Hispanics an Increasingly Important Audience for the Pope

ROME — Hispanic Catholics in the United States eager for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI will be seeking both emotional and political support.

And they're likely to get it.

"I think the pope is very aware that Hispanic Catholics are really the lifeblood of American Catholicism," said the Rev. Allan Deck, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in Washington, D.C.

Many saw the pope's appointment last year of Daniel N. DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, as an acknowledgement of the growing Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic church.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the pope said something about immigration reform when he's in the United States," Deck said, adding that it's an issue "near and dear" to Hispanic hearts.

Besides meeting with President Bush and addressing the United Nations during his six-day visit that begins April 15, the pontiff also is expected to pray the rosary with hundreds of immigrants from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America at the airport in New York before heading back to Rome on April 20.

The growing Hispanic church community is hoping the event — and the entire papal visit — will send a message of tolerance towards immigrants in America.

This, church leaders say, is especially important in the midst of a presidential campaign.

Compassionate treatment of immigrants is an issue Catholics care deeply about as they seek to protect the Hispanics that are bolstering church membership numbers.

A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 24 percent of all Americans are Catholic. But foreign-born Catholics make up a growing portion of church membership. Indeed, more than 46 percent of all foreign-born residents are Catholic.

Overall, Hispanics comprise one-third of the country's 67 million Catholics with the growing number of Hispanics countering a generally declining overall number of practicing non-Hispanic Catholics.

"The Catholic church in the United States is predominantly brown and speaks another language," said Mario Paredes, president of the board of directors at the San Antonio-based Catholic Association of Latino Leaders or CALL.

CALL was formed in January to unite Spanish-speaking Catholic leaders in the fields of finance, business, politics, and education.

Certainly the influence of Hispanics is being felt in the larger Catholic community.

Paredes said that in 1970 there was only one Hispanic American bishop and 220 ordained Hispanic priests in the United States. Today there are at least 33 Hispanic American bishops and more than 1,500 Hispanic priests.

At the same time some 4,000 parishes out of a total of 19,000 now offer masses in Spanish.

"These are signs not only of growth but also of more integration and participation," Paredes said.

In light of this, Paredes said he believes the pope will wish to share certain messages during his visit.

"I believe that these messages mostly will be addressed to the core values of our society," he said. "They will have to do with respecting the dignity of every human person."

Pope Benedict has honed a message that promotes the inherent dignity of all people while also emphasizing the importance of keeping families intact.

And these are issues that resonate with Hispanic Catholics — and thus with the U.S. Catholic church as a whole.

Yet Amanda Pawloski, a graduate student from Michigan studying philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, said she believes those hoping the pope's visit draws political attention to the issue of immigration may be disappointed.

"The pope is a great defender of human rights and you can be sure that if there is something important to say about immigration policy that disregards human rights he will say it," she said. "However the situation with immigrant workers in the states is still not on the same level as human rights violations in other parts of the world, especially trafficking in women and children or questions of religious freedom.

"I'm just not sure the pope will make immigration a huge priority during his visit," she said.

Rev. Robert Gahl, a Catholic priest who moved from Wisconsin to Rome more than 15 years ago to teach, said the pope speaks Spanish "amazingly well" and will most likely address Hispanics in their mother tongue during his visit.

He believes that many Hispanic immigrants have lost their roots and fallen away from religious practice since settling in the United States.

"The pope's very presence in the United States will bring together Christians and bring many Hispanics back into the fold of religious practice," he said. "His addressing them in Spanish, with fatherly affection, will be the icing on the cake."