Theology professor calls Church to ‘permanent state of mission’

A Boston College theology professor says cultural changes and immigration patterns have radically changed the face of the Catholic Church in America. Dr. Hosffman Ospino says these two overlapping influences have made the Church ripe for the new evangelization initiative raised by the Second Vatican Council and emphasized by popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

Dr. Hosffman Ospino told the USCCB Convocation of 

Catholic Leaders that challenges to the Church are resulting in a
“new way of being Catholic.”

“We must declare ourselves in a permanent state of mission,” Ospino said. “We must see ourselves permanently engaged in missionary activity going forth, taking the initiative, going to the peripheries, embracing Jesus Christ in those who are most vulnerable and in need, reaching out to those who have drifted away.”

Ospino, the director of graduate programs in Hispanic ministry at Boston College, was the keynote speaker on the second day of the Convocation of Catholic Leaders in Orlando, Fla. The convocation, organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to promote the Church’s new evangelization initiative, has attracted more than 3,500 clergy, religious, and lay leaders from across the country.

Osino said European immigrants from the late 19^th and early 20^th century, their children, and their grandchildren helped reshape the United States by building schools, hospitals, and providing extensive social services. This led to a short period of stability in the mid-20^th century. These descendants embraced the American way of life, becoming acculturated, educated, and upwardly mobile – both politically and economically.

“We could offer this community experience,” said the researcher, “as a perfect case study of the American dream achieved.”

This achieved dream, however, came at a great price – four major cultural shifts outlined by Ospino that, he says, significantly affected the practice of religion in the United States. These changes include a radical reconfiguration in family life, a focus on the individual at the expense of caring and concern for others, and the use of religion as a political weapon in the culture wars that has made dialog almost impossible.

“The Gospel is not an ideology to be co-opted to advance any ideological position,” declared Ospino – an assertion that drew thunderous applause.

The fourth and possibly most critical change, according to the researcher, is the rise of secularism – including the dramatic increase in the number of so-called “nones” – 25 percent of the American public who claim no religious affiliation at all. Ospino said that percentage includes 20 million people who used to identify themselves as Catholic.

“Why are they leaving?” Ospino asked. “Why is religion, particularly Catholicism, not doing it for them? And where is our outrage? We have a serious challenge.”

This loss among the descendants of the first wave of Catholic immigration is being matched by a second wave of newcomers. Since, 1960, Ospino said, Hispanics have accounted for 71 percent of the Church’s growth in the U.S., and also comprise 60 percent of Catholics under the age of 18. Asians, Ospino said, currently make up the fastest-growing community of Catholics in the country. They are joined by hundreds of thousands of Catholics from Africa and the Caribbean. In all, Ospino said, about a quarter of the approximately 80 million Catholics in the U.S. are immigrants.

“They are the face of Christ,” Ospino told the gathering. “They and their children embody the hope of a new beginning, and bring the best of their faith and cultures to enrich the faith communities.”

Spino said this cultural change has resulted in geographic changes in the Church, with populations shifting from the northeast to the western and southern areas of the country. Opportunity, however, have not yet followed this shift, according to the theology professor.

“We are witnessing a transition from a Catholic experience highly resourced and somewhat comfortable in terms of socio-economic positioning,” he said, “to one shaped strongly by Catholics with fewer resources, less education, and emerging socio-political influence whose greatest treasures are their faith and their families.

“There is no doubt that we are at the dawn of a fresh, new way of being Catholic in this country.”

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