Latinos swell Twin Cities churches

http://www.startribune.com/614/story/183022.html

"The archdiocese views Latinos as an important part of its future, and is taking steps to respond to them, said McDonough. It has created formal ties to a religious order in Ecuador to create a pipeline for Spanish-language priests, he said. It now requires seminarians to study Spanish and has speeded up the hiring of bicultural deacons.

"But with roughly a dozen fluent Spanish-speaking priests, and dozens of congregations poised to become the spiritual homes to immigrants in the future, the challenges are clear, archdiocese officials said.

"Likewise the opportunities are clear, at least to some Minnesota Catholics. Brenda Cooney, a parishioner at St. John's, says the recent arrivals have injected new life into a congregation where membership was flat. They have also forced people to re-examine themselves and their faith, she said."

The churches are finding, however, that blending the white English-speaking parishioners with the Latino largely Spanish-speaking parishioners is much more difficult than they initially thought. Not surprising that there's misunderstanding about each others' traditions.