Reader Andrew Pocta writes:

I’ve emailed you before, and you’ve helped promote my wife and I’s blog – Catholiccafeconleche.wordpress.com – especially when my wife Cristina was undergoing a rare in-utero surgery in Philadelphia for the correction of our daughter’s Spina Bifida. We greatly appreciate it, it really brought in a lot of prayers for us and our little family!

Anyways, I just read your blog post about the USCCB conference this past weekend and wanted to reach out to you –

“Another thing that stuck out, courtesy of Rocco’s remarks, was the need for Catholics to address the huge and growing Spanish-speaking demographic. This is the third time I’ve been knocked on the head with this by the Spirit. ”

Well…..having a wife who was born in the Dominican Republic (and is half Puerto Rican, half Dominican) and was raised in a small bubble of NYC where Spanish was her first language……and having myself graduated with a degree in Spanish after serving for 2 years as a Catholic lay-missionary in Honduras (with a missionary community – www.missioners.org –   and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal), I find myself very interested in any efforts to reach out to the Hispanic Community.

I realize that you may have just thrown the idea out without any ideas or plans to move forward, (as that is not everyone’s calling) but I am praying and just want you to know that I am open to collaborating in any efforts through blogging/internet/literature.

Just wanted to throw it out there!

Thanks, Andrew. My mastery of Spanish goes to, “Agua, por favor” and being able to say, “My uncle is sick but the highway is green” (I can also say this in German: I pause now briefly for admiring coos from my audience).  But that’s it.  If you see stuff on my blog that you think worth translating, feel free to grab it and use it in your work.  I’ve sometimes wondered about having my books translated, but that’s up to the publisher and I have no idea if they have a budget for that.  I may ask them the next time I chat with them.  I’ve also thought about have stuff translated into Chinese since there is such a massive interest in the gospel in China.

Anyway, I put Andrew’s note up in case there are readers who are interested in outreach to the Spanish-speaking community.  Someday, when I have time on my hands (ha!) I may try to learn some Spanish.  I wish I had done it when I was a kid.