The Roman Catholic Church has known for years that its future in the United States depends heavily on Hispanics. The church, which is the largest religious denomination in the country, is already about 40 percent Hispanic, and the demographic change is inexorable: Within the next few decades, Hispanics are expected to make up a majority of American Catholics.
The influx of Hispanics has been a stabilizing factor for the church. Were it not for immigration, Catholicism in the United States would be dwindling as non-immigrant Catholics drift away from the church. But the changing makeup of American Catholicism also poses challenges, starting with the problem that much of the physical and political infrastructure of the church is concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest, while much of the immigration-fueled growth is in the Southwest and West.
Hispanic Catholics differ from other American Catholics in a number of striking, and significant, ways: Hispanic parents have been much less likely to send their children to Catholic schools, and their sons have been less likely to pursue the priesthood.
A researcher at Boston College, Hosffman Ospino, has undertaken a new effort to understand the behavior of Hispanic American Catholics, and the implications for the larger church. In a study released Monday, Mr. Ospino finds a relatively high level of participation in church sacraments, but a low level of participation in other aspects of parish life, and a concerning lack of personnel and financial resources in parishes with high numbers of Hispanics.
“There is a bleak picture in terms of resources,” Mr. Ospino said. “And it is noticeable that at higher levels of leadership, the number of Hispanics are lower.”
There are positive findings: Mass attendance in parishes with Hispanic ministries is 22 percent higher than in the average parish, a promising sign in a church that has seen attendance at Masses dropping over the last few decades. Rates of baptism and first communions are also higher.
But attendance rates at weekday Mass are quite low, participation in non-sacramental activities like youth groups is low, and contributions to collection are also low, often reflecting economic hardship. Parishes serving Hispanics often have fewer staffers per parishioner than other parishes, according to the study; parishes with high numbers of Hispanic parishioners are also less likely to have a parish school.
Previous research has suggested that only 3 percent of Hispanic Catholic children go to Catholic schools in the United States, an issue that the leadership of the Catholic Church has been working on for some time. The challenges are cultural as well as financial. In some Latin American countries, Catholic schools cater largely to wealthy families, and as a result the idea of attending Catholic schools is alien to many immigrant families in the United States, according to Mar Muñoz-Visoso, the executive director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Ms. Muñoz-Visoso said the church had also been trying to increase the number of priests, as well as monks, friars and nuns, who minister to Hispanics.
“The growth of the population has been so tremendous, it’s been very difficult to keep up with the needs and the demands,” she said.
The study was based on surveys of parishes with Hispanic ministries; data collection and analysis was conducted by Boston College, in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
The study is the first of two being released this week examining the religious lives of American Hispanics. On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center plans to release results of a large poll examining religious identity among Hispanics in the United States.