Dearth of Vocations Among Hispanics Raises Concern

National Catholic Register:

Father Raul Lemus, pastor of St. Sebastian in Sebastopol, in northern California, was born in El Salvador in 1968. He came to the United States as a small child and grew up in tough neighborhoods in the San Francisco area. As a teen, he did not practice his Catholic faith. In fact, he recalled, “I was a troublemaker back then.”

Today, he refers to himself as “the priest from the ’hood.”

Being a younger Catholic of Hispanic descent, Father Lemus is very much the face of the changing Catholic Church in the United States. But as a Hispanic man who grew up in the States who pursued ordination to the priesthood, he is not the norm.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hispanic Catholics are present in virtually every diocese in the country. They comprise nearly 40% of all Catholics in the United States, over 45 million. They have made up 71% of the growth of the Church in the U.S. in the past 50 years, and over half of young adult Catholics are Hispanic.

Yet, despite their large numbers, particularly among youth, large numbers of young Hispanic men are choosing not to enter seminary. In 2011, 15% of ordinands are Hispanic, many of whom were born and raised outside of the United States. The number of Hispanic men ordained to the priesthood averages between 10%-15% of the total.

Men of Caucasian or European descent, in contrast, made up the largest number of ordinands — 70% — with men of Asian descent about 10%. Therefore, many congregations in the country which are predominantly Hispanic are served by non-Hispanic members of the clergy.

Hispanics are also underrepresented among U.S. Catholic bishops. Forty Hispanic men have been ordained bishops in the United States, 28 of whom are still active. They make up 9% of all Catholic bishops in the United States.

Jesuit Father Allan Deck serves as the USCCB’s executive director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church in Washington, D.C. He remarked, “Studies have shown that second-generation Catholics move away from the Church. It’s a matter of considerable concern for us.”

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