Rising Latinos

More than half of young Catholic families participating in a recent survey identified themselves as Latino or Hispanic, a finding the president of Holy Cross Family Ministries said will require new ways of ministering in the U.S. Catholic Church. Overall, 54 percent of young couples in the 25- to 45-year-old age range said they were Latino or Hispanic. That compares with the overall adult Latino/Hispanic Catholic population of 32 percent. “People may speak English, but culturally they’re Latino. That’s a big piece of information,” Willy Raymond, a Holy Cross priest, said of the findings in a national study his organization commissioned. “It means we have to be more assertive in looking at the ways we can be of service to these families.” The report, “The Catholic Family: 21st-Century Challenges in the United States,” also found that 68 percent of parents have not enrolled their children in a Catholic school, a parish school, a religion program or a youth ministry program affiliated with a Catholic parish. “The number that is not exposing their children to catechesis is shocking to me,” Father Raymond said.