Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California said he hadn’t been described as a U.S.-born Latino bishop in years. And yet, he has relatively few similar peers in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 2020, the Associated Press reported that there were about 3,000 Hispanic priests based in the U.S., out of a total of roughly 37,300 American clerics. But of those Hispanic priests, more than 2,000 were born outside the U.S., a number that includes many priests who came to the U.S. specifically for their ministry. Both dynamics also affect the U.S. bishops’ conference.
As a U.S.-born Hispanic priest, Cantú said, “I think we have a distinct opportunity to be bridges from the historical institutional church in the United States to a growing population whose voice has not always been asked for, whose experiences and opinions have not always been sought.”
Cantú, who has been the bishop of San Jose since 2019, told National Catholic Reporter in a Nov. 16 interview on the sidelines of the U.S. bishops’ meeting in Baltimore that a lack of representation can cause a repeating negative feedback loop.
“When they don’t see someone like themselves in those roles, they don’t imagine themselves in those roles,” he said of U.S.-born Latinos.
Cantú said the church needs “to lift up those who are already in those roles as examples and to be intentional about that.”
Cantú, who grew up in Houston in a working-class family, said he understands another barrier to the priesthood for U.S.-born Latinos: the economic pressure to support family. “We need to work on changing those expectations and that element of the culture,” he said of the expectation to economically support parents as they age.
Asked about the ongoing consultation process for Pope Francis’ Synod of Bishops, Cantú drew a parallel between the synod and the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry, hosted by the U.S. church from 2014 to 2018. He called the encuentro “a tremendously positive experience,” and said “we need to follow up on that.”
In San Jose’s own synodal process, Cantú said, “the feedback that we got was right in line with the feedback that was received across the country.” People who participated were “surprised and pleased” to be asked for input, he said.
Cantú described San Jose as a “very multiethnic and multicultural diocese.” But the participants in the synodal listening sessions were “primarily English speakers, white, retired, highly educated and wealthy,” he said.
“Perhaps they had more time,” Cantú mused, explaining that he had asked pastors to frame synodal participation as an invitation, not a requirement….
Cantú said that the smaller group conversations at the bishops’ meeting this year — the bishops sat at small tables together, instead of in rows facing the dais — were an example of growing synodality, especially because it was a change conference members had asked for….
Full story in the National Catholic Reporter.
I’m so tired of the incessant emphasis on race and racial consciousness and racial sensitivity and racial box checking and concern for racial equity. Cantu said nothing about faith. Nothing about Christ. Nothing about being a faithful Catholic.
His religion appears to be racialism and wokeness.
Why not be concerned that bishops, priests and the laity are faithful to Christ and the Church’s doctrine instead of whether this or that racial box is checked enough times in episcopal elevations, priestly ordinations and parish meeting attendance?
I have a suggestion for Cantu: start by fixing Archbishop Mitty High School, right in your own diocese, where your religion teachers and administrators flagrantly teach dissent from Catholic doctrine and espouse the secular religion of godless wokeness instead of Catholicism? Do your job at home. Be a shepherd for Christ, not a woke CEO of a woke NGO.
We used to be able to count on Latinos to be Catholic and regular church goers. Those days are fading. They are basically gone in South America. Did it ever occur to you that people naturally gravitate towards institutions where leaders look like themselves, and flee those where they don’t see themselves represented. If there is a lot of emphasis on race, it is because we have a history of unjust treatment of non-white individuals, and we still have bias and discrimination in far too many places. That might be uncomfortable to hear, but it is true. Our Church is better than most institutions in this regard, but we can always do better.
AH YFC can always be counted on to be a mouth piece of leftwing talking points, and its absolute obsession with skin color. Gee YFC the first Catholics that came from Spain looked nothing like the natives, yet those brave Franciscans and Jesuits of that time were able to spread the Gospel despite their light skin tone. You want to know why Hispanics have left the Church, the same reason as whites, corruption, bad liturgies, horrible catechesis, the Church throwing in behind the culture and sexual deviants (your very own LGBTQRXTUV) syndicate which has corrupted everything its goes near. When the homo-mafia in the Church is brutally crushed we will see rebirth, may I live to see it
Actually, bohemond, many Hispanic Catholics have left to go to other denominations where they can practice birth control and can remarry after divorce. A large number have gone to Pentecostalism and other “Spirit-driven” denominations.
There used to be a lot more of a “Spirit-driven” movement in the US Catholic Church (usually called Charismatic) but that seems to have fizzled out.
Even Franciscan University has much less of that now.
There are polls that show that LGBTQ affiliation is higher in Hispanics than in other groups, but the stigma is also high.
Lately, Hispanic Latinos prefer to be called brown rather than white but they are descendants of Europeans, too.
Sometimes people leave the Church because of the reasons you suggest but more leave because of the opposite reason. They think the Church is wrong on gay marriage, divorce, birth control, women priests, married priests. The Catholic Church is seen as too strict and too mean, not allowing enough freedom, too much trying to control people.
“Actually, bohemond, many Hispanic Catholics have left to go to other denominations where they can practice birth control and can remarry after divorce. A large number have gone to Pentecostalism and other “Spirit-driven” denominations.” You prove my point of rotten catechesis
” They think the Church is wrong on gay marriage, divorce, birth control, women priests, married priests. The Catholic Church is seen as too strict and too mean, not allowing enough freedom, too much trying to control people.” And they are wrong on all counts
YFC: Yes, we can all do better, but most people are tribal and tend to gravitate to those whose cultural characteristics resemble their own. It’s primal.instinct. However, If you dredge up history to prove your theory that the non-white race is inherently unjust, then you are perpetrating an injustice upon that race. If we are to move forward, then we need to focus on the good that people do, have done, and will continue to do in God’s name.
Axiom I never said that the no -white races are inherently unjust. I don’t have such a theory. Nor do I have a theory that the white race is inherently unjust. Never said it. Don’t believe it, so please don’t put words in my mouth. I just point out that there have been injustices legally perpetrated against people of color in my own lifetime in the U.S. and that doesnt even begin to cover the illegal injustices that take place today – that people with black sounding names are less likely to get job interviews and apartment rentals, or the horrid police violence that SOME police officers perpetrate against black and brown people. You have to be intentionally blind to not see these issues and wonder how it effects people. And I don’t disagree that there are other factors that cause people to leave the church. I merely said that there are additional factors that cause it in addition to those that cause all people to want to leave the Church.
Yeah, that’s why I don’t watch the NBA. There aren’t any players that look like me. Does that really make any sense?
Isn’t it ironic that Ireland’s priests historically came from poorer farming families, yet there was no barrier placed in front of them to enter the priesthood due to “economic pressure to support their families”. That was to the contrary, as those same families gladly sacrificed economically to support their sons and daughters in the religious life. Bishop Cantu should address this issue of under-representation in the religious life with his Latino-American brothers and sisters, instead of indulging in cultural self-pity
Bishop Cantu’s disappointment that his synod participants were too white is so depressing. All Catholics are equal, but some Catholics are more equal than others in FrancisChurch.
More woke anti-white racist comments – so tiring. Bishop, just move to a Spanish speaking country. .
If white Americans are so bad, why is every Latino from every country, trying to
fight their way into the USA?
As one walks around our city, the Spanish language is heard everywhere.
There are no apologies for breaking our immigration laws, just complaints
about how badly Latinos are treated, so gimme a good job and money…
Grow Up Bishop!
Will the only diocesan high school renew the contract of its abortion-promoting, gender-confused president?
If the bishop is afraid to fire her, why not just not renew her contract?
Are the majority of students and faculty going to quit Archbishop Mitty High School if he does?
And, if so, what does that prove?
She’s black, so she’s untouchable. She’s safe in that job until she voluntarily quits. She was hired because she’s black, and she’s secure in her job because she’s black.
So now we are going to distinguish between U.S. born Latino bishops and foreign born Latino bishops. More categories to divide people.
Today we do not judge people on how well they do their job, but rather on how many woke boxes they check.
I didn’t hear the bishop complaining when those “ white, retired, highly educated and wealthy” people were making donations to the Church.
Money isn’t racist: it’s only green.
Thumbs up, Jim.
Maybe instead of “synodal listening sessions”, our churches should be having “catechetical learning sessions” so Catholics will actually know their faith before giving out their opinions.
You hit the nail on the head.
It seems to me that the lack of “representation” from the other ‘color spectrum” might have something to do with failure to know how to target and involve the other ethnicites. I would have have hoped a hispanic bishop would have an inner sense of how to reach all the colors that make up the Spanish-speaking
I want to point out that this article is from the Reporter.
Uh, the Distorter.
Cantú pointed out that the bishops are “constantly” listening to the bishops’ conference staff, who are mostly laypeople. “It’s not that we’re not listening, but can we widen the circle as to who we listen to?” he asked.
Addressing a concern about the synod that another bishop had brought up during the assembly that “all voices would be sort of flattened without distinguishing the voice of the bishops,” Cantú pointed to three words Francis frequently uses for the synod: “encounter, listen and discern.”
Within discernment, Cantú said, “the voice of the magisterium … remains unchanged.”
“That listening piece and encountering piece does add color to and depth to our [voice], not so much what we teach, but how we teach,” he said.
“Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.”
(Deut. 6:4)
Children ought not to save for their parents, but parents for their children.
2 Cor 12:14
Of those who attended listening sessions and completed the survey, 48% were white, 1%
were black/African American, 22% were Hispanic/Latino, 16% were Asian/Asian American, 1%
were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 5% were “other” and 6% declined to state.
2/3rds of 2000 participants were women and 50% were over 54 years of age.
Diocese of San Jose synthesis report page 3.
The listening sessions were dominated by elderly, liberal women because the young and many sensible men have been driven out of the church by disgust with the clergy’s corruption.
There is no where else to go.
We don’t know the number of women or over 54s that asked their husbands/children/other relatives to do the survey and they did not do it.
Astoundingly, 2/3 of the women over 54 who attended the listening sessions were named Karen.
Not the best thing that has come from the Internet.
What about the women whose names are “Karen”, who do not act like “Karens”. Is not that an injustice to them? It is like using certain boy’s names for boys’ private body parts. Grow up people. Say and use the proper terms and say what you mean about an individual and stop stereotyping.
The article is a non-starter. The US Church far and away has the most foreign-born and US born Mexican bishops (in the history of Catholic Church!) and has far more Latino bishops throughout the US (including now quite a few Mexican-born bishops) now than just ten years ago. In California, for example, Mexican-born or Mexican-American bishops are either ordinary or auxiliary in in half of the dioceses of California: Los Angeles (Mexican born) San Jose (Texas born), San Bernardino (Mexican born), Monterrey (Texas born), Stockton (California born) and San Diego (Texas born). Why does California have three bishops from Texas? This is/was the “Archbishop Gomez Effect”. Through his influence, Archbishop Gomez brought all three of these men to California (Garcia, Bejarano, and Cantu.) These fellows were all trusted friends from his time in San Antonio. They are good men, but it was considered somewhat of an insult to local clergy to “import” men instead of finding California Mexican or Mexican American bishops. In any event, Gomez’ influence will likely cease with the appointment of Cardinal McElroy, who will now begin to appoint his own political bedfellows.
Furthermore, Roman Catholic countries typically NEVER appoint foreign born bishops, and they generally only appoint men who come from “higher class/connected family class” family backgrounds. Hence, the National Catholic Reporter might want to interview in another country if they are looking for a story on nationalism in the episcopacy. France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and pretty much everywhere in the world with significant Catholic populations (save a few missionary bishops and Eastern Rite bishops) have exactly zero foreign-born bishops, and some of these countries, like France and Germany, now have huge numbers of foreign born populations. The only countries with a few foreign born Latin-Rite bishops I can find are in Australia, South Africa, and Canada, all of which have just a couple of men.
Perhaps Latinos are not interested in taking a vow of obedience that has evolved to be primarily oriented towards promoting disobedience to Jesus Christ.
A large proportion of San Jose’s Hispanics are manual workers, often working two jobs. Like most manual workers, they operate largely by common sense, not big abstract ideas so loved by Americans hereabouts in the 1960’s and 70’s. The Synod process is a waste of time, and the Hispanics realize that. Well- off Americans with time on their hands attend because they are looking for a bit of social life, or they never noticed that Vatican II “Opening widows to the world” led to 60 million Catholics flying out those windows and taking most of our institutions with them. Some attendees likely have an agenda like gaining approval for divorce/remarriage, women priests, or some “social justice” issue that the synod will undoubtedly advocate in their name.
Signed- A highly educated affluent retired Euro-American with enough sense to know the Mexicans are right to avoid the Synod process entirely.
In my town in southeastern Alabama we have a very large population of Mexican and Guatemalan workers who arrived over the last 30 years. i speak with them often and they lament that they work too hard to have time to learn english in free evening classes . Add that to California Teacher’s insights and i think the low turn-out among hispanics comes into some focus. As the bishop mused, there might have been a time issue. Without knowing what percent of San Jose Diocese is hispanic, it is difficult to assess the meaning of the 22% hispanic turnout. San Jose city is 31% hispanic with a considerable percentage of that probably protestant. btw, i watched a video of Bishop Cantu making a presentation toCantu to a latin american audience and he is very cautious and humble in his demeanor. I doubt that he used the word “White” as anything more than a shorthand.
But they love the white people money. The Church is in a state of collapse. But even the Vatican loves that American money. I see no end in sight. Only going to deteriorate more.
Smaller, holier?
If our religious leaders were inside a house that is on fire, they would not notice the fire because they are too obsessed with everyone’s skin color to notice anything else.
What is he even saying?
He is a bishop. He ordains people.
Is he saying that when he tries to interest US born Latinos they are not interested in the priesthood?
Well, you do not want them if God has not called them.
I do not think that God would not call someone because they spoke Spanish or their parents or grandparents were born outside the US.
It is possible that He might call someone and they would hesitate to approach the Church because they were protecting parents who were in the US illegally.
Or, as the bishop says, they might feel called to be a priest but they do not answer the call because they feel they have to work to support their parents or because they cannot afford college.
He should be asking them or asking his priests to ask.
The Fund for Vocations, a Catholic charitable organization, helps men and women respond to God’s call to religious life by paying off student loan debt that prevents them from entering the seminary or convent.
The fund was created in 2007 to address the problem of student loans blocking aspiring priests and nuns from pursuing the vocation.
Priests and nuns vow to spend their lives serving God in poverty, chastity and obedience. Upon entering the seminary or convent they must be debt-free because they do not have an income.
Mary Radford, executive director of the Fund for Vocations, told The College Fix that without help aspirants may need to wait two to 10 years to enter before they can pay off their student loan debt. The organization strives to change this through donors who help make it possible, she said.
Radford said the number of applications received per year varies but is usually between 11 to 30, however, they often must turn away over half of qualified grant applicants simply for lack of funding.
i wonder how the bishop was able to determine the ‘ethnic’ breakdown percentages? Are there boxes on forms that participants in the SJ diocese’s version the a synod check off? In the parish registration list, are parish members asked to identify their cultural identity, and from there pastors “apply” an identity label? Or is this break-down from on high, sourcing back to Rome at some point?
There is a question on the survey and they probably asked at the sessions but I do not know.
My point is about why Archbishop Gomez, born in Mexico, a part of Latin America, was not made a cardinal.
White – Racist…BAD. Brown, Black, Blue, Orange, Green, Purple, Red – Racist…Good.
in true, liberal fashion, there is NO social.
political, economic or religious phenomenon
that is NOT 100% explained by Racism !!!
Are you saying that men raping altar boys is caused by racism? I think YFC would like that one..
No Candu.
Bishop Oscar is a piece of work, truly… he should avoid race talk after appointing the black abortion supporting pagan woman to lead his diocese’s high school