Integration

This chapter demonstrates how national parishes and their parochial schools were among the societal institutions that most effectively fostered the integration of European immigrants and their offspring. Attitudes of forced assimilation can lead to frustration and thwart newcomers' desire to integrate. Yet church congregations and organizations remain a refuge for many emigres and can help them and their children and grandchildren adapt to life in the United States. While across generations English language use and other influences of the U.S. milieu are inevitable, the relative success or failure of Latinos' incorporation into the U.S. Catholic Church enhances or inhibits that process. Within the Catholic fold itself, the progression from hospitality to homecoming remains a daunting challenge that many Hispanic ministry leaders concur has only begun to be addressed.

Leadership

This chapter argues that for many church officials, the fervent Hispanic Catholics in evangelization groups, apostolic movements, small faith communities, and youth ministries represent the organizational challenge of tapping into their leadership base and guiding it—or some would say controlling it—so that it remains faithful to a canonical vision of the Catholic Church's teachings and mission. Hispanic ministry leaders contend that a particularly urgent challenge is to form their grassroots counterparts in a broad ecclesial vision that transcends the bounds of their own movement or group and diminishes competition between fellow leaders. Another frequent concern is that many charismatic leaders are overly focused on the pursuit of affective religious experience and are ill equipped to deal with inevitable disappointments in their ministries and perceived defects in fellow church leaders, especially priests.

Transformation in America’s Largest Church

This concluding chapter considers how Latinos present a distinct agenda of core concerns within U.S. Catholicism. Many Euro-American Catholics have emphasized concerns such as liturgical reform, the role of the laity, dissent or obedience to sexual ethics and other church teaching, the proper exercise of authority, and the question of who is called to ordination. Conversely, Latinos have been more inclined to accentuate concerns such as funding for Hispanic ministry offices, youth initiatives, outreach efforts, and leadership training and formation programs. Although these efforts encompass attempts at reform in areas such as liturgy and participation in church leadership, they are primarily intended to equip the church to serve and accompany its Latino members in their faith and daily struggles.

Hispanic Ministry

This chapter discusses how the pastoral outreach among Latinos today in dioceses, parishes, and apostolic movements extends the efforts of those who promoted Hispanic ministry during the Encuentro era. According to current statistics, more than 80 percent of the 195 dioceses in the United States have diocesan staff assigned to coordinate Hispanic ministry, though with varying degrees of time commitment ranging from part-time coordinators to full-time directors. However, several diocesan directors have articulated to U.S. bishops their growing concerns related to the closing of diocesan offices for Hispanic ministry or their placement under multicultural ministry offices and their alarm that while the Hispanic presence continues to grow and demand a more robust ministerial response, diocesan personnel and/or resources for Hispanic ministry are diminishing in a number of archdioceses.