Latino Members Angered by Plan to Evangelize Chinese at Church : Catholics: Archdiocese is transferring the only Spanish-speaking priest at St. Thomas Aquinas. Clergy leaders say parishioners are overreacting to the changes.

Eddie Ramirez is a humble man, a devout Catholic who sprinkles his conversations with references to “Our Lord Jesus.” But these days, Ramirez says the Lord is telling him to prepare for a righteous fight.

The way Ramirez and hundreds of fellow parishioners at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Monterey Park see it, the archdiocese of Los Angeles is trying to take away the parish where they have worshiped for 30 years, seen their children and grandchildren married, and celebrated Mexican holy days such as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The archdiocese wants to turn the predominantly Latino church into a center for winning Chinese-Americans over to Catholicism. Plans call for removing the parish’s only Spanish-speaking priest and installing two Chinese-speaking priests.

“They told us that what they are doing is in the best interest of the people, but how can it be in the best interest of our community when 75% of the parish is of Mexican descent and they’re sending us no priests who speak Spanish?” Angelina Castanjeto asked angrily in Spanish, the language in which she feels most comfortable. “This church was built with the hands of Latinos from East Los Angeles and now we are being marginalized.”

Church officials say parishioners are overreacting to minor changes that will barely affect the congregation.

“The archdiocese has an obligation to evangelize the Chinese community,” said Father Peter Ling, associate pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas. “Many good Catholics from Taiwan and Hong Kong come here and they become pagan. We’re going to reach out to get them back.”

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But the anger has reached such a pitch that some members are boycotting the collection plate, others are vowing to leave and one longtime benefactor stopped taking out ads in the weekly church bulletin. Many of the church’s Chinese Americans also are upset, and both groups express concerns that changes will drive an ugly racial spike into a harmonious and tolerant multiethnic parish.

“Although we are Chinese from Hong Kong, this is the United States. America is a mixture of all races, and (the archdiocese) shouldn’t just cater to Orientals,” Audrey Lock said. “We’re happy with our present situation, so why change it?”

The archdiocese has long intended to mount an aggressive evangelical effort targeting the San Gabriel Valley’s rapidly expanding Chinese American population and says that Monterey Park, where 37% of residents are of Chinese origin, according to the 1990 census, is the place to do it.

So far, the church has made few inroads. Archdiocesan officials say Catholics make up only 2.5% of Los Angeles County’s 245,000 residents of Chinese descent.

Of the 1,200 parish families, only about 20 are of Chinese ancestry. The weekly Chinese language Mass is held in the rectory chapel each Sunday because of the tiny turnout.

The archdiocese two weeks ago unveiled plans to build a Chinese community center at St. Thomas Aquinas to reach potential converts. It also plans to move a Chinese language school for children, the Ming Yuan Institute, to church grounds, putting profits into efforts to evangelize Chinese Americans.

Chinese-language Masses at nearby parishes will be consolidated at St. Thomas Aquinas. And the church, which until now has had one Spanish-speaking priest and one Chinese-speaking priest, will have three priests who speak Chinese and none who speak Spanish. Father Delos A. Humphrey, who spent more than 30 years as a missionary in Taiwan, takes over Tuesday as pastor. The church is also transferring in Father Stephen Liu, who speaks very little English.

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The archdiocese is moving out Spanish-speaking pastor Father Brian Cavanagh, who headed the congregation for 18 years and by all accounts reached out to every minority group. The church says it will meet the needs of Latino members by inviting priests from other parishes to say Sunday Mass in Spanish.

Cavanagh has declined to comment on the archdiocese’s decision to transfer him. When he introduced Humphrey as his successor last Sunday, Cavanagh urged parishioners to stay calm and stop listening to rumors.

But the changes have infuriated many, who point out that elderly Latino parishioners and newer immigrants who do not speak English will no longer have a priest in residence who can minister to them on a daily basis.

The controversy threatens to turn the two ethnic groups against each other when leaders from both communities throughout the west San Gabriel Valley are trying to mend fences after a number of racially motivated incidents in schools. Latinos, for generations a dominant group in the southwestern part of the valley, have seen recent Chinese immigrants change the face of their neighborhoods and open hundreds of businesses. The two groups have been working together on a multicultural task force and have lobbied successfully for a conflict resolution class to be taught in the Alhambra public schools.

The church was one place where tensions tended to disappear--until now.

Each May the parish throws a fund-raising fiesta where members sample each other’s cuisine and music. Their children attend the parish school together. Sometimes they marry each other.

Now, conversations are taking on charged overtones as some Latinos view the changes as one more example of how newcomers are taking over.

“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Salli Ramirez, (no relation to Eddie) who wears a silver cross on her chest that says “Jesus es mi senor.”

“These Chinese aren’t even Catholic, and they’re building a center here that we can’t belong to. You can just imagine what it’ll be like when they have control.”

“I’m bitter,” said Connie Ortega after Mass on a recent Sunday. “You work so hard for so many years and you see it taken out from under you. . . . In another year this will all be a Chinese institution and we’ll get pushed out.”

Ironically, some Chinese American parishioners plan to leave because of the changes.

“I’m Chinese, but I am also fair, and this is not the proper way,” said Mimi Chen, who says she plans to quit her parish of 30 years in protest. “We already have one Chinese priest, we don’t need three. I don’t see any Mexican priests here. I think as Catholics we should all be united, but the priests are making the Chinese and the Latinos upset at each other.”

Monty Villajin, a Filipino American, agreed. “We don’t mind if St. Thomas Aquinas Church reaches out to the Chinese, but the church is supposed to be for everyone, regardless of ethnicity. Our concern is that it’s going to be for one ethnic group only.”

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Some Chinese American parishioners fear that they will become scapegoats.

“The Chinese people are caught in the middle of this right now, as if they are to be blamed,” said Sister Lucia Tu, director of the Asian Pacific ministry at the archdiocese. Parishioners led by Eddie Ramirez have requested a meeting with Cardinal Roger M. Mahony. But angered because they received no response, about 100 people demonstrated in front of his residence at St. Vibiana Cathedral in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.

“The archdiocese thinks that the Latino community is passive, that we’ll accept anything without questioning it,” Ramirez said. “But we are going to fight this.”

Monterey Park City Councilwoman Rita Valenzuela, a longtime member of St. Thomas Aquinas, has written Mahony two letters, asking for a meeting. More than 250 parishioners have signed a petition asking the archdiocese to reconsider its plans.

Msgr. Thomas Curry, secretariat for Ethnic Ministry at the archdiocese, which is implementing the changes, said he is astounded at the resistance.

“I’m a little bit at a loss to explain why they’re so terribly concerned,” Curry said. “There’s some nervousness whenever there’s change, but we’ve emphasized over and over that this is not a major change. We’ve assured them they’re not being pushed out. We’re just adding something to the parish.”

Incoming pastor Humphrey, a Maryknoll priest who speaks fluent Chinese, says he intends to reassure his new flock that all Latino-oriented ministries such as Spanish-language Masses, Bible study groups and charismatic prayer groups will continue.

Humphrey also intends to study Spanish and will look for a priest who has experience in Mexico or South America to help out at St. Thomas Aquinas. But church officials concede that Southern California has a shortage of Spanish-speaking priests.

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A few in the church are optimistic.

Agnes Lung-Tam, a Catholic who grew up in Monterey Park, calls the changes exciting and approves of efforts to reach out to the Chinese American population. She hopes that the parish can add a Mass in her native Cantonese to complement the Mass in Mandarin.

But she also said the situation requires delicate handling. “I’d like to believe we’re all Catholics, that we see a need for growth,” Lung-Tam said. “But whenever there’s a big influx, the existing community can feel slightly threatened or displaced.”

One of the few Latinos counseling a wait-and-see attitude is Maria Elena Rangel, 21, a psychology major at Cal State Northridge who attended the parish primary school.

“Everybody’s distrustful, but how do we know what’s going to happen?” Rangel asked. “I feel sorry for the Chinese people. The way this thing is going, they’re not even going to feel welcome here.”

On Ash Wednesday, many of the 150 people who crowded into the parish hall for a tostada dinner after Mass recalled how they have sacrificed for their church.

While St. Thomas Aquinas was under construction in 1963, the faithful gathered on Sundays in a Monterey Park machine shop, where priests said Mass and everyone contributed enthusiastically to the collection plate, knowing that the money would buy bricks, mortar and stained glass for a church of their own. Now, they are upset.

Bart and Jennie Rando, parishioners since the day St. Thomas Aquinas opened, gave $5 instead of their usual $20.

Bart Rando, an Italian American who has a small security company, has donated a security system for the tabernacle and sacristy, provided free patrols of the church grounds and taken out large ads in the church’s weekly bulletin. But 30 years of tradition have ended.

“He got up at 6 a.m. this morning and canceled,” Jennie Rando told the assembled parishioners.

“If they don’t take our church away from us, we’ll start donating . . . again,” her husband said.