September 2025

Message of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV

For the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Celebrating How Hispanic Heritage Shapes Our Nation

by Elizabeth Connell Wright



Every year, from September 15 to October 15, National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated across the United States in communities, schools, and churches like ours. This month gives us all the opportunity to recognize and celebrate how our nation and our own lives are enhanced by Hispanic achievements and culture.



Hispanic or Latino?

What we call people matters, and sometimes not knowing what is right or wrong can cause us to hesitate or avoid interaction for fear of using the wrong term. So, what is the difference between Hispanic and Latino? While it is not uncommon to see the two terms used interchangeably, it is important to know that the terms are understood differently to different people. The term “Hispanic” is indicated by language; it demonstrates a connection to one of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries in the world. “Latino” (and its variations) indicates geography — an origin or ancestry connected to anywhere in Latin America or the Caribbean. The two terms can often be interchangeable, but not always; for example, Brazil: Geographically it is “Latino,” but the official language of Brazil is Portuguese, making it not Hispanic.  

When do we celebrate?

September 15-October 15 might seem random, but it is not. September 15 marks the Independence Day celebrated by El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Mexican Independence Day is celebrated September 16; Chile celebrates on September 18, and Belize on September 21. On October 12, Día de la Raza is celebrated throughout Latin America, acknowledging the cultural fusion of Indigenous and European heritage. Our official celebration of Hispanic heritage began under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week. In 1987, Representative Esteban E. Torres of California originally introduced the bill to expand Hispanic Heritage Week to a month, stating that Hispanics “want the American people to learn of our heritage. We want the public to know that we share a legacy with the rest of the country, a legacy that includes artists, writers, Olympic champions, and leaders in business, government, cinema, and science.” Torres' bill died in committee, but Senator Paul Simon quickly introduced a similar bill in the Senate, which passed and was signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 17, 1988, officially enacting National Hispanic Heritage Month.  

Why we celebrate?

The move to expand from a week to a month was largely due to the sheer depth of Hispanic contributions to our country — impossible to be contained in just a weeklong celebration. Hispanics and Latinos are, historically and presently, a significant thread holding together the fabric of America. Every day, our lives are touched by the influence and innovation of Hispanic culture in America.

There are 65 million Hispanics and Latinos in the United States today, representing almost 20 percent of the U.S. population. This constitutes an integral contribution to our economy, democracy, and cultural depth. Here are just a few noteworthy and interesting Hispanics who have shaped the landscape of America with their work:

• Luis von Ahn, originally from Guatemala: He probably isn’t the first famous Hispanic that comes to mind, but he developed something you likely use. If you have ever been challenged to select “only the traffic lights” or “only the objects with wheels” (or any other random iteration), you have used von Ahn’s invention: CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). Von Ahn created the cyber security technology as a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University in 2000 and gave the technology to Yahoo for free as the company was having issues with automated spammers. He is also cofounder of Duolingo, the popular language-learning app.

• Lin-Manuel Miranda, Grammy, Emmy, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winner has been groundbreaking in his writing and performance. With the Broadway smash, “Hamilton,” he made American history accessible in a new and exciting format. With “Into the Heights,” he celebrated the cultural identity of a Dominican American neighborhood, while highlighting their economic and immigration challenges. There are countless other Hispanic actors, musicians, and comedians, who have also contributed to our entertainment industry including Pedro Pascal, Salma Hayek, Selena Gomez, Javier Bardem, George Lopez, Andy Garcia, and Rita Moreno, the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar in 1962.

• Matt de la Peña became the first Latino author to receive the Newbery Medal Award in 2016 for his vibrant and thought-provoking children’s book, “Last Stop on Market Street.” That same year, “Echo,” by Pam Muñoz Ryan was recognized with a Newbery Medal Honor.

• Today, there are 56 Hispanic members of the 119th United States Congress. It all began with Romualdo Pacheco of California who was elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 45th U.S. Congress (1877-1879). In 1989, the first Hispanic woman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, was elected. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first and only Hispanic American ever appointed to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

• Since even before we were officially a nation, activists have been an important part of who we are. Two significant Hispanic activists, Cesar Chávez and Roberto Clemente, were empowered by their devout Catholic faith to fight for justice and the dignity of others.

Cesar Chávez was born into a family of farm workers in Arizona in 1927. Growing up in California, he was keenly aware of the injustices and poor working conditions of migrant farm workers. In the 1960s, he and fellow labor activist Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers movement to fight for improved working conditions and better pay. After organizing a strike among grape workers and launching a nationwide boycott, they helped secure the first union contracts for farm laborers. United Farm Workers continues to work on securing rights for America’s migrant agricultural laborers, who work in adverse conditions for minimal pay.

You may think of Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente as one of the first great Latino baseball players … which he was, but he was also a strong advocate for equality and generously contributed to society despite the racism, injustice, and mocking he experienced in the spotlight of American baseball. Clemente ultimately died on New Year's Eve 1972 when a plane he had chartered to take food, medicine, and other essentials to earthquake victims in Nicaragua crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico. In 1973, Roberto Clemente was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Each year on September 15, Major League Baseball celebrates Roberto Clemente Day.

• Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic American astronaut to go to space in 1993. Sixteen years later, José Hernández became the first Hispanic American man to launch into space. Born into a family of migrant farmers in California, José didn’t speak English until age 12, but he overcame and went on to earn a M.S. in electrical engineering. In his subsequent work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he and a commercial colleague developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system, a key medical innovation in the early detection of breast cancer. He then applied to NASA’s space program and was turned down for entry eleven times. In 2009, his persistence paid off, and he launched into space as a crew member on the 13-day STS-128 mission. In 2023, an inspiring family movie, “A Million Miles Away,” was released about his ambitious journey from migrant farmer to NASA astronaut. Great movie to watch this month!

American History: “We Did Not Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us.”

The cultural vastness of the U.S. has not just expanded from immigration, but also from geographic expansion. It is important to historically understand that many Mexican Americans did not choose to come to the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed to end the Mexican-American war in 1848 required Mexico to cede over half its territory, including what is present-day Texas, “California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.” (National Archives) The border crossed them and suddenly, they found themselves in the U.S. whether they wanted to be or not.

In 1898, with the end of the Spanish-American war and the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States, incorporating Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory. We celebrate their presence and contributions, but it is imperative to understand the complicated history of U.S. expansion and the impact on people whose culture shifted without their choice.

To read more, visit here.

What we eat

If you have ever enjoyed Taco Tuesday, do I need to say more? Okay, it is true, we enjoy tacos, but there are a number of traditional foods from Hispanic countries that are infused into our food culture: empanadas, paella, ceviche, burritos, flan, churros, tamales, Mexican street corn, and an SJN-favorite, pupusas, to name just a few! If your mouth is watering, too, check out these great recipes to immerse your family in the rich flavors celebrated by different Hispanic cultures. Cooking not your thing? Instead, mark your calendar for October 12 at 3 p.m., and join us for SJN's annual Hispanic Heritage Festival where you will be able to taste a variety of traditional Hispanic dishes!

Our communities together

The reason we regularly encounter Hispanic cultural influence is because Hispanic heritage is part of our community. Here in Northern Virginia, we are fortunate to be part of a community formed by diverse cultures. We work and live among people of Hispanic descent, and our children attend schools where teachers and students alike come from Hispanic backgrounds. Here at SJN, a vibrant part of our community is Hispanic. Our Mass is universal, which means you can follow along in any language – it was done for years with the Latin Mass! Hispanic Heritage Month is the perfect time to celebrate with our 2 p.m. Spanish Mass. Consider joining us on September 28; following the 2 p.m. Mass, we will have prayer and praise at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Garden.

Day of the Dead

Like many Christian holidays, Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead has indigenous, pagan roots that evolved into religious observations. Celebrated on November 1 and 2 (in conjunction with the Catholic celebrations of All Saints and All Souls Days), Day of the Dead, widely observed in Mexico, is a holiday designated to remember family and community members who have gone before us with photographs on altars, candles, food, images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and caretaking of gravesites. On Friday, September 26 at 6 p.m., SJN will be showing “The Book of Life,” the 2014 animated film, which tells the heartwarming story of a bullfighter who embarks on an afterlife adventure on the Day of the Dead.

Hispanic Catholics

Finally, Hispanic Catholics are a distinctive part of American Catholic religious and spiritual life. As of 2025, 36% of Catholic adults in the United States are Hispanic, and this number is growing. Our Catholic faith is both shaped and enriched by the spirituality of our Hispanic members. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study, Catholic identity is important to Hispanic members of the Church and because of this they report practicing Catholic devotions at a higher consistency. Nevertheless, at SJN, we don’t need studies to verify what we know: Hispanic Catholics are an essential part of the SJN community. We worship with them, celebrate with them, and embrace the beauty of devotions such as Our Lady of Guadalupe in following their example.

On the year anniversary of the passing of the law for National Hispanic Heritage Month, Representative Dale Kildee noted in remarks on the House Floor that, “We not only recognize Hispanic American contributions to U.S. culture, [but] we are also commemorating the growth of our nation’s culture, vastly broadened and enriched by its Hispanic citizens.” This month, I encourage you to recognize the ways your life has been touched by Hispanic culture and achievements. Embrace not just the food, music, innovations, and art of Hispanic culture, but welcome the diversity of others into your life personally – whether it is a neighbor, co-worker, or fellow parishioner, celebrate Hispanic heritage alongside them this month.

For more information and events visit the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino. (The dedicated building of the National Museum of the American Latino is not yet a reality, but you can find many resources on the website.) 

Preserving Abundance:

Our Parish’s Response to a Bountiful Harvest

by Janet Broderick

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. In Scripture, the Lord specifically instructs the gleanings from the harvest to be left for the poor and the sojourner (Leviticus 19:9-10). Here at SJN, each Wednesday at the Farmer's Market, vendors glean their own harvest and set aside produce that is still edible, but unlikely to be sold, to share with those in need. Recently, the gleaning efforts produced an unexpected bounty of 200 pounds of very ripe peaches! With a little ingenuity and many hands, a group of SJN parishioners made quick work of the sweet fruit.

We received eight boxes of ripe peaches – still tasty but no longer available for full purchase price. This corresponds to four bushels, or about 200 pounds, in boxes soaked by a downpour earlier in the day. The peaches were immediately placed in the parish’s walk-in fridge. Many other boxes full of peppers, plums, eggplants, and squash were delivered to the South Lakes High School Food Pantry¹ where they were distributed to over 200 families. Within 24 hours, fresh produce was on the supper menu for our local neighbors in need.

But back to the peaches. The sheer amount and condition gave us pause on how likely they could all be distributed to families. SJN parishioner and volunteer Maria Robles had the inspiration to blanch, cool, peel, slice, bag and freeze the peaches. All of them! Well, most of them. About 20% were diverted to compost due to heavy bruising. We developed a method with some trial and error and gained a sense of what would be involved to prepare all the peaches into usable condition in the freezer — then we called for help. Providential timing of Mass for the feast of the Assumption allowed an appeal to be made, and volunteers showed up making a dent in the supply. Three more days and three more calls for volunteers with a tried-and-tested routine and a slowly decreasing supply of peaches resulted in eight empty boxes. Turns out peeling and slicing is a fun social activity!

The bottom line: 200 pounds of peaches were processed into 34 gallon-sized bags of sliced peaches, each 4.75 pounds, yielding a total 161.5 pounds of frozen sliced peaches. Each bag has about 10 servings, so that’s 340 servings available. On the labor side 12 volunteers gave a combined total of 54 hours of service, the lion’s share provided by Maria.

Now, we can breathe and come up with a plan for using them. Ideally, they will be used in SJN's Shelter Meal programs² and continue to provide nourishment for our neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity.

Who knew that a mountain of peaches could become a ministry of joy, service, and sweet possibility? It's a marvel to see this parish in action!

¹South Lakes Pantry: On Thursday morning another SJN volunteer brings the gleaned food from the walk-in refrigerator at SJN to the South Lakes High School (SLHS) Pantry. At SLHS, a PTO-sponsored committee of volunteers adds the fresh produce to the other canned and boxed items donated by the community. Later that same day, local families drive thru the pantry line and receive bags of food. By Thursday evening, the fresh produce is incorporated into the meals of approximately 200 families.

²Shelter Meals: Under the SJN umbrella program of Loaves and Fishes are a number of separate meal ministries supported by parishioners at SJN. The programs have brought nourishment and compassion to thousands. 

How to Volunteer: See the Loaves and Fishes link above to learn more. Contacts for each ministry are listed. Feel free to reach out to them to be put on their distribution list so you can help whenever your schedule allows.

Spiritual Reflection from the USCCB

September 28: World Day of Migrants and Refugees



The issue of migration has been a long-standing concern for the Catholic Church leadership and its lay faithful. In the United States, Catholics have long understood themselves as part of an immigrant Church, with waves of Catholic migrants entering the United States throughout its history from all over Europe, Africa, Central America, and Asia. Through this period the Catholic Church has responded proactively to the spiritual and material needs of migrants living in our communities, through the provision of pastoral care, social service programs, education, and other forms of support.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States, in their pastoral letter "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity" (2000), invited us to enter the mystery of the Mystical Body of Christ. As St. Paul teaches in his first letter to the Corinthians, the mystery affirms that we as Catholics are made part of that Body through our Baptism. By learning to celebrate our individual differences while embracing our union with others, we grow not only in our understanding of Jesus, but in the knowledge of our own true selves.

Such knowledge flies in the face of a culture that promotes fear and “othering” of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. In "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us," the Bishops challenge us to embrace our sisters and brothers through four calls: conversion, communion, solidarity, and evangelization.

In their call for conversion, the Bishops affirm that we must “confess that today, as in the past, the treatment of the immigrant too often reflects failures of understanding and sinful patterns of chauvinism, prejudice, and discrimination that deny the unity of the human family, of which the one baptism is our enduring sign.” In our increasingly polarized society, meaningful and intentional encounters across diverse communities is an effective way to counter these “failures of understanding.”

In his 2024 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message, the Holy Father noted that “the encounter with the migrant, as with every brother and sister in need, ‘is also an encounter with Christ.’” We would be remiss to overlook the transformative power that encounter plays when shaping the perceptions of Catholics and their engagement with migrants. When we see the faces of migrants, hear their stories, and engage them directly, there is an opportunity for conversion.

We should all take more time to listen. 

Excerpt from Pilgrims on the Way of Hope: A Resource for the Jubilee of Migrants (October 4-5, 2025)



The Pope's Intention for

Prayer and Action for September

 For our relationship with all creation Let us pray that, inspired by Saint Francis, we might experience our interdependence with all creatures who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect.

Current Mass Times

Saturday: 5 p.m.

Sunday: 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m. (Spanish), 5 p.m.

Monday-Friday: 9 a.m.

Wednesday & Friday: 12:10 p.m. (beginning September 10)

Watch a livestreamed or recorded Mass

Confession

Saturday: 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m. (English)

Sunday: 3 p.m.- 4 p.m. (Spanish)