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Ubi bene ibi patria
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"WASHINGTON — When Pope Francis celebrates a canonization Mass for a Spanish-American missionary in Washington this month, he will do so in a language that the new saint, Junipero Serra, would recognize: Spanish.
There's a number of reasons for that, said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington who will be hosting the pope on the Washington leg of his three-city U.S. visit later this month.
First, Spanish is the pope's mother tongue; he was born in Argentina.
"But it’s also a recognition of how large the Hispanic population in the United States is," Wuerl said. "And also because he is canonizing a Spanish speaker. And he's coming as the first pope from the New World, and the language, the predominant language of the Western Hemisphere, is Spanish."
Hispanics make up one-third of the U.S. Catholic church. "They're the biggest source of population growth in the church," said Julia Young, a professor at the Catholic University of America, a pontifically chartered university in Washington, who has written about the history of Hispanic Catholics in America.
"But most Latinos and Hispanics, coming here from counties that are majority Catholic, are facing challenges to their Catholic identity. There have been a number of Pentecostal denominations that have been appealing to that community and have been making inroads," she said. "So from the perspective of the institutional church, which obviously wants to keep people in the church, there's a real need to reach out to the next generation of Latinos and make sure they’re becoming part of the church."
"WASHINGTON — When Pope Francis celebrates a canonization Mass for a Spanish-American missionary in Washington this month, he will do so in a language that the new saint, Junipero Serra, would recognize: Spanish.
There's a number of reasons for that, said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington who will be hosting the pope on the Washington leg of his three-city U.S. visit later this month.
First, Spanish is the pope's mother tongue; he was born in Argentina.
"But it’s also a recognition of how large the Hispanic population in the United States is," Wuerl said. "And also because he is canonizing a Spanish speaker. And he's coming as the first pope from the New World, and the language, the predominant language of the Western Hemisphere, is Spanish."
Hispanics make up one-third of the U.S. Catholic church. "They're the biggest source of population growth in the church," said Julia Young, a professor at the Catholic University of America, a pontifically chartered university in Washington, who has written about the history of Hispanic Catholics in America.
"But most Latinos and Hispanics, coming here from counties that are majority Catholic, are facing challenges to their Catholic identity. There have been a number of Pentecostal denominations that have been appealing to that community and have been making inroads," she said. "So from the perspective of the institutional church, which obviously wants to keep people in the church, there's a real need to reach out to the next generation of Latinos and make sure they’re becoming part of the church."
