Exploring elasticity and shielding in the Catholic Church: priests’ relationships with Latino worshippers

ABSTRACT

Examining the relationship between Catholic priests and Latino parishioners, we explored how five clergy understood their roles in easing the way for immigrants to the Boston area. Just as the Catholic Church welcomed European immigrants of an earlier period, priests believed that their parishes continued to embrace a newer wave of immigrants during a time when Latinos experienced heightened fear of deportation under the immigration policies that took place between 2017 and 2021. However, an alternative narrative emerged in this study, in which priests acknowledged their own reliance on Latino parishioners to revitalise their church and fill their pews as their numbers of white members were dwindling. We argue that priests’ descriptions of their interactions with Latino worshippers highlight their move to elasticise the Catholic Church to accommodate the needs of new immigrant families. Priests then seek to establish a loyalty among Latino parishioners which serves to shield them from the criticism of white Americans in the wake of the child sexual abuse scandal.

KEYWORDS:

• Latino
• immigration
• Catholicism
• religion
• priests
• church

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

1. Because no one term enjoys universal acceptance nor truly captures the vast diversity of a people with roots in Latin America, we use the terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’ throughout the paper because they were most commonly used by the participants, three of whom were from Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela, to signify the multiple generations of immigrants from Latin America in the Boston area.

2. Prior to starting this study, ethical approval was obtained for all protocols from the institutional review board at Boston College. This approval confirms that the study met the required guidelines for research with human beings.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by Boston College.

Notes on contributors

Gabrielle Oliveira

Gabrielle Oliveira is an associate professor of education and Brazil Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Marisa Segel

Marisa Segel is a PhD candidate at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Olivia Barbieri

Olivia Barbieri is a teacher and a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Virginia Alex

Virginia Alex is an undergraduate student at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.