Observations from a Mexican bandit:The Hispanic community in America, which was below two million in 1940, has increased tremendously in the last few decades. Today it includes over 50 millions souls and represents 16% of the 308 million Americans. Two thirds of Hispanics are Catholic, and 15% Evangelical.
N.O. stats say that 25% of Catholics go to mass, but I remember reading that survey asked the question: "Do you go to mass at least once a month" (If anyone wants to correct me on that, I'm open to correction. ), which is not really going to mass. In Austria, a Catholic country, it's 5%, France,Spain & Germany same numbers more or less. AND we are talking about the Novus Ordo world where practically nothing is taught to the parishioners, they are pretty much ignorant of the faith. Needless to say, there are few Latinos that know the faith.
They do however have the faith in their veins, as it is part of their culture, but, they don't know it. That sounds like a strange remark, but I bring it up to point out a the fact that they are easy to convince of the faith compared to American Catholics, a country that has an anti-Catholic culture. That Catholicism is in their veins is a good trait that they posses.
The first Hispanic bishop was consecrated in 1970.
Wow! I find that hard to believe, since "Hispanics" were all over the Southwest, long before it was part of America.
Personally, I don't like the term Hispanic. I'm a Cuban of Spanish blood, call me a Spaniard who was born in Cuba, call me a Latino, or a Latin American, but this "Hispanic" term I don't care for.
By now most United States dioceses have set up well-established Hispanic parishes where the faithful and children are taught the Faith and can grow with little need of adaptation. This continues the Catholic battle which all immigrants faced from the 19th century regarding the use of their own language and traditions in their Catholic schools. (I am thinking specifically of the Germans in the Midwest.) The children are growing up perfectly bilingual and they serve as mediators to less adaptable parents.
Unfortunately what they are teaching them in the "well-established Hispanic parishes" is not Catholicism. They are even being taught to be like the Protestants, all separated from each other according to whatever each one wants.
Even within Latinos they are separated. In Miami, the Cubans have their own mass, and the Mexicans their own, and the Nicaraguans their own. That's not Catholic!
Without a doubt, Latin American culture has a lot to offer to the United States Catholic Church. Just think of the great mystics like St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.
They were Spaniards, not Latin Americans.
Think too of the wonderful cultural development, evangelization, and education brought about by the Spanish settlers under the Catholics Ferdinand and Isabella. They are the heirs of the highest cultural achievement which was brought about from the connection of the Old and New World. Who can boast of establishing two flourishing universities in the New World 150 years before Harvard? Who can boast of having an Indian Viceroy of Mexico just a few generations after the Spanish conquest of Cortes?
Most southern States of the USA were at one time the property of the Spanish crown.
They were Spaniards, not Latinos.
Are we witnessing the revenge of the Hispanics who were kicked out of their own territory by a fiercely Masonic government?
Yes, if they were Catholics like the Spanish were when they accomplished everything mentioned above. The problem is that these Latinos are only and barely culturally Catholic.
Yet, one may fear that the Spanish influence may be less Catholic than numbers tell. Like the waves of immigrations of the last century, the incoming Hispanics are mostly underprivileged families seeking asylum in a country which promises a rosy future for them.
Not "may be less Catholic than numbers tell", they are in fact barely Catholic at all.
They have little education and little ambition. It will take generations to turn them into the powerhouse of Catholic America in leadership.
Strange remark, but, I think he means that they have little ambition for the faith. No one can say that Mexicans (like 95% of these so-called by Americans, "Hispanics" are Mexicans) are not ambitious for monetary success, for they are very hard workers, and considering their lack of education, their achievements in "business" are extraordinary.
More to the point, there is here a large reserve of vital forces into which the present hierarchy must tap, under pain of letting the easy, happy-clappy Church leaders swing them to their side.
"must tap under pain of letting the easy, happy-clappy Church leaders swing them to their side"? What odd reasons to evangelize.
It seems inevitable that our Society of St. Pius X needs to direct much of its efforts along the same lines and promote study in Spanish at the seminary. And—this is not negligible—our college students will fare better in job interviews if they can present some bilingual capacity in their resume.
Being as Spanish speaking Catholics represent the largest group of Catholics in the world, Spanish is being taught already in Spanish seminaries. The SSPX can send their seminarians to Argentina to learn Spanish. From my personal observations, Spanish is easy to learn for Italians, French and Germans, but immersion in the language is the best way to learn it.
Topic: USA Hispanics from the SSPX (Read 15428 times)