[This paper was presented at a symposium on Religious Resources of the Traditions and Their Application to Contemporary Urban Problems, sponsored by the Institute for Religious and Social Studies, New York.]
Although the Americas were discovered and initially colonized under the aegis of the Catholic majesties of Spain, the thirteen British colonies that united to form this nation were, for the most part, of the faith of the church of England, of the churches of the reformation, or of the many Christian communities that grew up among these churches. This statement defines the limits of the degree of pluralism which is considered in the early definition of an American. Those who were beyond the pale of “British” and “Protestant” were segregated with rubrics such as “ethnic”. Perhaps in the early nineteenth century an Irish laborer, in Manhattan was an “ethnic”. Today, his descendants, now fairly comfortable within the limits defined by “American”, turn on other differences in cultural or national identity and stamp “ethnic” on these latest differences.
The Archdiocese of New York was established in 1808. Its bishops have been Concanen, Connolly, Dubois, Hughes, McCloskey, Corrigan, Farley, Hayes, Spellman, and Cooke. Be what may the parameters of ethnic for the larger American society, if the hierarchy may be taken as a valid indicator of the dominant identities among Catholic New Yorkers, ethnic for the Archdiocese of New York has meant almost anyone who was not of Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, or Irish descent. It is understandable that as German, Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Croatian, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Chinese Catholic immigrants began to arrive in this area in increasing numbers that the Archdiocese of New York established ethnic or “national” parishes for them.
The Pastoral Challenge of the Hispanic American Migration
There have been Hispanic Americans in New York since the city was begun. In the period since the second world war, however, more than one million persons have migrated to the continental United States, and to the New York metropolitan region in particular, from Puerto Rico and the countries of Latin America. More than another million persons have been born here of those Hispanic American parents. Although this population is linguistically homogeneous, it is, in actuality from at least twenty different national origins. The majority of the Hispanics who are not Puerto Ricans are illegal aliens. Generally, these are the economically poorest ethnic or national group in both the New York metropolitan area and in the entire United States.
For the Catholic Church in New York this newest migration poses a serious pastoral challenge since the immigrants are overwhelmingly Catholic and, by right, members of the church. Sensitive and reflective ecclesiastical observers of this migration have called attention to the fact it is completely unlike previous ones. First, this was the first great inter-American migration the New York church had to face. Previous Catholic migrants came from Europe, from established churches and ancient cultures frequently bringing with them their own clergy to defend and strengthen their Catholic and national identity and to assist them in the struggle for recognition and place in the majority Protestant society. The newest arrivals however come from Latin America. They were formed by the Spanish colonial church, which usually had an inadequate supply of clergy, and which discouraged native vocations. As a result this was the first major Catholic migration that did not bring its own clergy. The Hispanic Americans were also perhaps the first immigrants arriving in New York to encounter a majority Catholic society; a society which was, for the most part, of another tradition, dominant language, and economic category. Finally, unlike previous ethnic groups in the city the Hispanic Americans did not settle in one or two clearly defined areas; but quickly spread throughout the city and the metropolitan region. There was no doubt. A new and creative pastoral response on the part of the Catholic Church in New York was clearly demanded.
Parishes for Hispanic Americans
The initial reaction of church authorities here to the increasing presence of Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans was to utilize the tried and tested pastoral structure for immigrants, the national parish. After more data was acquired about the numbers of migrants and their dispersal throughout the area, a radically new approach to pastoral care was endorsed by Cardinal Francis Spellman: wherever Hispanic Americans lived, the local parish would adapt itself to them! Wherever necessary, parishes would begin to function in a bilingual, bicultural way. The implications of this pastoral decision were enormous: local clergy and religious would have to acquire new communication skills and adjunct, Spanish speaking clergy and religious would have to be recruited; all diocesan programs, offices, and agencies would have to begin to address themselves to a bilingual, bicultural reality; and these new immigrants would not be ecclesiastically isolated but involved immediately in the life of the local parish.
Today, more than twenty years later, more than one hundred of the local parishes of the Archdiocese of New York, over one quarter of the total number, are ministering to Hispanic Americans in their own language as well as in English.
The Coordinator of Spanish Catholic Action
To coordinate this new approach to pastoral ministry for Hispanic American Catholics and to develop new forms and structures for pastoral care and apostolic action, upon the recommendation of his vicar general, Monsignor John Maguire, Cardinal Spellman established the position of diocesan coordinator of “Spanish Catholic Action” in 1953. In later years the office expanded and developed new emphases and programs and became known successively as the office of the “Coordinator of Spanish Community Action” and of the “Director of the Spanish-speaking Apostolate”.
Formation of Church Personnel for the Pastoral Care of Hispanic Americans
One of the boldest initiatives taken by the Archdiocese of New York in confronting the challenge of the lack of clergy among Hispanic American Catholics was to train the diocesan priests, seminarians, and religious in the Spanish language and in Puerto Rican and Latin American culture. The first step was taken in 1953, 1954, and 1955 when each year two newly ordained priests of the archdiocese were sent for one year of residence and ministry in Puerto Rico; those same summers small groups of seminarians were sent there for similar purposes during the vacation recess. In 1956 there was an escalation: one half of the number of the newly ordained priests of the archdiocese were sent to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. for an intensive, two-month, saturation training in spoken Spanish.
In 1956, counseled by Father Ivan lllich and Monsignor Maguire, Cardinal Spellman began annually to send one half of the class of newly ordained priests and a large group of seminarians and religious to similar two-month program at the Catholic University in Ponce, Puerto Rico. However, in addition to their linguistic studies these students had other courses in Puerto Rican, Latin American, and American culture and in the particular problems of intercultural communication. Most of them remained on the island for a further month of residency and ministerial apprenticeship. In 1970 there was an expansion of the program to include pastoral experiences in the Dominican Republic, and in recent years formation and pastoral experiences have been provided in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Spain as well.
Both to prepare for this Puerto Rican experience and to sustain and continue the linguistic studies undertaken there, a weekly program of instruction in conversational Spanish during the academic year was initiated in New York in 1959. At Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and occasionally at the archdiocesan seminary and other regional centers hundreds of priests, seminarians, religious, and lay persons have been trained by the archdiocese in the language skills necessary for service in the Hispanic American communities. A measure of the importance of these programs is the fact that their average annual operating cost to the archdiocese is $100,000.
The San Juan Fiesta
As a first step in recognition of the Hispanic American community in the New York church and in view of its overwhelmingly Puerto Rican majority, the first diocesan coordinator, Monsignor Joseph Connolly, recommended an archdiocesan observance of the feast of Saint John the Baptist in Spanish in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick. A pontifical Mass in Spanish was held there in 1953, 1954, and 1955. It was enlarged to a popular fiesta as well in 1956, celebrated 0n the Bronx campus of Fordham University. Due to the massive attendance and participation it was transferred to Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island the following year. For several years it occupied a unique place It was the only public manifestation of the faith and culture of Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic Americans in New York City. Later, other institutions developed such as the Desfile Puertoriqueño (the Puerto Rican Parade) and the Fiesta Folklórica Puertorriqueñno (the Puerto Rican Folk Festival), and the style, format, and popularity of the San Juan Fiesta underwent many transformations. It is still held each year, now in Central Park, with its liturgical, civic, and popular celebrations
The Cursillo de Cristiandad Movement
The second coordinator, Monsignor James Wilson, was very interested in bringing to New York a dynamic, new method of awakening lay responsibility in the church called the Cursillo de Cristiandad (the Brief Course in Christianity). It had been developed as a pastoral tool in Spain with great success there and later in Mexico. After an earlier, unsuccessful experiment the cursillos began to be given regularly in the archdiocese in the fall of 1960. It actually is a highly organized, three-day, study-retreat weekend with a strong emphasis on community experience. In content it addresses itself to the distortions and inadequacies of traditional popular Hispanic American Catholicism and to a theological understanding of the sacramental life, Christian maturity, and the responsibility of the lay person in the church After attending a cursillo, the average participant is enthused, highly motivated, and disposed to active involvement in the apostolate in his local parish.
The movement caught on immediately. By December, 1961, the archdiocese established Saint Joseph’s Center on West 142nd Street in Manhattan for the cursillo movement and other works of formation; the Spanish, Augustinian Recollect priests undertook its staffing. In the past fifteen years several thousand lay men and women have attended a cursillo, and hundreds of them have received further and specialized formation for the apostolate in the associated programs of the cursillo movement at Saint Joseph’s Center.
Utilization of the Mass Media
Because of the size of the New York Hispanic American community, over the years, Spanish language daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations have been developed to serve it. Monsignor Wilson began the utilization of the mass media, especially the press, for the diffusion of religious information. Under the third coordinator, Monsignor Robert Fox, occasional televised liturgies and radio programs were prepared for special religious feast days. Father Robert Stern, the fourth coordinator, initiated a weekly radio and television broadcast of the Sunday liturgy and a series of ecumenical programs as well. This expanded attention to the mass media led to the appointment of a Coordinator for Spanish Media in the archdiocesan Department of Communications.
Ministry in Rural Areas
As the Hispanic American population of the city increased, many migrants began to settle in smaller cities and towns to the North. Because of the presence of so many Hispanic American Catholics in the Haverstraw, Newburgh, and Beacon areas, the archdiocese invited a group of Spanish women religious to work among these scattered families, complementing the ministry of the local parishes. Later a residence and center were established in Cornwall as the base of their apostolate. In 1970 Father Neil Graham was assigned to coordinate the Spanish speaking apostolate of the archdiocese in a four county area. This furthered the development of pastoral programs for Hispanic Americans in the rural areas and gave better direction to the work of the women religious.
Another specialized program of ministry was begun in the summer of 1968 for the migrant farm workers in Orange County. Several hundred Black, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican farm laborers work in the area in the summer months, and a minority of them are there for the entire year. The summer program was expanded with the appointment of a full-time priest to this ministry in the fall of 1969. Masses were celebrated at different work locations, and sacramental, counseling, and social services were provided. Later the program continued on a reduced scale with one full-time woman religious.
The Christian Family Movement
Out of a concern for strengthening the family life of Hispanic Americans, a small task force convoked by Father Stern in 1970 recommended the development of a specialized apostolate for married couples. This program would provide the occasion and climate for regular sharing and dialogue with other couples about the ideals, challenges, and problems of Christian marriage and family life. This archdiocesan program, the Movimiento Familiar Cristiano, has slowly developed to include a few hundred married couples in several key areas of the archdiocese.
Also, at Saint Joseph’s Center, and later through the Movimiento Familiar Cristiano as well a specialized program, designed in Spain, to strengthen communications and unity among married couples, the Encuentro Conjugal (Marriage Encounter), was introduced into the diocese and to the United States. Several hundred Hispanic American couples have attended these weekend encounter sessions.
Youth Ministry
A similar concern for older teenagers and young adults led to the formation of another task force and later the development by Father Stern of a specialized program of formation and group development for youth leaders, the Movimiento Juvenil (Youth Movement). Another priest was appointed to the full-time post of coordinator of youth ministry, Father José McCarthy, O.F.M. Cap., and training in group process and dynamics, leadership skills, and reflection on the Gospel message was offered to parish and local youth groups throughout the city. A program of weekend workshops and retreats was developed and outside funding was obtained to expand the services to the youth groups.
Other programs of specialized youth apostolates and weekend workshops for young adults were offered for a while at Saint Joseph’s Center, and recently, under the fifth coordinator, Father Joaquín Beaumont, a weekend retreat movement for Hispanic American young people was established and has been very successful
Lay Formation Programs
During 1970 still another task force assembled by Father Stern began to explore the development of programs to awaken Hispanic American adults to the implications of Christian adulthood and preparing them to assume responsibility for the work of the Gospel. The main results of this effort was the publication of a series of home-centered dialogues and para-liturgies concerning the basics of Christian faith called “Luz y Vida” (Light and Life). Through the collaboration of lay leaders of the cursillo movement, this program began to be implemented throughout the archdiocese in the local parishes.
Seminarian Exchange Program
The earlier efforts of the archdiocese to serve Hispanic Americans were largely Puerto Rican oriented. The second next largest national group in the area is the Dominicans. In 1970 contacts were made by the archdiocesan coordinator with the Catholic hierarchy in the Dominican Republic to seek their assistance for the pastoral care of Dominican migrants to New York. That summer sixteen seminarians from the dioceses of the Dominican Republic came to New York and spent their summer vacation period working in local parishes and diocesan programs. This was repeated for the next few years.
Archdiocesan Coordinating Committee
When the central archdiocesan office for Hispanic American affairs was reorganized by Cardinal Terence Cooke in 1969, the newly appointed Director of the Spanish-speaking Apostolate immediately began to create structures to promote the broadest possible participation in planning and development on the part of existing church leaders, clerical, religious, and lay, in the Hispanic American Catholic community. Twelve task forces were organized to direct attention to corresponding areas of ministry or concern. A central coordinating committee initially composed of the task force chair persons and later of those church personnel having a special responsibility for movements, programs, or institutions at the service of the Spanish speaking apostolate was set up. This committee met at least monthly, usually for an entire day, and over a period of three years gradually matured into an effective organism of consultation, planning, and coordination. It also had the effect of introducing more Hispanic Americans, especially lay persons, into leadership on the diocesan level.
Leadership Formation Programs
A special project of the coordinating committee in 1972 was the organization of a pastoral institute concerned with the formation and training of lay men and women for leadership in the apostolate and ministry: This resulted in the opening in early 1973 of the Instituto Hispano de Formación Pastoral (the Hispanic Institute for Pastoral Formation), an academic program conducted one evening a week for lay leadership formation involving courses in theology, scripture, church history, sociology, and other related disciplines and in particular pastoral skills. To date a few hundred select parish leaders have had up to three years each of training in this program.
In the summer of 1975 the archdiocesan program for preparation for ordination to the diaconate was expanded to include a Spanish language program as well. A diocesan advisory committee and an associate program director for Hispanic Americans were appointed, and in 1976 the first permanent deacons from the Hispanic American community were ordained by Cardinal Cooke in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. This new program is significant in that it provides for Hispanic Americans, especially mature married men of proven competence in parish and diocesan ministry, entrance into the clergy of the archdiocese.
Recruitment of Spanish Adjunct Clergy
At the beginning of 1977 a delegation of archdiocesan officials including the sixth diocesan coordinator, Father Ignacio Lazcano, C.R.L., went to Spain to establish official contacts with the Spanish hierarchy for the contractual loan of Spanish diocesan clergy to the Archdiocese of New York for ministry here for specified periods of years. This supplements previous contacts and agreements with major religious superiors of several Spanish-based religious orders having houses here concerning the loan of clergy for other than their own ministries in the archdiocese.
This sketch of the initiatives of the Archdiocese of New York in response to the challenge of the massive migration of Hispano-Americans to the New York area omits a thousand details and hundreds of names. It does not reveal the full scope of the deployments of all of the existing institutional resources of the archdiocese for Hispanic Americans: the multifaceted programs of the hundreds of local parishes, the schools, hospitals, social service and child-caring agencies and institutions, and the specialized and varied archdiocesan services. It draws attention only to the new and specifically Hispanic American oriented institutions and programs developed as a direct consequence of the new presence of Hispanic Americans in the archdiocese.
Presently, the majority of the baptized Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of New York are Hispanic American. One satisfaction that they may have is that rarely in the history, of the Catholic Church has so much been mobilized and realized in so short a period of time for an “ethnic” group. One dissatisfaction that they may have is that, although they are fairly well served as a client laity by a clergy that is not their own, this situation tends to resist change. The Hispanic Americans seem to be inadequately represented in leadership and decision-making roles, and entrance into them is still not widely facilitated. The challenge of the Hispano-American migration to the Catholic Church of New York has been fairly well recognized. The contribution that the Hispanic Americans can make to that church is only beginning to be realized.
(Published in
Migration Today, V:3, June 1977)