Ministry director hopes to lead Hispanic community to new Pentecost

When Allan Caballero received a call offering him the diocesan position, director of the Office of Hispanic Evangelization and Pastoral Ministry, he was with his family at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal.
“I was so excited and grateful to begin a new journey and to use my experience and education to advance the mission of our local Church,” he said.
“We are very excited to have Allan join our team,” said Jennifer Ruggiero, who heads the diocese’s Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life. “He comes to us with diocesan administrative and leadership experience as well as a passion for ministry and missionary work. He is eager to work with our growing Hispanic community to help integrate them into the life of the diocese, our parishes, schools and the various other ministries, while fostering a culture of discipleship and unity.
Born and raised in Ecuador, Caballero did not become a Catholic until he was 16. “My family’s faith was based solely on our culture, not a personal relationship with the Lord,” he said. His life, however, changed when he attended a Catholic Youth and Young Adult retreat. “My new faith led me to begin serving the Hispanic community, which I now do even more. It also motivated me to take courses in apologetics, Mariology, morality and theology.”
When he was 17, Caballero moved with his mother and sister to Perth Amboy, where his grandmother had been living for 50 years. After graduating from Perth Amboy High School, he enrolled in Rutgers Business School, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in management and leadership.
It was while he was at Rutgers that Caballero met the director of evangelization for the Archdiocese of Newark at a prayer group. He started to attend archdiocesan initiatives. “I was so impressed by what I learned about working for the Church that while my peers where looking for internships at Fortune 500 companies, I was looking for job opportunities serving my local Church,” he said.
Not finding a suitable position in the Church, upon graduating from Rutgers, Caballero began working as an account manager for an investment and real estate firm in the Greater New York City area. He did, however, continue to volunteer in the archdiocese on various projects and activities with the Hispanic community, helped plan special events including conferences and seminars and assisted many parishes with faith formation programs and spiritual retreats.  
Two years later, in 2017, the young professional learned about and applied for a position at the Archdiocese of Newark to lead Stewardship initiatives in 64 Latino/Hispanic parishes. “The job was perfect,” Caballero said. It required a combination of business skills and a commitment to advance the mission of the Church while serving multi-ethnic communities.  
During his first year in the archdiocese, Caballero led the “Grateful Disciples Stewardship Initiative” in more than 30 multi-ethnic parishes adding 2,000 new donors, and increasing the amount raised for the Annual Appeal by 12 percent. The following year, 2018, he was promoted to associate director of Stewardship and the Annual Appeal. Working with the archdiocese’s 212 parishes, he coordinated marketing and operations for annual giving initiatives, helping to raise more than $7 million to support ministries and programs.
Although successful in his archdiocesan position, Caballero decided earlier this year to apply for the Diocese of Metuchen’s position, director of the Office of Hispanic Evangelization and Pastoral Ministry.
“This diocese is very special to me,” Caballero stated, “It has been my home since the day I moved to New Jersey in 2011. My family and I worship at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Piscataway where I now live with my wife, Veronica, and one-year-old daughter, with a second baby due in September.” Noting that his wife is a pro-life speaker, he said their daughter is named Gianna, after the first working mom to be canonized a saint.
Well qualified for his new position, Caballero is continuing his education to become an even better director. He is pursuing a master’s degree in Catholic Leadership from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio), and a graduate certificate for Ministry to Latino Catholics at St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish. Both programs are online and designed for people working in pastoral ministry and evangelization.
As the director of the diocese’s growing Hispanic community, Caballero said, “I plan to meet with the pastors and lay leaders in our 24 Hispanic parishes to learn about their expectations of my office when it comes to Hispanic evangelization.” He added that with this information, “in an academic and technical form, my office will create educational opportunities to instruct those who are to work with the Hispanic community in the different parish ministries.”
Caballero said that in his role as the Hispanics’ evangelization director, he will also be working with recent immigrants and serve as the liaison between Bishop James F. Checchio and the community. “My vision is to address the particular needs and challenges faced by those who have recently arrived in our country,” he stated.
Noting that in December the bishop will dedicate the diocese to Jesus through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Caballero said through the intercession he hopes his office “can help bring about a new Pentecost so that people of various races, cultures and languages can live in unity and solidarity as one Church, the Body of Christ.” For himself he said, “I want to allow God’s love and power to burn more brightly in my life and apostolate, so by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we all can ‘set a fire in the hearts of our world.’”

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