Spanish Encouraged by St. Paul Archdiocese

August 7, 2000

Source: Star Tribune

On August 7, 2000, the Star Tribune reported that St. Paul Archbishop Harry Flynn is asking "prospective priests to learn enough Spanish so that they can, at a minimum, celebrate the mass in that language... Only 30 of the 233 active priests in the archdiocese are bilingual, and 11 parishes celebrate weekly masses as well as other sacraments, such as marriage, in Spanish." While Hispanics were once believed to be "cradle to grave" Catholics, they are no longer being taken for granted by the American Catholic church. The national Catholic church is losing large numbers of them each year, many to evangelical Protestant denominations. In a 1999 report by the "National Conference of Catholic Bishops, mention was made of figures compiled by Andrew Greeley, a priest and sociologist, who wrote that 600,000 Hispanics are leaving the American church each year. Greeley called it 'the worst defection in the history of the Catholic church in America.'"