Catholic Church News

The future of Catholicism in the U.S. relies heavily on the Church’s ability to attract and retain young Hispanics, according to a new study recently released by Boston College in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. The report titled, “The National Study of Catholic Parishes with Hispanic Ministry,” is the first national study to focus exclusively on Catholic parishes with Hispanic ministries.  In the early 80s, Hispanics represented 25% of the U.S. Catholic population, and 15% of all parishes served the Hispanic populations.  While Hispanics now constitute 40% of all Catholics in the U.S., only 25% of all Catholic parishes serve Hispanics, the report finds.  According to CARA, there are now over 29 million Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. According to the Boston College study, Hispanic ministry in parishes essentially serves youth and young families, which presents an opportunity to shape a new generation of Catholics. Nearly 55% of all U.S. Catholics under the age of 30 are Hispanics and the average age of Hispanics in the U.S. is 27.  The parish remains a very important institution for U.S. Hispanic Catholics to build community and celebrate their faith, the report finds.  On average, parishes with Hispanic ministries have more Catholics attending Mass compared to all parishes nationwide.  The study concludes with several areas that require immediate pastoral attention.  The study notes that “most pastoral leaders overseeing Hispanic ministry observe that integration into the life of the parish among Hispanic Catholics of all ages—immigrants and U.S. born—remain at a

Pope Francis today named Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops. The responsibilities of the congregation include moderating all aspects of episcopal appointments, assisting bishops in the correct exercise of their pastoral functions, handling ad limina visits (regular visits to Rome by bishops every five years) and establishing episcopal conferences and reviewing their decrees as required by canon law.  Learn more about Cardinal Donald Wuerl and this appointment.

More than 80 leaders attended the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management’s Regional Roundtable—Philadelphia on September 30, 2013, at the Union League Club in Philadelphia. Regional Roundtable participants engaged in dialogue about the Leadership Roundtable’s vision, with a panel presentation from the group’s newly installed chairman, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) James Dubik, and Executive Director Kerry Robinson. Small workgroup sessions allowed for greater exchange of ideas among participants. Geoff Boisi, the founding chair of the Leadership Roundtable, offered a brief update on the organization’s engagement with the Church over the past 9 years as they prepare to celebrate a decade of service beginning at the 2014 Annual Meeting. The final session of the day was a panel focusing on the sustainability of Catholic schools co-hosted by the Philanthropy Roundtable. Representatives from the Boston and Philadelphia archdioceses shared innovative approaches to planning and strategic development. That evening, Mr. Boisi was honored with the 2013 Leadership Roundtable Best Practices Award for his extraordinary investment in the Catholic Church. 

Breakthroughs in digitization and computing technologies have led to a digital humanities revolution. Historians can now, in theory, search for every trace of a person, relate themes across documents and write history rich with almost forgotten details.  Technological advances have indeed made a vast body of historical newspapers and documents instantly accessible to scholars and students.  Yet the Catholic Church may find itself less, not more, visible in these emerging histories of the United States.   Leading online sources are largely focused on municipal and trade newspapers. Catholic newspapers are conspicuously under-represented. Traditional research methods remain, and local archives can be combed. Yet results are partial and labor intensive.  Deadline-pressed historians and sociologists, writing on topics ranging from Catholic chaplains in the Civil War to the sundry connections between parish, family and public life, can easily miss these manual sources and the significant Catholic voices therein. Absent from the “net”, Catholics might soon be invisible in history. Individual archivists at institutions like Belmont Abbey College, Duquesne University, and the Archdiocese of Chicago are therefore working hard to fill the digital gap. Recognition is growing that all Catholic newspaper archives should be online, ensuring that the Catholic tradition, experiences and views be acknowledged for their important contributions to the greater American dialogue. Recognizing the importance of this digital archive mission, the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) established the Catholic Newspapers Program  in 2011 to provide access to all extant Catholic newspapers in North America.  Preliminary listings of  Catholic Newspapers Online feature 800-plus titles and online access to over

Support Our Aging Religious (SOAR!)—a  group of lay people who ensure the financial well being  of Catholic religious congregations to care for their elderly and infirm members—reports  that 644 religious congregations of women and men  in the U.S. will benefit from  recently approved grants totaling $1,125,621. The SOAR! board of directors approved the grants in May to assist religious congregations to fulfill basic needs such as  therapeutic equipment, renovating space to improve handicapped accessibility and  safety, and the installation of fire alarms and wander guard alarms. “Those of us who benefit from the dedicated service of religious men and women are committed to ensuring that the frail and aging Sisters, Brothers and Priests are provided with quality care in safe facilities. The elderly religious continue to bless us by their ministry of prayer,” said Michael Rodgers, chairperson of SOAR! board. To lean more about SOAR! and the approved grant, visit the following link: http://soar-usa.org/2012/03/soar-awards-nearly-1-million-in-grants/

Chicago, IL – Part of the ongoing interest of FADICA members in supporting Hispanic ministry, FADICA applauds Catholic Extension’s first annual gathering of Hispanic lay leaders from Catholic dioceses across the country. The August event marks the beginning of the national Hispanic Lay Leadership Initiative, a three-year commitment supported in part by FADICA members to fund the salaries of 100 new Hispanic lay leaders in poor mission dioceses across the U.S. The initiative is aimed at positively impacting Hispanic ministry in the U.S. Catholic church. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 40 percent of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic, and some predict that as soon as 2020, Hispanics could be the majority in the Catholic church. “There are many gifts and many opportunities that this growing population offers the church and the country,” said Arturo Chavez, president and CEO of Mexican American Catholic College. “However, only seven percent of active bishops are Hispanic and only six percent of all Catholic priests. We are now beginning to show a growth in Hispanic seminarians…and permanent deacons. But the greatest challenge today is that only eight percent of the estimated 30,000 lay ecclesial ministers nationally are Hispanic.” The Hispanic Lay Leadership Initiative is designed to address this growing need by building pastoral capacity in dioceses where Hispanics are present in significant numbers through creating new lay leadership positions. These new leaders will be able to reach out to thousands of Hispanic Catholics across the country. Dr. Chavez, who joined FADICA and Catholic Extension at a joint symposium earlier this year,

Washington D.C. – An energetic discussion between top U.S. experts on the Second Vatican Council and Catholic philanthropists, sheds light on today’s differing outlooks between advocates and opponents of change in the church. The conference’s sixty-page edited proceedings entitled: The Spirit of Renewal: Vatican II and the Future of Catholic Philanthropy were released today by FADICA. The conference itself took place in early February 2012. John Carroll University Professor Edward Hahnenberg delivered the keynote address of the event held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Dr. Hahnenberg told foundations and donor participants that three major tensions at work throughout the Council explain much of internal strife experienced by Catholics a half a century later. He described the three tensions as centralization vs. decentralization of the church, especially in its day-to-day governance; a stance by the church of proclaiming Christian truths vs. a more conversational posture of dialogue with the world; and thirdly, attaching greater weight to continuity with the past over the need to embrace change. Dr. Massimo Faggioli of St. Thomas University and author of the newly published book, Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning, a panel respondent, said that the word “dialogue” in Catholicism now is not very frequently used. “That’s a fact,” he asserted insistently before the audience of some seventy foundation trustees and individual donors. The conference, held in conjunction with FADICA’s thirty-sixth annual meeting, was intended to help Catholic philanthropists evaluate their own role in fueling church-wide understanding of the Council’s achievements and vision through their grantmaking.

“You have not only honored CRS by your superb stewardship and service,” said Dr. Butler, “but everyone of us as well in the Catholic community.” Mr. Hackett is planning to retire from the CRS presidency in January following nearly 20 years as the agency’s president. A symposium with Catholic donors was sponsored by the CRS Foundation on October 12th in Washington, DC, and was held in order to honor Mr. Hackett’s service. During his tenure, CRS succeeded in raising its profile as a leading humanitarian aid agency throughout the globe, while it made impressive inroads into the Catholic parishes, and other Catholic institutions by raising awareness and mobilizing Catholics on issues of global poverty and human suffering. “I know…how many donors and foundations have admired your leadership and have been deeply moved by the way you transformed and strengthened CRS…” said Dr. Butler. “It is a premier charity in the U.S., and a template for how to run a Catholic institution in our day,” he added. Under Mr. Hackett’s leadership, private contributions to CRS moved from approximately $40 million per year to nearly $300 million today. CRS is presently at work aiding families fleeing war torn and famine plagued Horn of Africa and continues to reconstruct thousands of homes in earthquake damaged Haiti among its other world-wide services. In addition to dramatically improving CRS’s professional capacity, Mr. Hackett succeeded in integrating into the planning of the agency at every level an operational commitment to Catholic social justice principles. Mr. Hackett will be succeeded by Dr. Carolyn

Washington, DC – – The President of the Catholic Church Extension Society invited members of the Catholic foundation world earlier this month to work in a $15 Million partnership over the next three years to create one hundred new Hispanic leadership positions within the home mission territories of the United States. In a talk before members of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities assembled for their 35th annual meeting in Naples, Florida, Father John Wall highlighted the breathtaking pastoral challenges that changing demographics within Catholicism present, especially within home mission dioceses. There, the growth in the Hispanic population in particular, he said, requires a corresponding welcoming presence on the part of the church – a task requiring the enlistment and preparation of more lay leaders in dioceses that presently have few personnel resources. Right now there are over eighty dioceses within the United States considered mission territories, often containing vast geographic stretches of rural and remote terrain with few churches and priests. Since 1905, more than $450 million has been distributed to dioceses by the Catholic Church Extension Society to help them staff and operate their small, struggling parishes. Many of these smaller U.S. dioceses have experienced a dramatic influx of Hispanic populations over the past two decades. Research indicates that nearly 40% of the entire U.S. Catholic population is Hispanic and projections see the mid century marking their growth as the majority of U.S. church members. More than 50% of all Catholics in the U.S. under age 25 at the present time are of Hispanic descent.

Washington, DC – – Catholic dioceses and parishes around the country continue to report mounting problems in keeping their schools afloat amidst a lackluster economy, rising costs, increasing competition for students by new charter schools, and financing arrangements that are not working. Judging from a spate of news reports from older metropolitan areas of the country, where Catholic populations are concentrated, the problems of sustaining parochial schools is reaching the breaking point. This past Spring, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, where Catholic schools began in the United States, 10,000 school seats sat empty, while more than $10 million in tuition aid and operational support was paid out by the church there. The Archdiocese has taken bold steps to consolidate 13 schools while adopting a more hands-on approach to design a more vibrant school system for the future. Meanwhile, archdioceses across the country report similar pressures keeping their schools solvent. The Archdiocese of Boston, for example, continues to reconfigure and consolidate Catholic schools there. Facing continued school closings, the archdiocese is spending time and money on new curriculum, renovated buildings, better teacher salaries, and a new model of regional schools that will mean significantly fewer schools in the future. In the Northeastern Pennsylvania diocese of Scranton, a Catholic stronghold for decades, parishioners, parents and students have seen 30 of their schools close since 1999 due to declining enrollment and financial stress. Since the bulk of the closures in 2007, enrollment has fallen 7 percent in the 22 diocesan schools contributing to a $5.6 million operating deficit last year. According