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Ernest Rodriguez' "Impressions," 1960s-1980s

""The Mexican American and the Catholic Church--A position paper"" by Ernest Rodriguez Page 1

The Mexican American and the Catholic Church --- A position paper by Ernest Rodriguez

The political powerlessness of Mexican Americans to determine their own destiny and improve their quality of life has led many of them, especially youth, to become alienated and to report to drastic measures to alleviate their social condition. 
Nowhere is the systematic exclusion from the decision making process more apparent than in the Catholic Church institution. Spanish speaking people make up 25% of the Catholic population in this country but there is only one Bishop of Mexican American descent, Bishop Patricio Flores. Bishop Flores himself says "despite of our great faith and loyalty to the Church we are less than 200 Mexican American priests today."
At every opportunity the Spanish speaking people have demanded that the Church practice what it preaches and address itself to the problems of the Spanish speaking people and help them to achieve self determination. 
We know that Spanish-speaking people make up 25% o the Catholic population in the US. We know that there is only one bishop of Mexican descent (Bishop Patrick Flores) in the United States. We know that in the hierarchy of the Church structure Mexican-Americans and other Spanish-speaking people are grossly underrepresented in proportion of their numbers. Bishop Flores himself says on the subject, "Today we are over ten million Mexican Americans in the U.S.A. Over 95% of us are Roman Catholic. We should have at least seven or eight thousand Mexican American priests today; we are the lowest of all Catholic groups in the U.S.A."

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The Mexican American and the Catholic Church --- A position paper by Ernest Rodriguez The political powerlessness of Mexican Americans to determine their own destiny and improve their quality of life has led many of them, especially youth, to become alienated and to report to drastic measures to alleviate their social condition. Nowhere is the systematic exclusion from the decision making process more apparent than in the Catholic Church institution. Spanish speaking people make up 25% of the Catholic population in this country but there is only one Bishop of Mexican American descent, Bishop Patricio Flores. Bishop Flores himself says "despite of our great faith and loyalty to the Church we are less than 200 Mexican American priests today." At every opportunity the Spanish speaking people have demanded that the Church practice what it preaches and address itself to the problems of the Spanish speaking people and help them to achieve self determination. We know that Spanish-speaking people make up 25% o the Catholic population in the US. We know that there is only one bishop of Mexican descent (Bishop Patrick Flores) in the United States. We know that in the hierarchy of the Church structure Mexican-Americans and other Spanish-speaking people are grossly underrepresented in proportion of their numbers. Bishop Flores himself says on the subject, "Today we are over ten million Mexican Americans in the U.S.A. Over 95% of us are Roman Catholic. We should have at least seven or eight thousand Mexican American priests today; we are the lowest of all Catholic groups in the U.S.A."