spanish pastoral institute

New Director at the Spanish Pastoral Institute

By Alfonso Aguilar
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 1/11/07)

After two weeks in her new post as director of the Spanish Pastoral Institute at the Spanish Apostolate Office, Marlene Orellana Zelaya said how she had longed for this job for a long time and when the position was offered to her the day before Thanksgiving she accepted it as “a gift from heaven.”
“I feel so happy,” said Orellana. “For so long it has been my wish to serve the Church full-time and this is the best of all possibilities that would allow me to fullfil my dream.”
“I know that it is a big challenge but I feel confident that I have the experience to do a good job. I am going to enjoy this job and I am giving it heart and soul.”
The new director of the institute replaces Mayra Saunders who accepted a teaching position at St. Mary School in Alexandria.
Originally from El Salvador, Orellana is married to Juan Pablo Zelaya who is also Salvadoran. Raised a Catholic, she has felt drawn to the Church since she was little. She studied religious education at Catholic University in San Salvador and taught at Santa Ines School in her homeland from 1973-1978.
Due to the civil war in El Salvador in the early ‘80s, she was forced to flee the country with an aunt. They lived in Mexico for six months, and then in 1982 she and her aunt arrived in Virginia.
“My mother was already living here and because of the location of our new home, I began to attend services at St. Rita Parish in Alexandria,” remembered Orellana.
Since then Orellana has been a member of this parish where she serves as a lector, Eucharistic minister and prayer group coordinator.
“I’ve always loved St. Rita, its parishioners and its atmosphere,” she said. Her husband is Eucharistic minister.
Orellana is also chairman of the Spanish Charismatic Renewal Movement, a group headed by Father Jose Hoyos, executive director of the Spanish Apostolate.
“Although I could be re-elected in the next coming election, I prefer not to so that I can devote myself completely to the institute,” said Orellana, whose challenge is “to bring the faith to our communities. It is very important that our people receive a good religious education. If we achieve that goal, they will not leave their faith to join other cults.”
Within her own family, she has seen the effects caused by dispersion to other denominations.
Orellana studied English at Northern Virginia Community College and worked for a decade as an assistant manager in a medical office.
Father Hoyos said the new director “is a great leader with great pastoral experience. She is a woman dedicated to her faith, very dynamic and full of big ideas. She is the ideal person for the task facing the institute in the coming years.”