Judy Valente reports on the Church's effort to minister to Hispanics, and the kinds of worship experience Hispanics want.
JUDY VALENTE: Good Friday services at Holy Name Cathedral, near downtown Chicago. Prayers are said at each of the Stations of the Cross, which depict the agony of Jesus on the day of his crucifixion. A few miles away, Latinos observe Good Friday in a much more dramatic fashion. An actor portraying Jesus carries the cross through the streets, followed by thousands of residents -- men, women, and children.
Father ESEQUIEL SANCHEZ (Director, Office for Hispanic Catholics, Chicago): The Hispanic community has taken the Catholic tradition of the Way of the Cross and made it public.VALENTE: Father Esequiel Sanchez is director of the Office for Hispanic Catholics in Chicago.
Fr. SANCHEZ: When the community sees the reenactment of Christ going through his passion, they're also helped to remember that there is violence on our streets, there is pain, there is suffering, there is hurting, there is betrayal. There is judgment, there is innocence lost here on the streets of the community.
VALENTE: Like immigrant groups before them, Hispanic Catholics bring a youthfulness and sense of vibrancy to the Church. They come with their own culture, symbolism, and centuries-old religious traditions.
That includes rituals and ceremonies -- some unfamiliar and some even alien to Anglos. For example, each November, Hispanics stage colorful demonstrations on the Day of the Dead -- a feast day that is generally ignored by Anglos.
And just before Christmas, the Posada -- Spanish for "a place to stay" -- reenacts the struggle by Mary and Joseph to find shelter. That, for Hispanics, is a reminder of human poverty. These rituals manifest a different expression of Catholicism.Fr. SANCHEZ: It's the fusion of the two cultures: Christianity from Europe but with deep sentiment, faith, passion, and grandeur of it -- of the Aztecs, of the Inca, of the Maya transforming Catholicism in America. That's what makes Catholicism in America so unique and dynamic.
BRYAN FROEHLE (Executive Director, National Catholic Research Center, Georgetown University): The future of the Catholic Church, in many ways, is tied to the future of the Hispanic-Latino population of the United States.
VALENTE: Bryan Froehle is executive director of the National Catholic Research Center at Georgetown University.
Mr. FROEHLE: The Hispanic-Latino presence in the United States in many ways brings the Catholic Church to its roots -- to its roots as a communal faith, focused on the family, focused on symbol and spirit, focused on affirming culture; brings [it] back to its roots as well in terms of the poverty, the struggle, and the sheer gritty reality of what it means to be Catholic, what it means to be a person and a community in a world that is sometimes hostile.VALENTE: And they arrive in America with some distinct problems.
Fr. SANCHEZ: Number one, they're not coming with their native clergy, as the Irish, the Germans, the Poles, and other folks have done.
VALENTE: That's because the shortage of priests in Latin America is even more acute than it is here. And when Hispanics get here, they find only one Spanish-speaking priest for every 10,000 Latinos. And ...
Fr. SANCHEZ: They occupy churches that don't reflect them or their history. This is Holy Trinity Croatian Church, for heaven's sakes, and it's filled with Hispanics.
VALENTE: Hispanic immigrants are young, they are having children, and -- according to sociologists -- they are more likely to go to church here than they were in their native lands.
Mr. FROEHLE: A person seeks refuge among a culture that's understanding, that has a certain degree of connection, among a community of people who can be supportive and who can give trust and safety.
VALENTE: Armida Arellano attends mass with her twin daughters. She came to Chicago from Mexico more than 20 years ago, but still struggles with English.
ARMIDA ARELLANO (Parishioner, St. Agnes Catholic Church, Chicago): When you find somebody who can speak your own language you feel comfortable.VALENTE: Her daughters are Americanized, but ...
DIANA ARELLANO: Going to Spanish Mass is more, like, enthusiastic, and a lot more people go. And we actually sing, but, like, in English Mass it's more quiet and calm.
Father JOSEPH TITO: (Pastor, Lady of Mercy Catholic Church): It takes time. It's tedious. Some people, whether they speak English or Spanish or Tagalog, will react against it negatively because it takes work and it isn't as flowing as you would pray in your own language. They say, "Just let me pray."
ANABELLA MORA (Guatemalan Immigrant): When people go in front and kneel the facilitators pray for them. If one really concentrates and believes it's Jesus through that person praying for you or touching you, there's a special feeling inside you.
Fr. SANCHEZ: Hispanics don't assimilate. They just don't. They wind up -- you can't assimilate with that kind of history behind you. We're not assimilating into a 200-year-old history, we're trying to bring a 500-year history to a new context. Geographically we're closer than any immigrant group has been to their own country. And so we have access to those cultural historical places in our lives, so we can't just give that up to take something else.
Read an 
