Pope-Admiring Latino Youth Are the Catholic Church’s Present, Future
*The key statistic in this story is: 60 percent of U.S. Catholics under the age of 18 are Latino. That’s probably why the Pope is coming to the U.S. and celebrating a mass in Spanish. VL
By Suzzane Gamboa, NBC News
In the 1960s, just 10 percent or less of Catholics were Latinos, said Hosffman Ospino, an assistant professor of Hispanic ministry and religious education at Boston College.
Today, 43 percent of all U.S. Catholics are Hispanic. But more important, about 60 percent of Catholics under the age of 18 are Latino. And though the church is being significantly shaped by immigrants, it is this generation of young Latinos born in the U.S. that is having greater impact, Ospino sad.
[pullquote]The present and future of Catholicism in the U.S. is intimately linked to the Latino experience.[/pullquote]“[tweet_dis]The present and future of Catholicism in the U.S. is intimately linked to the Latino experience. Its vibrancy and its potential to move into the future is in U.S. born Latinos[/tweet_dis],” Ospino said.
That demographic shifts in the U.S. are taking hold just as Pope Francis bring his two-year-old papacy to the U.S. are to some an important – and hopeful – turn of events.
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[Photo by JD Warrick/Flickr]
