The Archdiocese of Chicago plans to host a new sort of “Encuentro” this fall, one that will bring together young adult Catholics from both Hispanic and non- Hispanic backgrounds. Encuentro is both an event and the process leading up to it that has been used among Hispanic young adults on both diocesan and national levels since 2000, said Jorge Rivera, coordinator of Hispanic young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In this Year of Teens and Young Adults in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the ReCiL Young Adult Ministry and the Office for Young Adult Ministry are joining with Rivera’s office to plan an Encuentro around the theme of “Re-encountering love to have fullness in Christ,” with a culminating event sometime this fall. The process starts at the grassroots level, inviting young people to come together to identify and share their needs, aspirations and contributions to the church, leading eventually to a vision and mission for participants. It starts in parishes and small groups and builds to a large gathering, from which the young adults are sent forth. “This model is not new,” Rivera said. “It’s the model that was developed in Hispanic ministry at the national level when Hispanic ministry was moving from the basement to the larger church. The Encuentro seems to give a voice to groups that are not being heard because it’s not a top-down approach. It’s from the grassroots up.” That makes it valuable for all young adults, not just Hispanics, said Timone Davis, coordinator of ReCil (Reclaiming Christ in Life), a young adult ministry of the archdiocese. “Young adults are people in the margins, who aren’t always invited to the decision-making table in our parishes,” Davis said. “People are really ready and excited to do something with young adults and not just give them another program, but share with them a process that is catechetical and informative. People can attach to the model and use it in their parishes in the ways that work best for them.” An initial meeting to explore the idea in February drew 26 people, including Davis, Rivera, representatives of the Young Adult Ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago, campus ministers from several area universities and representatives of several parish young adult groups. Members of the group say the culminating Encuentro gathering cannot be held until the fall, because the process will take time. “In going slow, we can build something that will have a better foundation and maybe have some longevity,” Davis said. “What people typically like to see when there is a new program is something flashy, but then it disappears. This is going to be, I believe, the opposite.” Rivera said it’s important to make Encuentro multicultural because Hispanic young adults — the group the Encuentro model was initially created to serve —are living in an increasingly multicultural world, and restricting the Encuentro to only one group does not reflect the way they live. “We have to read the signs of the times,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of second-generation, full-bilingual university students.” Davis said working with Hispanic Young Adult Ministry also makes sense for more traditional young adult ministry programs, who don’t have as much of a history of reaching out to young people outside the parish walls. “They have the grassroot kinds of experience that we don’t have,” Davis said.