Diversity

While it is true that the Irish and other European Americans have been the dominant presence in the archdiocese over the last two hundred years, that reality obscures the fact that racial minorities have been an important part of this history.  The Boston archdiocese has always been an immigrant church.

Various white European ethnic groups –the Germans, the French, the Italians—established their national churches, while smaller clusters of Catholics from Africa and the Caribbean were also part of the early church.  After World War II, when the number of African Americans in Boston increased substantially, efforts by church leaders to assimilate black Catholics into the archdiocesan structure were frustrated by the struggle over school desegregation during the 1960s and the bitter busing crises of the 1970s.  By the 1980s however, changing demographics had begun to further transform the racial and ethnic makeup of the Boston archdiocese, as immigrants began to arrive in great numbers, with an estimated 500,000 Hispanics living within its boundaries in 2004.

"As Cardinal O'Malley stated in December 2003 to priests assembled at Boston College, 'Special regard must be given to the new immigrants who have cultural needs, linguistic and otherwise.' How the parish reconfiguration will ultimately affect immigrants is still to be seen. A number of the closed or merged parishes have sizable immigrant populations and are concentrated in urban areas, the very same areas that have been hardest hit by the reconfiguration. The archdiocese's immigrant population has needs beyond language. The many cultural complexities within all of the communities must be addressed by clergy and laity alike, particularly in newly blended parishes. In some parishes, Mass is offered in two or three different languages to different nationalities. The level of interaction between native born and recent arrivals varies from parish to parish. As some immigrants leave urban areas they will encounter less diverse parishes in the suburbs. Truly integrated parishes remain more a hope than a reality. This along with their enculturation will be an ongoing struggle, as it has always been. New immigrants bring their vibrancy, hope, and faith with them, as they always have. It will be up to everyone to make sure their faith can be maintained." - William C. Leonard's essay, People of Faith, People of Color: Two Hundred Years of Diversity in the Archdiocese of Boston. Read more in the book preview.

RESOURCES ABOUT DIVERSITY IN THE CHURCH

• East Boston Ecumenical Community Council (EBECC) was founded by Sr. Carole Rossi in 1978. “The EBECC is a neighborhood-based organization that today promotes the advancement of Latino immigrants of all ages through education, services, advocacy, community organizing, and leadership development.”
• Boston College C21 Center webcast: Latinos and U.S. Catholicism: Present Contributions and Future Possibilities: Watch Professors Hosffman Ospino, Nancy Pineda-Madrid, and Roberto Goizueta talk about the state of Latino Catholics in the U.S.
• Watch a quick trailer of the film Scenes from a Parish, a film by James Rutenbeck. Filmed over four years, Scenes from a Parish explores the personal stories a Catholic parish struggling to reconcile the ideals of faith with the cultural realities of a globalized United States.
• La Vida Catolica: The Hispanic Catholic Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston
• Boston Chinese Catholic Community
• Hispanic Apostolate
• Office of Cultural Diversity, Archdiocese of Boston
• Read more about the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry’s M.A. degree in Pastoral Ministry with a concentration in Hispanic Ministry