The Sept. 29 installation ceremony of Father Jorge Hernandez, OFM, as pastor of St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, reflected the energy and diversity of the Franciscan parish, located just outside the District of Columbia border.
The presiding prelate was Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, a native of El Salvador who serves the Archdiocese of Washington. The music included hymns reflective of the varied ministries of the parish; Spanish, for the large number of Central Americans; French, a language shared by West Africans and Haitians, and Bengali, representing the language spoken by those from Bangladesh and varied regions in India. The parish offers regular Mass in all three languages as well as English. The ceremony featured the ethnic groups ministered to the parish in their native garb and a liturgical dance presented by the Bengali community.
St. Camillus attracts a wide collection of worshipers from across the metropolitan D.C. region. In Pope Francis’ terminology, the parish is famous for a Franciscan-style outreach to those on the peripheries.
Nurturing parish unity amid diversity is a goal for Fr. Jorge.
“We want to create the feeling that we don’t have single communities but we are one parish,” he said during an interview a week before his formal installation.
Exposing all parishioners to the music of the different cultures in the parish is one way to foster unity, said the pastor, who comes to Maryland with a long service in multicultural parishes on the West Coast. “Everyone loves singing,” he said, noting it provides a vehicle for all to come together in literal harmony.
St. Camillus is more than diversity. It is also known for its vibrant social ministries.
It sponsors a food pantry, varied youth groups, and a social justice ministry that works to provide a voice for the immigrant community with local officials.
The parish has a long-time outreach to Langley Park, a development with a large Guatemalan community, where it is involved in a medical clinic as well as assisting immigrants with legal referrals and translating documents. The parish also features a prison ministry, in which parishioners lead retreats for incarcerated people. It has long been associated with the friars.
Fr. Jorge’s life and ministry reflects the ethnic diversity of his new parish.
He is a native of Guanajuato, México. In 1989 Fr. Jorge joined the Franciscans as a novice in Santa Barbara, California, making simple vows a year later. He ministered in Guatemala, in Antigua and Guatemala City, in a ministry focused on young adults. He graduated with a master’s degree from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, California, in 1998. He then made Solemn Vows and was ordained a priest in 1998 in San Francisco.
There he ministered at St. Boniface Parish until a transfer in 2000 to San Diego, where he ministered at Mission San Luis Rey, a large multicultural parish and home for the Filipino, Samoan, Hispanic and Caucasian communities.
In 2005 he was named pastor of St. Boniface Parish in San Francisco, serving there for five years. He then attended at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with a masters in liturgical studies in 2010. He then served at Ascension Parish in Portland, Oregon, from 2010 to 2012, then was appointed pastor of St. John the Baptist in Milwaukie, Oregon, for seven years, a church located just outside Portland. In 2019 he became pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in North Bend, Oregon. He came to St. Camillius this summer.