U.S. Hispanic Catholics in the pews

Abstract

In recent decades, Hispanics have been the fastest growing segment of the U.S. Catholic population. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has documented the demography of this population, where Hispanics worship, and how they evaluate their parish. This article provides a twenty-first century portrait of the Catholic Church through the lens of Hispanic parishioners. It documents the broad embrace of multiculturalism among Hispanic Catholics and the growing numbers of Hispanics preparing for new roles in parish ministry and leadership.

Keywords:

• Catholic affiliation
• Catholic parishes
• church participation
• cultural diversity
• Hispanic Catholics

Notes

Notes

1 Geographically, seven of the parishes were located in the Northeast, three in the Midwest, seven in the South, and six in the West. This distribution is similar to the percentages of the U.S. Catholic population residing in each region within 3 percentage points or less with the exception of the Midwest, which has 13% of the parishes in phase three, but 21% of the adult Catholic population according to the CARA Catholic Poll (September 2012). The average number of in-pew respondents in parishes was 628. The largest parish included 2,508 respondents and the smallest 68.

2 Sixty-seven percent of the panel members invited to take the survey completed it.

3 “Core” Catholics are defined as those who attend Mass at least once a month. In CARA Catholic Polls, there are a few differences on other measures between weekly and monthly attenders. Outside of this group are the “periphery” Catholics, who have more tenuous relationships to parish life attending either a few times a year or less often.