Spanish-speaking church becomes Nashville's newest, largest Catholic parish

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Antonio Figueroa stood by the doors and greeted members as they walked into the church. No one there spoke English — not even the visiting priest, who offered Mass completely in Spanish. Figueroa waved at kids he recognized and gave directions to people who appeared to be lost. He was dressed in a black suit with a green shirt under it — a shirt worn by those who serve every Sunday.

Figueroa, better known to his fellow ushers as “Toño”, has been serving at Iglesia Sagrado Corazón de Jesús for over five years. Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, he has found a sense of community attending and serving at Sagrado Corazón.

Iglesia Sagrado Corazón de Jesús became a parish in the Diocese of Nashville on July 7. With more than 5,000 families, it's the largest parish in the diocese.

A parish is a community of people who gather to worship in a church building, according to the Rev. John Hammond, vicar general of the diocese. More than just a place, a parish is operationally self-sustaining, consists of people coming together to create a faith community and is led by priests.

“(Becoming a parish) is a very big thing because all Hispanics see each other here every Sunday,” said Figueroa.

He said he feels at home at Sagrado Corazón — and so do many people from Spanish-speaking countries.

“It was becoming kind of important to provide the pastoral needs for the quickly growing Spanish-speaking community in Nashville,” Hammond said.

According to Figueroa, people from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Ecuador attend Mass at Sagrado Corazón every week.

From a ministry to the largest parish in Nashville

Originally a ministry to serve the Spanish-speaking community in the diocese, Sagrado Corazón started out as a group of priests who would go to different parishes and offer mass, celebrate sacraments and provide pastoral care in Spanish. They would go out to different parts of Middle Tennessee, like Columbia, Smyrna and Murfreesboro, and serve at parishes there.

Although the group was not focused on a particular parish, a community began to form at the ministry’s office.

“Sagrado Corazón had a space in Donelson where the office for the ministry was, and they would have mass there sometimes,” Hammond said.

Now located in East Nashville in what was previously Two Rivers Baptist Church, Sagrado Corazón continued to minister until parishes began to add bilingual clergy to their staffs.

“Sagrado Corazón had gotten to a point where their community is very stable here in the church, and it was time to say that it wasn’t a diocesan ministry anymore but a parish church with a stable community,” Hammond said.

The Rev. Alejandro Godinez, assistant pastor at Sagrado Corazón, said the diocese of Nashville has been supportive of the Hispanic ministry and helpful during the transition to a parish.

“The diocese has supported us a lot in terms of work here at Sagrado Corazón,” Godinez said. “The bishop has come here several times, and he is happy with the Hispanic community here.”

Adapting to the increase of Spanish speaking Catholics

Sagrado Corazón is the second fully Spanish speaking parish in Middle Tennessee. The first was Our Lady of Guadalupe, located in South Nashville.

Forty percent of the United States Catholic population in the South is Hispanic and Hispanic immigrants represent 21.8% of recent arrivals , according to the Pew Research Center.

The Diocese of Nashville has been adapting to the influx of Spanish-speaking Catholics through its seminary program. According to Hammond, seminarians are being taught Spanish so they can offer Mass in both languages at whatever parish they are placed at in the diocese.

Godinez says the next step for Sagrado Corazón is to wait on the diocese to assign more staffing for the parish to be able to serve the community in a larger capacity.

Iglesia Sagrado Corazón de Jesus has five Masses, one at 10 a.m. on Saturday and four on Sunday at 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Antonia Lopez is a summer intern at the Tennessean. She is a rising senior at Trevecca Nazarene University studying multimedia journalism.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Spanish-speaking church becomes Nashville's newest, largest Catholic parish