Has anyone reacted negatively in the U.S. Catholic Church to the Hispanic influence and impact?
There’s negative, and there’s negative. We’re too Christian to show our bias openly, and so we do it, you know, in hidden ways or in subtle ways. I would hope that people who go to mass, you know, on a regular basis, who consider themselves good Christians wouldn’t openly reject anybody coming through the doors of the church. So I don’t think there is much of an open rejection of the Hispanics in the church. And yet at the same time I have heard — men and women who are in positions of power in different dioceses around the United States talk about well, you know, when we raise the question of, you know, should young men and young women training for church ministry be learning Spanish, for example. I’ve gotten the response from different people that will say the next generation isn’t going to speak Spanish, so why should I bother learning it? That’s a subtle form of rejection. The choosing, for example, of foreign-born Latinos for positions of power in the church, be it bishops or be it
