Pope Can Reach Latinos : If He Shows the Church Cares, He Can Affect Their Lives

Whether by design or happenstance, the nine-city papal visit has particular significance for Latinos and challenging implications for non-Latino Catholics and for all Americans. The public recognition of the mutually important relationship between Latinos and the church could be the most enduring and fruitful consequence of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States.

Most cities on the Pope’s itinerary have a high concentration of Latinos. In the not-too-distant future, Latinos will be the majority in Catholic Church membership in this country. Hence, while Latino Catholics are not the official focus of the 10-day visit, they already are a major factor in the American church.

This will be particularly evident in Los Angeles, where more than 50% of the Catholic population already is Latino. No one really knows the total number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, but by far the largest number live in Los Angeles. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that approximately 1 million in Los Angeles County alone will apply for amnesty.

Los Angeles has the largest concentration of Mexicans outside Mexico City, and Salvadorans outside the city of San Salvador. All told, there are approximately 500,000 refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala in Los Angeles.

Leadership development among Latinos is a crucial priority of both the Los Angeles Archdiocese and the community organizations operating with the encouragement and the financial support of the church, like the United Neighborhoods Organization, the South-Central Organizing Committee and the East Valleys Organization.

The agenda of these organizations is dominated by three major issues affecting Latinos: raising the minimum wage, reforming public education and extending the benefit of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to as many people as possible. Expectations are high that the Pope can be the means of reawakening the American spirit of generosity, compassion and fair play.

The media’s coverage of the preparations for the papal visit, to date, has concentrated on the mundane--stories about portable toilets along the parade route--to the controversial--dissent among Catholics over social and moral issues like divorce and abortion. The media’s preoccupation with dissent and the unrealistic expectation of applying majority rule to the church’s decision-making process will cause many people to miss out on the true intent of the Pope’s message to the American people: that this leader nation has a responsibility to all people, including the poor and the disfranchised.

The position of the church concerning immigrants is unquestionably clear. The Pope reiterated earlier this month: “Authorities ought not to close their borders, and even more should avoid all types of prejudiced discrimination against immigrants.” Of particular significance to the United States, he said that wealthy nations “cannot distance themselves from the immigration problems or even less close borders or harden laws against immigrants, for as the disparity between wealthy and poor nations becomes greater, so the number of emigrants from these poor countries grows.”

The Pope’s presence in Los Angeles in the course of all the injustices now being perpetrated by the implementation of the new immigration law, contrasted with Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony’s morally responsible stance on the undocumented, can be the catalyst for the government and the people of the United States to rethink their positions.

Mahony said last April: “There is no question that we must stand with our people. We have the moral obligation to respond to those in our midst who will not qualify for the amnesty provision. The new law tells us that these people are now outside the framework of our concern as a society; our Christian tradition tells us the opposite. The gospel itself and the teachings of our church call us to be most concerned for these most needful and neglected members of our community.”

A study that was released in July concerning American Latinos and the church concludes that the Catholic Church has had little direct influence on the political and social behavior of the Latinos in the Southwest. But it also says that a “growing awareness of Hispanics’ needs and attitudes” on the part of the church may increase its influence in the lives of Latinos in the future.

If Latinos can see in the person of Pope John Paul II a sign that the church really cares about the issues that affect their lives, and that he is willing to place the power of the church on the line, there is no doubt that Latinos will assume their rightful roles of leadership and responsibility in the church that they so love.