Immigration brings new prominence to Guadalupe in US Church

The Ledger


Already a beloved national symbol for Mexicans of all religions, the brown-skinned Our Lady of Guadalupe could become a new face of the U.S. Catholic Church.

"A Mexican feels proud of Guadalupe," said Jesus Vargas, a Mexican native, now a U.S. citizen, who owns the Tapatio Mexican restaurants in Lakeland. "I have to respect Guadalupe. If I don't, I don't respect Mexico."

The continued growth of this country's Hispanic population, a large share of which come from Mexico, will change no other institution more than the U.S. Catholic Church.

It already has.

According to a recently completed survey of U.S. Catholics for the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, 32 percent of the nation's Catholics claim a Hispanic heritage, more than triple the 10 percent reported in a similar 1987 survey. The majority have a Mexican ancestry, the newspaper reported, and a large number are recent immigrants.

St. Ann's Catholic Church in Haines City, like many other parishes in Polk County and Florida, has expanded Hispanic outreach programs to fill the needs of this growing population.

The parish has about 2,500 families, including about 500 Hispanic families, said Hector Colon, 77, who has supervised the Hispanic ministry since 1996. The deacon estimated 85 percent of the Hispanics have a Mexican background, most of them farm workers but some in the construction trades.

"Most of them are poor people with great needs," Colon said. "Most speak no English and have very little schooling."

Besides serving the spiritual needs of the community for baptisms, First Communions and other Catholic rites in Spanish, St. Ann's Hispanic ministry also helps with food, housing and other economic needs, Colon said. As many as six families live in a single home, often just a trailer.

The church often plays a vital role in filling social and economic needs because parishioners without legal residency fear arrest and deportation if they approach any other authorities, he said.

The Rev. Norm Farland, the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Wahneta, provides all those spiritual and secular services in his parish, which has about 3,000 members, most of them Mexican. They are mostly migrant workers, particularly during the winter months, but the mission also attracts many U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Hispanic heritage from across Polk because of its strong Spanish roots.

The church's mission includes helping people apply for permanent residency, known popularly as getting a "green card," which has become noticeably difficult in recent years, an exasperated Farland said.

"We've had people here who made applications 12 years ago," he said. "Our whole immigration system in woefully antiquated and outdated."

The system forces illegal immigrants to "living in total insecurity," Farland said.

According to Catholic tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who identified herself as "Santa Maria de Guadalupe," appeared to Aztec peasant Juan Diego in 1531 in Central Mexico.

Her feast day is Dec. 12.

The annual Guadalupe festival at St. Ann's attracts more than 1,000 people, Colon said.

It ranks with Christmas and Easter as the most popular events at the Guadalupe Mission, Farland said.