Hispanic ‘personal parishes’ in the contemporary U.S. Catholic Church

Abstract

U.S. Catholicism spawned hundreds of national (“personal”) parishes, most serving early European immigrants. Hispanics’ later population growth, by contrast, coincided with Church leaders’ emphasis on integrated, territorial parishes. This paper examines more recent practice around personal parishes with explicit, named service to Hispanic Catholics. One in six new personal parishes serves Hispanics. Hispanic personal parishes’ minimal presence among American dioceses, however, does not mirror Hispanics’ larger presence among Catholics overall. Findings from an original National Study of Personal Parishes reveal commonalities in diocesan explanations for establishing – or not establishing – Hispanic personal parishes. Personal parishes operate as an alternative, non-assimilative parish structure alongside the “ideal” of an integrated, territorial parish.

Keywords:

• Hispanic Catholics
• immigrant integration
• personal parish
• religious belonging

Notes

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the Louisville Institute and National Science Foundation for research support.

Notes

1 Dioceses were asked to list parishes whose decree specifies service to Hispanics/Latinos. Many dioceses have personal parishes originally decreed to serve (e.g.,) German Catholics, whose populations are now nearly 100% Hispanic/Latino. Unless the decree was changed, such a parish would not be included. Dioceses only reported personal parishes that remained open as of Fall 2012, exempting those opened after 1982 but closed by 2012.

2 Of course, Catholic parishes are never wholly “congregational” given their lack of autonomy and close linkage to broader Church polity and diocesan contexts.