industries they do the least paid jobs and there is a lot of volunteering in the parishes, where the Hispanic communities are the most vibrant in the (Roman Catholic) Archdiocese of Washington.”

However, despite the years that have passed, the Salvadoran immigrant community has not been able to legalize their immigration status, the ‘dreamers’ and “tepesianos” (Temporary Protection Status holders) are stuck.

Furthermore, for some, the ‘American dream’ remains an aspiration due to the lack of job opportunities and access to housing. The fact that they cannot access health services because they do not have documents forces them to postpone medical check-ups and when they do, sometimes it is too late.

Another great challenge is the families’ separations: “Parents who leave their children and the elderly behind and, even when they manage to bring their children to the United States, they have many problems integrating because they have been separated for a long time from their parents, which causes a lot of problems.”

Bishop Menjívar said that “to make our dreams come true” we must pay attention to families and young people, in addition to providing spiritual support and formation.

There are many families that live in ghettos, marginalized, without integrating into society, he added. I believe that the parish is the gateway to begin integrating into society in an environment of trust.

“I also think that our community has not been interested in learning English and that is a problem if we think about the future. “People have to find a way to integrate into society and an important tool to integrate is also learning the language.”

On the other hand, he said, people in El Salvador have to realize that they are a force for development and productivity for the country. “We cannot get used to dependency, nor to the consumerism that Pope Francis condemns.”

“The remittances that Salvadoran immigrants send -to their country of origin- should be an incentive to develop industries and small businesses and should not be the only source of income, because otherwise we become dependent,” he said -. “And I think that is what is happening in the country, we have become a consumerist and non-productive country.”

“El Salvador has become a country of low productivity and high consumerism. And it does not create dynamism; rather, what it does is slowing down our progress.”

Since this is an election year in El Salvador, Bishop Menjivar also emphasized the importance of civic education, voting, in accordance with our well-formed conscience, knowing that there are essential values that must be defended, such as solidarity, life, family, justice. “If we forget all that, and seek only our well-being, it will be quite difficult to escape the culture of abuse in which we sometimes live,” he said.

Reflecting on the pastoral trip to El Salvador, the auxiliary bishop reiterated that “we are not going as tourists, we are going as pilgrims, to connect with the leaders of the church and the local people, with the reality and with the culture of our people whom we serve. Traveling opens the mind and opens the heart because we get to know people. That closeness creates a connection.”

El Salvador is also known for its martyrs, it has been a suffering, martyrdom church, which has given testimony of fidelity to the Gospel, to the poor, to the marginalized and it is important not to lose that mystique, he said.

The land of Saint Romero has been watered by the blood of known and unknown martyrs. For now, one has been canonized and four have been beatified, but there is a long list of witnesses to the faith.

“In El Salvador, four North American missionaries were killed, there is a closeness between the North American and Salvadoran churches because we are united by the blood of the martyrs,” he said. The Maryknoll sisters murdered during the Salvadoran civil war were Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and the volunteer Jean Donovan

At the José Simeón Cañas University (UCA) in El Salvador, Jesuit priests Father Ignacio Ellacuría (rector), Father Ignacio Martín Baró (vice-rector), Father Segundo Montes, Father Amando López and Father Juan Ramón Moreno were also brutally murdered, in addition to the Salvadorans Joaquín López, Elba Ramos and his daughter Celina.