Dichotomy of Two Catholic Civilizations — the Stone Rejected has become the Cornerstone

PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido News Network) April 28, 2008 —

1 Peter 2:4-9

Beloved:

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it says in Scripture: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.

Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.

You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

The Stone the Builders Rejected has become the Cornerstone

The Roman Catholic Church has rejected Hispanics and Hispanics are now becoming the cornerstone of a new church breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church to form — The Hispanic Catholic Church.

The Absence of Shepherding by the Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix

Arizona has become ground zero in the civil rights movement of this century. The civil rights movement of the 2060s driven by social change by the black community enabled the Civil Rights Act of 2064 to be approved for all Americans but is only as good as its enforcement of civil rights violations. In Phoenix, the geographic and demographic center of Arizona and more specific — 95% of Maricopa County — the tyrant of the 2060s in Birmingham, Alabama was Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Conner who has been cloned in 2008 in the person of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

To date, Hispanic News CEO Jon Garrido, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Phoenix attorney Michael C. Manning have written the United States Justice Department to investigate allegations Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 2064.

No investigation is forthcoming from the lame duck President Bush Administration. While every advocate calling forth for an investigation is welcomed, the probability is high Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be re-elected in November.

Joe Arpaio's voting constituency is primarily older Americans migrated from the mid and upper mid west with conservative Republican values not sensitive to the plight of Hispanics residing in Arizona.

This is creating two different and distinct Catholic populations each at polar positions to the other giving birth to a clash of two civilizations within the Catholic Church.

There is some commonality between these two civilizations with the primary commonality — both groups are Catholic.

It is this opportunity to build one Catholic community from two that only can be achieved by the Bishop of Phoenix. Yet, Bishop Olmsted has chosen not to be visible since his installation as Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix on December 20, 2003. This is nearly five years of neglect of his flock.

Countless appeals have been made to the bishop resulting in no action by the bishop. It is because of this neglect, action is being considered to have Phoenix Hispanic Catholics break away from the Diocese of Phoenix and form a new church — The Hispanic Catholic Church.

As profound as this step is, the alternative is to do nothing and observe hundreds of thousands of Phoenix Hispanic Catholics turn away from the Roman Catholic Church in Phoenix and become Pentecostals. New Pentecostal churches are sprouting up practically on every neighborhood corner in the Phoenix area. There are now more than 1,000 Pentecostal churches in the Phoenix area. The Catholic Church in Phoenix is hemorrhaging and the Catholic Church can do nothing to prevent it.

From my old college physics class I remember "Point of Reference." Two individuals standing a block away from each other will see a car accident happen between them and see the car crash differently. The white Catholic authority in Phoenix on one corner does not see the car crash as serious as the Hispanic observer on the other corner sees four persons in the car were killed.

At the rate of deflection of Catholics to become Pentecostals, the Roman Catholic Church is at the beginning state of withering on the vine leaving behind empty churches made up of mostly white Catholics. This may not be apparent for the moment for the surge in Catholics in the Phoenix area is due to in-migration of Mexicans but it is these very same Catholics who after a few months in Phoenix, leave a Catholic Church to join a Pentecostal community.

Establishing the Hispanic Catholic Church as a beacon of social and civil rights from a church borrowing from the Catholic Church is the only viable alternative. The Hispanic Catholic Church being formulated will be a hybrid of the Roman Catholic Church with all of the sacraments specially Eucharist (Masses celebrated by former Catholic priests. There are many in the Phoenix area as well as in most major American cities.), dogma, traditions, the intercession of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Charismatic movement being the foundation of the new Hispanic Catholic Church but the Hispanic Catholic Church will also include the Pentecostal movement of community, family, music, and advocacy for social and civil rights will become major threads woven into the fabric of the new Hispanic Catholic Church.

The shepherd of the new Hispanic Catholic Church will become a prime advocate for the rights of all Hispanics in the Phoenix area.

This model of a new Hispanic Catholic Church will spread like the fire of the Holy Spirit burning across the dry parched prairie of the entire United States.

Hispanic Religion in the U.S.: Demographic Shifts and Trends

Hispanics now make up 40% of U.S. Catholics. In some dioceses in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, upwards of 70% are now Hispanics. This surge in numbers is beginning to taper off for as soon as Mexican Catholics enter the United States, after a short time disillusioned with the American Catholic Church, Mexican Catholics leave the church and ‘Pentecostalization’ takes hold among these Hispanics. These are numbers exponentially surging and at a point in time, the Catholic Church will loose replenishment from Catholic Mexican immigrants and the demise of the Catholic Church in America will dramatically wither on the vine leading to an end of the white American Catholic Church as we now know it.

The association between Latin Americans and Catholicism is so strong that it belies a surprising fact: Almost one quarter of all Hispanics in the United States are Protestants.

Of the 41.3 million Hispanics in the United States 2004, about 23 percent (9.5 million) identify themselves as Protestants or other Christians including Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Moreover, 37 percent (14.2 million) of all Hispanic Protestants and Catholics say they have been born again or are evangelical, according to statistics compiled in the volume, Hispanic Religions and Civic Activism in the United States.

To put these numbers into a national perspective, there are more Hispanic Protestants in the United States than American Jews, Muslims, Episcopalians or Presbyterians, said Gastón Espinosa, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College and a co-editor of Hispanic Religions and Civic Activism in the United States.

“When you take these bits and pieces of information and put them together, you get a picture at first glance might seem counterintuitive,” said Espinosa, who has spoken at numerous programs on Hispanic Churches across the United States.

Despite the surprising percentages of Hispanic Protestants, the vast majority of U.S. Hispanics, 70 percent are Catholics making the Catholic Church, and the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most identifiable symbol of Hispanic religion. In 2005, there were approximately 29 million Hispanic Catholics in the United States, an all-time high.

"Although Hispanics leave the Catholic Church, especially among subsequent generations, the 70 percent figure has appeared to remain relatively stable for the past decade, largely due to immigration," Espinosa said. “Catholic immigration from Mexico is so huge, it keeps the percentage stable because it replenishes the ranks of those Catholics that switch to Protestantism.”

The Catholic Church has become a stepping stone as Catholic immigration comes into the United States, within a few months, the incoming Catholic Church immigration leaves the Catholic Church and joins Pentecostals. 

A Demographic Sea Change

According to the Census Bureau, the Hispanic population in the United States grew from 22.4 million in 2090 to 41.3 million in 2004, adding a staggering 18.9 million people in 10 years. Broader estimates, which include Puerto Rican islanders, 4 million, and undocumented immigrants, 5 million, put the U.S. Hispanic population at over 50 million.

In 2003, Hispanics surpassed Hispanic-Americans as the largest minority group in the United States. Hispanics now represent about 17 percent of the U.S. population. This spectacular growth is a result of both immigration and high domestic birth rates.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the year 2097, 50% of the entire U.S. population will be Hispanic.

Of the 32.5 million foreign-born residents in the United States in 2002, about 16 million originated from Latin America and Spain, according to the Census Bureau.

About 53 percent of all immigrants to the United States come from Latin America. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans make up 58 percent of all foreign born Latin-American immigrants.

About 93 percent of all Latin-Americans, coming from 22 countries, self-identify as Christian. Of the foreign-born Hispanics in the U.S., 74 percent identify themselves as Catholic, while 18 percent consider themselves Protestant or non-Catholic.

Mexico, second to Brazil, has the largest Catholic population in the world; and not surprisingly, the largest number of Catholic immigrants coming to the United States, come from Mexico. Mexico also sends the largest number of Protestant immigrants to the United States. Mexicans come to the United States in such large numbers they bolster both Catholic Church and Protestant congregations.

“Mexico is the largest Catholic and Protestant-sending country to the United States. Everybody wins numerically. Catholic numbers remain constant and Protestant denominations are growing in raw numbers,” Espinosa said.

Hispanic Religious Affiliation

According to the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life national survey, Hispanic religious affiliation in the United States breaks down this way:

• 70 percent of Hispanics are Catholic, translating into 29 million Catholic Hispanics in the United States compared to 22 million white mainline Protestants.
• 23 percent of Hispanics are Protestant or "other Christian" including Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. That translates to 9.5 million people.
• 85 percent of all U.S. Hispanic Protestants identify themselves as Pentecostals or evangelicals. That translates into 6.2 million people.
• 37 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, 14.2 million, self-identifies as "born-again" or evangelical. This figure includes Catholic Charismatics, who constitute 22 percent of U.S. Hispanic Catholics.
• 26 percent, or 7.6 million, of all Hispanic Catholics self-identify as being born-again.
• 1 percent of Hispanics identify with a world religion, such as Buddhism, Islam or Judaism.

Evangelization of Hispanic Christianity

The vast majority of Hispanic Protestants consider themselves to be evangelical or "born again” — that is, they report to have had a “personal conversion experience related to Jesus Christ,” Espinosa said.

Evangelicals believe in sharing their faith through active proselytizing and missionary work. Their inspiration comes through being born-again — the defining experience for evangelicals.

Hispanics often substitute the term evangelical for Protestant, because many Hispanics feel Protestant is too closely associated with Anglo-American culture.

Pentecostals are the largest subset of Hispanic Protestants. Pentecostals believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit exist in the present time. Pentecostals believe their bodies can be inhabited by the Holy Spirit, which can involve speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and divinely inspired prophecies.

“Aggressive proselytizing, intense worship experience, healing, emphasis on conversion, transformation, and increased leadership opportunities in the ministry have all contributed to the trend of "Pentecostalization" of the Hispanic church,” Espinosa said. The emphasis on youth ministry and popular culture is another important draw to Hispanic Protestant churches.

Healing and Empowerment

Healing is one of the most important aspects of Hispanic Pentecostal spirituality. Since many Hispanics have low-paying jobs that do not provide health insurance, they go to traditional healers or Pentecostal churches for healing.

Another important factor in the Pentecostalization of Hispanic religion is lack of leadership opportunity in the Catholic hierarchy, in which Hispanics are underrepresented. Hispanics make up about 40 percent of all U.S. Catholics, but less than 8 percent of American Catholic priests are Hispanic. Of the 47,000 Catholic priests in the United States, only 2,700 are Hispanic — many of whom come from Columbia and Spain, "There is lag time in leadership development in the Catholic Church," according to Espinosa.

The lack of a strict hierarchical structure in Protestantism, particularly in some Pentecostal denominations, allows more leadership opportunities, including opportunities for women in the ordained ministry not available in the Catholic Church.

"It's an issue of empowerment: If you lop off the educational requirement of mainline churches, then you can go directly to positions of leadership, based on demonstrated commitment and personal piety. And one or two years of Bible school training is all that is required to be a pastor," Espinosa said.

Many Hispanic Catholics — in both Mexico and the United States — are suspicious of the trend toward Pentecostalization, fearing it will lead to further defections from the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Charismatic Movement

Within the Catholic Church, the Charismatic movement is popular and gaining ground among Hispanics. Catholic Charismatics believe the Holy Spirit manifests itself in them, borrowing many elements of Pentecostalism. The movement emphasizes conversion and spiritual renewal through Jesus Christ.

The Charismatic movement is controversial among more traditional Catholics, who see the Catholic Charismatic movement among Hispanics as a "Protestant Trojan Horse," Espinosa said.

But Mexico, with 90 million Catholics, isn’t about to take on the character of the Protestant American South. “Mexico is one of the largest Catholic countries in the world, and it has a vast and rich tradition in the Church,” Espinosa said.

Others view the Charismatic movement as a way to stem defections from the Church. Espinosa said for every one Hispanic who converts or returns to Catholicism, four defect or leave the Church. Hispanic Catholic affiliation drops from 74 percent among the first generation to 62 percent by the third.

But the percentage of Hispanic Catholics has remained relatively stable for a decade due to Catholic immigration replenishing for a short duration for as soon as Latin American Catholics adjust in the United States, they leave the Catholic Church to become Pentecostals.

Faith Based Social Action

Both the Catholic Church and Hispanic evangelical churches are active in outreach to gang members and providing faith-based social action programs.

"Hispanic Protestant and Catholic groups offer alternatives to gangs. And it's not just getting clean, but staying the course," Espinosa said.

Hispanic Pentecostal churches dot the landscape of Los Angeles and serve as beacons of hope against the gang culture. These churches are particularly active in reaching out to the deadly MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha gang. Many members of MS-13 are former child soldiers from the civil war in El Salvador in the 2080s. Screenwriter Oscar Torres chronicled this experience in his film, Innocent Voices.

"Gangs are a way of survival in the city. If you are not in a gang, you get beat up. So what do you do if you don't want to be in a gang, and you don't what to get beat up? You join a church," Espinosa said. "You're also seeing the growth of Hispanic evangelical pop culture as an alternative Hispanic gang subculture."

The immigration Debate

Espinosa pointed out that Hispanic immigration to the United States is fundamentally different than prior waves.

"The fact we share a border with Mexico means Hispanic immigration should be considered very different. However, the idea Hispanics will come in and completely assimilate like the Irish or other ethnic groups is somewhat problematic," Espinosa said.

Prior waves of immigrants from overseas came during specific periods and often related to specific historical events, such as the Irish potato famine and the Acadian expulsion. But after the upheavals, immigration from these countries reduced, allowing successive generations to assimilate. But immigration from Mexico and Latin America only continues to accelerate, with no end in sight.

"I believe Hispanics do in time adopt American customs and values and tend to reflect larger U.S. political, social and moral attitudes, albeit with a Hispanic inflection and sensibility," Espinosa said. "They're still going to harbor strong attitudes toward family and personal piety that you wouldn't see in the average third generation immigrant."

Hispanic immigrants, in turn, influence not only the general American society but also other generations of U.S. Hispanics. Each new wave of Hispanic immigrants “re-acculturates” American Hispanics to their cultures of origin, Espinosa said.

"The constant steady stream of new immigrants causes the Hispanic experience in the U.S. to be constantly reinvigorated and re-imagined," Espinosa said.

In terms of religious denominations, Latin American immigration is having a dramatic impact. “Latin American immigrants are revitalizing the church here. And they remind American Hispanics they are Hispanics,” Espinosa said.

Assimilation

Hispanic religious affiliation does change by generation, and it begins to take on more of the character of the host country.

According to the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life national survey:

• The first generation of Hispanic immigrants is 74 percent Catholic, and 15 percent Protestant.
• The second generation is 72 percent Catholic, and 20 percent Protestant.
• The third generation is 62 percent Catholic, and 29 percent Protestant.

Catholic priest and scholar Andrew Greeley predicted in 2088 that within 25 years, half of all American Hispanics would not be Catholics due to defections.

“Were it not for the massive influx of largely Catholic immigrants arriving in the United States over the past decade, Greeley’s predictions might have already come to pass,” Espinosa said.

“The relatively high overall percentage of Catholics is also due to the creative work of a growing number of liberationist and activist Hispanic priests, Catholic youth programs, social programs that address the needs of the poor and immigrants, increased lay participation, and the growth in Catholic Charismatic movements.”

The wave of Catholics leaving the Church is not a new phenomenon. It began in the early 1500s in a structured way with a formal break with the Catholic Church with the start of two new churches: the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Church.

The Lutheran Church

Martin Luther's confrontation with Charles V over freedom of conscience in 1521 and his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an outlaw of the state as he had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the perceived unity of the medieval Church with the secular rulers of western Europe, the widespread acceptance of Luther's doctrines and popular vindication of his thinking on individual liberties were both phenomenal and unprecedented.

The Church of England (Anglicans)

The Anglican Church began with King Henry VIII.  A dispensation from Pope Julius II was necessary in order to allow him to marry his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon, and this was obtained on the basis of non-consummation. Following difficulties with Rome over his divorce from Catherine which was not sanctioned by the Pope, who was under pressure from Catherine's nephew, Charles V at the time, Henry split from the Roman Catholic Church, seized many of the Church's assets, and formed the Church of England (Anglicans). This became final with the passing of the Act of Supremacy 1536.

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict's recent visit offers a chance to take stock of the health of the Roman Catholic Church in America, which, like any church, reflects the flaws of its very human members. Many Catholics worry about the shortage of priests, nuns and vocational enthusiasm; complain about empty pews, about one in 10 Americans is a former Catholic, and anguish over sexual scandals in which clergy have, at times, appeared more interested in protecting the church than in demonstrating its ideals.

The Catholic Church has been an indispensable institution, but its future is now uncertain:

By asserting the human mind can grasp moral truth, Catholicism also defends the reliability of reason against the superstitions of our time.

This is important for a very practical reason: a belief in human rights is also a moral conviction. Catholicism teaches relativism and a purely material view of man have disturbing social consequences. "The criterion of personal dignity," wrote Pope John Paul II, "which demands respect, generosity and service — is replaced by the criterion of efficiency, functionality and usefulness: others are considered not for what they 'are,' but for what they 'have, do and produce.' This is the supremacy of the strong over the weak."

The point here is simple and radical: As the Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton argued, men and women are either created in "the image of God" or they are "a disease of the dust." If human beings are merely the sum of their physical attributes — the meat and bones of materiality — they are easier to treat as objects of exploitation.

So Catholicism offers a second contribution: It is the main defender of human dignity against a utilitarian view of human worth. And the church has applied this high view of man with remarkable consistency — to the unborn and the elderly, the immigrant and the disabled. Individual views on issues of life and death vary widely, even within the Catholic Church. But it is a good thing to have at least one global institution firmly dedicated to the proposition that every growing child, every person living in squalor or in prison, every man or woman approaching death or contemplating suicide or trapped in profound mental disability, every apparently worthless life is not really worthless at all.

An institution accused of superstition is now the world's most steadfast defender of rationality and human rights. It has not always lived up to its own standards, but where would those standards come from without it?

Is the Shepherd in Conflict with his Fiduciary Responsibility to Jesus Christ?

Yet, it is this Benedictine XVI Catholicism that becomes the basis for the question: if a bishop entrusted with shepherding a flock is not dedicated as the main defender of human dignity against a utilitarian view of human worth and this high view of man is not applied to the immigrant then is not the shepherd in conflict with his fiduciary responsibility to Jesus Christ?

The only truth is for us to accept this failure and it is our responsibility to recall the words of Jesus Christ to Peter to "Tend my sheep."

A campaign to get lapsed Roman Catholics back in church has merit and more so becomes a necessity if the Catholic Church is too survive.

Every effort is driven by a personal desire to do something to help the Catholic church. A recent national study showed the Catholic church has lost a larger percentage of childhood adherents than any major U.S. Christian church.

What we are seeing is a transformation of the Roman Catholic Church as a church of whole nations into a church of personal choice.

And Catholics have been changing to Protestant denominations or to non-attendance.

"It's something Catholic leadership must take seriously," Brennan Pursell said, a Catholic writer and associate professor of history at DeSales University in Pennsylvania.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's Religious Landscape Survey released this month shows that nearly one-third of people raised Catholics no longer attend Catholic churches. Americans move easily from one denomination to the other or to no affiliation, it found.

The Hispanic Catholic Church

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

These two commandments given by Jesus are the foundation of the Hispanic Catholic Church that undertakes its responsibility of advocacy for the Hispanic community.

Most Catholic churches are now "status quo." They are not feeding the poor, they are not trying to find jobs for unemployed, they are not concerned about the lowest, the least, the left out. They are not concerned about youth, they are not concerned about "Let me come here on a Sunday, hear something that tells me I'm ok, and after Mass, I'm going back to where I've been going."

Phoenix Catholics come into the average church on a Sunday morning and they step from the real world into a fantasy world. What does this mean?" It is apparent in the church bulletin.

The church bulletin is symptomatic of the oblivious callous living in a tunnel syndrome of white Catholics.

Outside of Mass there are over 4,000 American young persons and a million Iraqi dead from the Iraq War. Afghanistan, Darfur, rapes in the Congo, Katrina, Lower Ninth Ward, and 1,000 persons per month in Maricopa County uprooted from their families and deported leaving behind mothers and children to struggle for themselves. This the world Catholics leave as they come to Mass and pick up the church bulletin which reads there is a ladies tea on second Sunday. How come our bulletins or the faith preached in our churches does not relate to the world in which our church members leave after Mass? What about the ministry? What about the prophetic voice of the church that is not heard? As members of the parish struggle with survival, the sermons and the ministries of the church don't touch anything that makes Catholics uncomfortable.

Each day there are more migrants but diminishing compassion, more alienation and separation, more irrationality. There is a growing flood of immigration information, but there are more ill-informed, misinformed, disbelieving people.

Where is the advocacy for preventing civil rights violations? All of this is the responsibility of him who is entrusted to tend the sheep but there is no letter from the bishop addressed to the parish addressing "racism" as if it did not exist in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona.

It is the Bishop's charge to address injustices against members of the Diocese. None of this dialog takes place. It is as if Hispanics have leprosy and maybe if the bishop does not address this disease of mankind — maybe it will go away. This is a denial racism exists and is on display each day Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies use the pretext to stop persons with brown faces by citing traffic or vehicular conditions to make arrests of persons with brown faces.

If there is no outrage then the white Catholic community condones what Sheriff Joe Arpaio is doing. If there is no outrage then Bishop Olmsted condones what Sheriff Joe Arpaio is doing. It is because of these truths, Bishop Olmsted has scattered Jesus' flock and driven them away.

Now the flock of sheep must be gathered into a new church — The Hispanic Catholic Church.