April 9, 2025 // Diocese

Corazón Puro Leads Missionary Formation Conference

Eric Peat

In a world thirsting for authentic love, only those who are luchando por un corazón puro – “fighting for a pure heart” – will find it.

This theme is being lived out in a new ministry in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend bearing the same name. Luchando por un Corazón Puro was launched earlier this year and is in the process of becoming an affiliate of Corazón Puro, an international organization dedicated to “awakening and accompanying leaders in areas of great need, beginning with Hispanic youth and young adults.” It was founded in 2008 in the Bronx, New York, under the direction of Father Agustino Torres of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

As part of the affiliation process, Luchando por un
Corazón Puro hosted a Missionary Formation Conference at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Wayne the weekend of April 4-6. Approximately 70 Hispanic young adults from across the diocese – even some from the dioceses of Lafayette and Grand Rapids – attended the conference. While Corazón Puro’s New York team provided the content and speakers for the weekend, the event was run by a diocesan core team, including Directory of Hispanic Ministry Esther Terry and Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Jocelyn Rouch. As Rouch told Today’s Catholic, the Missionary Formation Conference is a condensed version of Corazón Puro’s Missionary Formation Week in New York, which forms individuals to be missionaries both in other Latin American countries and in their own dioceses.

“When they brought this to our diocese, it was very intentionally for the young people to go on mission in their own parish,” said Rouch, “to become a not just a leader but a missionary in their own parish, equipping them to do so, and giving them the tools to serve.”

However, bringing Missionary Formation Week on the road from the Bronx to the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend was no easy task, as conference co-captain Vanessa Vazquez explained.

“This has been in the hearts of everyone for quite some time,” admitted Vazquez, who said the dream began a few
years ago when Terry identified potential leaders in the Hispanic community and arranged virtual formation from Corazón Puro during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vazquez was one of three individuals who had the opportunity to go to New York and live the Missionary Formation Week.

“We fell in love with Theology of the Body, and it formed us,” Terry said. “Personally, it allowed me to receive the confidence I needed; I just needed that push to go on and serve.”

That planted a seed, Vazquez said, and after more young adults travelled to New York for formation, the diocese was able to host Corazón Puro’s first and second stage retreats during the past two years. As the local core team received accompaniment from Corazón Puro to begin monthly meetings, the organization began to identify Fort Wayne-South Bend as a potential affiliate, ultimately leading to a Missionary Formation Conference.

The weekend revolved around a series of six keynote talks delivered by different speakers that touched on a variety of mission-related topics: Working with the Poor; How to Write a Talk; Evangelization – Real Formation; Chastity, Self-Mastery, and Interior Freedom; Being Healed Enough to Serve; and Communication Between Men and Women. After each keynote, participants would move to one of three workshops, which would provide additional leadership instructions to foster self-growth.

Father Torres, himself a dynamic and nationally renowned speaker, gave the keynote on how to prepare a compelling talk. He was direct in addressing the conference attendees as to the importance of developing this skill.

“You’re going to need it,” Father Torres said. “Why? Because Jesus asked us already! Are you baptized? Then you have been given this mandate to go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.”

Father Torres told those present that they were there because someone, at some point in their lives, had preached to them and brought the message of God to them. This responsibility is now theirs, and the opportunities are plenty. As Father Torres said, catechists give talks every week, teachers give talks every day, and parents give talks “every single second!”

However, some opportunities require boldness of speech, Father Torres said.

“When was the last time you invited somebody to church?” Father Torres asked before pausing for inflection. “When was the last time you invited somebody to become Catholic?” He then challenged everyone in the room to do so before Easter.

To those lacking in confidence, Father Torres reminded them that the prophets, too, doubted their callings, but “God calls people like us” nonetheless. “Who’s to say that one of the future speakers at a national Catholic gathering is not here seated amongst you all?” He then shared a humorous quip about his own unexpected calling to the priesthood: “Sometimes I think that the Holy Spirit went up to God the Father and was having a joke, and was like, ‘Hey, God the Father, you see that little Mexican down there? I’m going to give him a vocation to be a priest!’ And God the Father was like, ‘Pshhh – it’s so crazy, it just might work.’”

Finally, Father Torres offered practical tips on giving talks: distinguish between teaching versus preaching and recognize the proper context of each, have a solid template, cultivate “the art of storytelling,” and ask for the Holy Spirit. “If you are the best speaker on the face of the earth but you don’t have the Holy Spirit, nothing’s going to happen.”

The conference was also saturated with the sacraments, as Mass was celebrated each morning and Eucharistic adoration was held each night. Attendees were able to pray the Liturgy of the Hours together, gather in small groups for discussion, and participate in a Q&A session at the end of the weekend.

Core team member Natalia Gamez said she was excited to see the conference become a reality.

“I think it just shows that the Lord wants this,” said Gamez, emphasizing that nearly two
decades have passed since the organization’s inception. “For it to still be going on – and not just here, but in other places of the world – it just shows that the Holy Spirit is there.”

As Luchando por un Corazón Puro continues to grow in the diocese, Vazquez could hardly contain her joy that the missionary effort has made its way to the Hispanic community in the Midwest.

“There’s a lot of ministries around the U.S., but it’s so beautiful to be able to see the leadership of the Latino Church receive the formation, and also preparing them to go out into the world and give,” said Vazquez with a smile. “It gives me goosebumps!”