Noise from the jackhammers tearing up the street outside filters into Casa Jesús, located on the campus of Holy Name Cathedral. Inside seven young men sit at a table in the basement gathered around Father Octavio Munoz. The young men from Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador have a full day of work ahead of them: meet with their tutors at 10 a.m.; Mass at 11 a.m.; and then spend the rest of the day in intensive English classes at the University of Illinois-Chicago; then finally return home at 8:30 p.m.

All seven men have priesthood as their objective and have accepted the challenge of following the call of their vocation in another country and to learn another language. Casa Jesús is the organization that assists them to transition to a different culture, far from their family and friends.

During the course of a year, this house of discernment helps them acquire the language skills needed to continue on to the seminary, facilitates the transition to a multicultural reality different from their places of origin, and, most importantly, helps them determine if, in fact, they are called to the priesthood.

Munoz has been in charge of Casa Jesús for three years and is familiar with the challenges that confront these young men.

The men have some natural hurdles to jump, he said. The weather is often an adjustment for them. Even though this winter was mild, it was still difficult for the young men who come from tropical climates to get used to colder weather.

The language also poses a challenge. So does homesickness. Munoz says he regularly offers moral support to the men who are far from their network of friends and loved ones.

“Sometimes a failure — like not passing an exam — makes them want to return to their country,” he said.

Given that 42 percent of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago are Hispanic, and 17 percent of them speak only Spanish, the growing need for priests who minister to the Hispanic community makes Casa Jesús an important ministry.

A great need

This year, Casa Jesús celebrates its 25th anniversary, but not everyone knows about it.

“We continue being a secret to many people. There are priests who tell me, ‘How many years has Casa Jesús been in existence? I’ve only known about it since last year,’” Munoz said.

It’s the same with laypeople, he said.

The program began in 1987, as an initiative of Father Arturo Perez, then pastor of Our Lady of Tepeyac Parish. Father Silvano Filipetto joined Perez in founding Casa Jesús.

Perez said in the late 1980s he saw a need for more Hispanic priests to minister in the archdiocese.

“There were Masses being said in Spanish and a few priests were learning the language. The community was growing rapidly and the problem was that there were no vocations,” said Perez, who is now pastor of Assumption B.V.M. Parish in the city’s Little Village neighborhood and director of Kolbe House, a archdiocesan prison ministry.

The idea of creating a home where young men could discern their religious vocation took shape rather quickly. Without much paperwork, the archdiocese and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin accepted their proposal, Perez said.

“We convinced them that the question was not to take the place of the seminary, but rather prepare them for the seminary,” said Perez. He and Filipetto designed a program of prayer and fieldwork with support from the seminary and adapted materials to the Hispanic culture.

“The idea was to invite these young men to share our priestly ministry, work in the parish, and if it was necessary, to learn English and then determine whether they wanted to continue,” he said.

Since the program’s beginning, 42 men who went through Casa Jesús have been ordained priests for the archdiocese. The program receives support from the archdiocese but it also must do its own fundraising.

Local first

Initially, the program was focused on Hispanic young men from Chicago. “But during the mid-90s it occurred to someone that we should recruit from outside as well,” Munoz said.

One reason for the switch was immigration laws. Men coming to Casa Jesús have to be able to immigrate to the U.S. legally.

“It is impossible, at this moment, to fix the migrant status of someone who has been here illegally,” Munoz said.

Perez worries about the men who want to be priests but are undocumented.

“What can we do to support them? Legally, we don’t have a way,” he said. “As a church, we should try to be more creative about this. How are we going to respond?”

Perez emphasizes that, even though they are recruiting from outside, there are vocations to be found locally too.

Of the three young men who began their year of discernment in 1993 at Casa Jesús, one is now a bishop. He is Auxiliary Bishop Alberto Rojas who is in charge of Vicariate III. Bishop Rojas already had 10 years of seminary experience in Mexico, so his stay at Casa Jesús was not necessarily to discern his vocation, but to learn English.

“It was quite an experience,” the bishop said. “It was the doorway to a new beginning, of a new climate and a new culture. The best thing that could have happened to me at Casa Jesús was to learn English, because I had time to focus on that.”

Although it was challenging being away from family and friends, the year at Casa Jesús wasn’t bad because he was disciplined, Bishop Rojas said.

He said there was some chaos because the other two men in his class didn’t have seminary experience. “They were still in their discernment phases and I tried to help in what I could, but I wasn’t going to make myself out to be a know-it-all. We were all equal,” he said.

Father Marco Mercado, director of the Office for Hispanic Catholics, is another Casa Jesús alum. He came to Casa Jesús as part of the class of 1994 and is proud of it.

“We are one of the few dioceses — perhaps the only one in the United States — that has a program of formation and enculturation for those that come to this country with the desire to become priests,” Mercado said.

Casa Jesús gives the men a chance to know the archdiocese and the archdiocese a chance to know them, he said.

“It is also an opportunity for us to go through the process of enculturation, which is very important, because we have to understand that the Hispanic community is not the same in the U.S. as it is in Latin America, even though we share the same language,” Mercado said.

He came to Casa Jesús from Mexico, where he had studied with the Salesians. For him, the program was fundamental in his formation.

“Casa Jesús was for me, and it continues to be, a blessing and a model of hospitality, but at the same time of enculturation and of challenge for all those that want to be priests in the United States,” he said.

“The whole process of enculturation is very difficult,” said Mercado. “That’s why the program is so important.”

For information, visit www.casajesus.org.