St. Odilia in Shoreview recently served as a pilot site for a seven-week series of classes in Spanish that focused on the Catholic Church’s social teachings.

Viviana Sotro, director of Latino ministry at Guardian Angels in Chaska, facilitated the seven classes. She described the Church’s social teachings as “kind of a hidden gem,” at least among some in the Latino community.

Twenty-five of 35 registrants completed the program. They received certificates at a Nov. 11 reception at St. Odilia that followed a Mass in Spanish with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams presiding and Msgr. Martin Schlag, Moss-endowed chair for Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, concelebrating. Bishop Williams presented the certificates in the church’s adjacent gymnasium.

Msgr. Schlag, along with staff at the Minnesota Catholic Conference and Michelle Rash, program manager at St. Thomas’ Murphy Institute, developed the program.

“The treasures of the social doctrine need to be made available and accessible to all Catholics, including those for whom English is not their first language,” said Jason Adkins, MCC executive director and general counsel, in an email. “They, too, have a responsibility to live the Gospel in every sphere of life.”

The Church’s social doctrine illuminates “the principles we use to build the civilization of love,” Adkins said, “and the framework with which we think about how to apply the Gospel to social relationships in family life, commerce and politics.” When the Church’s social doctrine is not communicated, especially to young people, “people are more prone to fall prey to partisan or ideological solutions that, at best, are incomplete answers to the deepest problems, and at worst, are deeply harmful to the common good,” he said.

“Part of MCC staff’s responsibility is to assist the bishops in their work encouraging the social apostolate. When more people deepen their faith and go forth to bring the Gospel into every corner of society, it is a win for all of us and the common good,” Adkins said. “We also hope that Hispanic Catholics will get more actively involved in speaking with their legislators about important issues that impact both them and the broader community.”

Reyes Rodriguez said the program was “amazing” and he “learned so much about not just my faith, but more about how I can put my faith into practice in the real world.”

The course is based on a book Msgr. Schlag compiled from the compendium of the social doctrine of the Church: “Manual of the Social Doctrine of the Church: A Guide for Christians in Today’s World,” available in Spanish and English. It uses a question-and-answer format to distill social doctrine and present it in a simpler, more readable format.

Each session in the program included readings and a 20- to 30-minute video with instruction from Msgr. Schlag. About 30 minutes of small group discussion followed at tables, then a large group discussion. The remaining time was used to “explain and facilitate the main ideas,” Reyes Rodriguez said. Sotro served as a facilitator leading the discussions, summarizing concepts and answering questions, he said.

Msgr. Schlag produced the videos, syllabus and cases presented. Discussion topics included human dignity and common good, a consistent ethic of life, marriage and family, the common good and the economy, and the common good and public life, he said. Participants were especially touched by two topics, Msgr. Schlag said: “end of life” and discussion around “workers have rights.”

Adkins also noted a relative lack of awareness among program participants of the Church’s tradition of “speaking for the rights of labor and the dignity of work,” and of its end-of-life teaching, which he said is needed to “push back on a health care system increasingly oriented toward driving down costs and which pushes people to make decisions inconsistent with their values.”

Because of what Latino immigrants experience when they move to a different country, Sotro said she believes Church teachings can bring them hope and make them feel consoled and “cared (for) by the Church.”

Church teachings “are always beautiful and rich and so deep,” Sotro said. “But it’s good to get help to better understand them.” She said the course, Msgr. Schlag’s book and the videos helped the average Spanish-speaking Catholic “understand all the beauty of these teachings.”

“People yearn for justice, and it is crucial that Catholics, especially, have something compelling to say about the important problems of the world,” Adkins said. “When the social doctrine is communicated, it enlivens the hearts of Catholics and evangelizes non-Catholics,” he said.

Adkins said the pilot at St. Odilia will be reviewed for any needed improvements and offered to other interested parishes. Expansion will depend on availability of facilitators and donors to help cover costs of the textbook, facilities and facilitator honorarium.

In addition to this series of classes, the archdiocesan Office of Latino Ministry hosts an annual retreat on social justice, at which Catholic social teachings are discussed.