of immigrants and their descendants. New voices bring hope, fresh energy, and challenges that often require adjustments on the part of our ecclesial structures. In the 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants from Europe made incredible contributions to the American Catholic experience, particularly through Catholic schools. Today, immigrants and their children, mostly from Latin America but also from Asia and Africa, are transforming that experience. This is a unique opportunity for U.S. Catholics in the twenty-first century to reimagine the commitment to Catholic education in an increasingly Hispanic Church while building upon the best of our experiences and resources.
The Hispanic Catholic population has rapidly grown from being a small, practically unnoticed minority in various corners of the Church in the middle of the twentieth century (about 5% of the total U.S. Catholic population), mostly living in the Southwest with pockets of presence in larger urban settings, to being perhaps the most significant force transforming U.S. Catholicism in our day. More than 40% of all Catholics in the country are Hispanic. Even more interesting is the fact that approximately 60% of Catholics under the age of 18 are Hispanic. Of these, more than 90% were born in the United States.3
How are Catholic schools responding to these demographic changes and the challenge of educating the next generation of American Catholics? The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) reports that only 15% (296,186) of students enrolled in Catholic schools in 2013–14 and 15.3% (296,903) of students enrolled in 2014–15 were Hispanic.4 Given the latest enrollment evidence, it is clear that of the total Hispanic school age population (approx. 12.4 million nationwide), only 2.3% (296,203) are enrolled in Catholic schools. The numbers are without a doubt sobering. Even under commendable efforts that have captured the imagination of Catholic pastoral and educational leaders at the national level, like the Catholic School Advantage led by the University of Notre Dame and local diocesan initiatives to increase enrollment of Hispanic children, the total enrollment of Hispanic children in Catholic schools remains almost stagnant.
Researchers, educators, and pastoral agents may be quick to question school leaders regarding such low enrollments of Hispanic students and the absence of more determined efforts to engage Hispanic families. While more can always be done, it is important to underline that the exponential growth of Hispanic Catholic school-age children, especially in the last two decades, has coincided with considerable challenges to the Catholic school educational system and a decline in its resources. The total number of Catholic schools in the country has decreased from more than 13,000 half a century ago to 6,568 in 2015. Total enrollment has followed suit, moving from nearly 5.2 million students to less than 2 million in the same period of time. During the last 15 years alone, student enrollment in Catholic schools has gone from 2.6 million in 2000 to 1.9 million in 2015. In the meantime, 26% of Catholic schools closed. This phenomenon has been more pronounced in urban neighborhoods during the last 10 years. Since 2005, enrollment in the largest 12 urban arch/dioceses in the country has declined by 30%.5
Multiple reasons have been identified as factors related to the closing of Catholic schools and the weakening of the Catholic educational network that once educated 55% of all Catholic children in the United States. Most of the reasons are largely associated with socioeconomic and demographic changes, and reasons vary from region to region. Cited most often by survey respondents are the increasing costs of Catholic education and the declining number of school-age children in Catholic families that traditionally benefitted from Catholic schools. Catholic schools in the not-so-distant past were run mostly by vowed religious women who lived in small communities and convents, committed their lives to education as part of their mission, and worked practically without the expectation of wages. Today 97.2% of the teaching and administrative workforce in these schools is constituted by laywomen and men who require fair and just salaries and benefits.6
Other reasons for enrollment decline worth noting are the perception that Catholic identity is not sufficiently integrated into the curriculum and the instructional practices in these schools;7 an increasing disassociation between schools and parishes, bringing to an end a symbiotic relationship that for many decades yielded many fruits;8 and the acceleration of school closings in urban and inner city contexts—coupled with the closing of parishes—where predominantly immigrant and poorer Catholic families tend to live, and the negative impact of such closings.9 Not less important are the assorted dynamics that continue to impact the overall U.S. Catholic religious experience such as the decline in participation in parish life among contemporary Catholic families, the growing influence of secularism, and the negative effects of recent scandals. From 1965 to 2015, marriages in the Church decreased by 56%, from 352,458 to 154,450; Mass attendance shifted from 55% to 24%; and the number of infant baptisms went from 1.3 million to 713,302.10
Catholics in the United States are before a paradoxical reality that oscillates between decline and growth, trial and opportunity. Today we are 79.7 million Catholics compared to 48.5 in 1965. Most of the new Catholic faces are neither white nor from Western Europe. Hispanics are the largest group transforming the American Catholic landscape. But they don’t do it alone. Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Euro-Americans, and a substantial presence of immigrant Catholics from Africa, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world are also making important contributions. One may then ask, so what is different this time? The answer is simple. At this time in history there is no absolute ethnic, cultural, or racial majority among U.S. Catholics. We are a church of “minorities” and we must all learn how to be authentically Catholic under these circumstances. Together we must face the reality that despite major demographic growth, the resources that the Church has to meet the educational needs of the new generation of American Catholics are fewer and fewer.
More than imagining a return to a past that cannot be replicated or stretching resources to meet unrealistic expectations, it is time to imagine how to position Catholic schools to effectively serve the new Catholic populations in the United States. It is in this context that the findings from the first National Survey of Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families are presented.
Responding to the Need for Research On Catholic Schools and Hispanic Catholicism
Current trends indicate that it is highly improbable to replicate the experience of the middle of the twentieth century, when more than half of all Catholic children attended Catholic schools. If all 1.9 million students in Catholic schools today were Hispanic, we would only be serving 15.3% of the entire school-age Hispanic population. If the goal were to enroll half of all school-age Hispanic children (6.2 million) in Catholic schools, based on today’s enrollment patterns and the size of our schools we would need to build 14,428 new schools and have all 20,995 schools exclusively educating Hispanics!11
Given the data associated with the striking growth of the Hispanic Catholic school-age population and the declining enrollment in Catholic schools, the Church must be realistic and plan creatively—and prophetically—to serve this demographic in the Church. It is a fact that more than 97% of school-age Hispanics, most of them possibly growing up in Catholic households, do not benefit from Catholic school education. Most do not benefit from Catholic education in our parishes either: only 10% of Hispanic children are enrolled in religious education programs in parishes with Hispanic ministry.12
Currently, 78% of Hispanic children attend predominantly minority schools, mostly in large cities in the West. Most go to hyper-segregated schools (90% to 100% minority). Segregated schools tend to be in poor neighborhoods, have fewer resources to educate, and their performance is the lowest when compared with non-segregated schools.13 Hispanics have the highest school dropout rate compared to Asian, white, and black populations in the country.14 It is well known that poverty is a major factor reducing the possibilities of educational achievement among Hispanics.15 In 2014, 23.6% of Hispanics lived in poverty.16 While an improvement compared to 2012 when 25.6% lived in poverty, Hispanics still show the highest poverty rate among all demographic groups in the country. Catholic educators and pastoral leaders need to be aware of the fact that about a third of all Hispanic children
