"[M]ost Hispanics in America are Protestants already, not Catholics"

"Carroll disagrees with surveys that paint Hispanic Catholicism as matriarchal"

"Carroll turns a critical eye on the shrine at Chimayó"

Shades of UTEP's Comparative Religious Anthropology 2318z. Fall 2009! :)


¡Ora, MEChA!

¡Adelante, DESTINO!

¡Ora, UTEP!


A sort of micro - adaptation from some isolated fragments found in the July 2009 issue of Homiletic and Pastoral Review.

Fr. Michael P. Orsi reviews sociologist's Michael P. Carroll's book: American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination, Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion.


"Perhaps the most arresting part of the book is its portrait of Hispanic Catholicism.

"Carroll maintains that data on Latinos is not only inaccurate and erroneously reported, but is being intentionally used to promote a politico - theological agenda.

"He notes that that sociologists repeatedly tell the U.S. Catholic bishops that Hispanics are leaving the Church for Protestant Pentecostal denominations.

"This is false, he insists, for two reasons: first, most Hispanics in America are Protestants already, not Catholics [You sure??!! Where's the stats?]; and second, Hispanic Pentecostals have more children than their Catholic counterparts.

"Hence, the growing number of non - Catholic Hispanics and the seeming loss of Latinos from Church rolls."


Hispanic Catholics as Matriarchal


"Carroll disagrees with surveys that paint Hispanic Catholicism as matriarchal.

"He provides evidence of broad involvement by Latino men in the Church.

"And he believes that claims of female leadership and the exaggerated loss of Hispanics constitute a ruse on the part of liberal sociologists and theologians aimed at forcing a change in Catholic ecclesiology to allow the entrée of women into Holy Orders and encourage a more democratic model of Church organization.


The Shrine at Chimayó, New Mexico:
America's Medjugorje??


"In one fascinating section of the book, Carroll turns a critical eye on the shrine at Chimayó, New Mexico, where pilgrims suffering from a variety of illnesses come seeking cures from the holy dirt (the equivalent of the healing water of Lourdes ).

"He charges that Chimayó is the product of clever real estate developers who used the shrine, with its adobe clay architecture, as a symbol of the old Southwest to attract buyers to the area.

"And he backs his charge with data indicating that it wasn't until the 1920s, when the developers began advertising, that the great pilgrimages began."

Boy! What do you know??!! :)