Latinos Seek Greater Role in Catholicism

U.S. Latinos, increasingly restive over policies of the Roman Catholic Church, are urging change to revitalize their fast-growing ethnic group’s traditional religious bonds.

Complaints about a “cold church” are set to be vented among 1,200 delegates to a four-day National Hispanic Encuentro , or encounter, which opens Thursday in the nation’s capital. Latinos make up at least one-quarter of the nation’s 52 million Catholics.

The U.S. Catholic Conference, the public policy agency of American bishops, released excerpts from a working document that will be placed before the delegates.

The excerpts contain a clear warning that traditionally Catholic Latinos may not stay within the church unless they receive greater attention. Among other things, the document says:

--In this country, “a cold church is evident with the lack of fraternal love” and an absence of community spirit.

--”Many (Latinos) have to go to other churches to satisfy their hunger for God. . . . Many others leave disillusioned by the way our leaders or priests act.”

--U.S. Latinos, many of them refugees and undocumented immigrants, feel alienated and suffer from a “lack of pastoral attention.”