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Wanda Vasquez, who has served in the archdiocese’s Communications Office for 12 years, has been named director of the newly renamed Office of Hispanic Ministry of the archdiocese.
Cardinal Dolan made the appointment, which became effective Sept. 11.
The Office of Hispanic Ministry was formerly known as the Office of Hispanic Affairs. The new name is designed to better reflect the office’s mission of service to the Hispanic Catholics community in the archdiocese, Mrs. Vasquez said.
Bishop Josu Iriondo, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua parish in the Bronx and vicar of the South Bronx, is vicar for Hispanic Ministry.
In the Communications Office, Mrs. Vasquez was assistant director for Hispanic communications and then served as the office’s assistant director for the past five years. She has served as secretary to the archdiocese’s Priests Council for a year.
She earlier had served for 13 years with the Episcopal Church Center in Manhattan, where she held a communications position in the office of the presiding bishop. She also performed office manager functions.
Mrs. Vasquez said she believes that her quarter-century of service as a church communicator and her familiarity with the people and parishes of the archdiocese will be valuable assets in her new post.
“I’ve been trained to communicate professionally and efficiently,” she said. She said her experience gives her “an idea of where to start and how to begin the actual ministry.”
She noted that her communications training and background will be helpful in dealing with sensitive issues, and that she would be able to provide a listening ear as well as to marshal resources.
“Hispanics have a desire to be heard,” she said.
A good deal of that listening will take place in the upper counties of the archdiocese where Mrs. Vasquez intends to spend some of her time working with Auxiliary Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro, episcopal vicar for the upper counties, to better serve the growing Hispanic Catholic population there.
Increasing the outreach of her office to Hispanic Catholics in the upper counties will require their integration with parishes there, she said.
“One of my main jobs will be to make sure each pastor and his parishioners know of the services we offer,” she said.
Helping her to do that will be Father Lorenzo Ato, with whom she worked in the Communications Office, who will move to the Office of Hispanic Ministry to focus on pastoral ministries and Hispanic communications. He is pastor of St. Brigid-St. Emeric parish in Manhattan.
Mrs. Vasquez, who is married, resides in Manhattan and Port Jervis. She is a graduate of St. Leo’s University in Tampa, Fla., where she earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. She holds a master’s in justice administration and a law degree from New York University. She hopes to take the bar exam next year.
Mrs. Vasquez, who is of Puerto Rican and Guyanese descent, said the Church and the family were the twin hallmarks of her experience, and the same holds true for many Hispanic Catholics.
“That was always a component of our upbringing,” she said. “Hispanics, even today, cannot leave the Church behind. There is an integration there.”
