Faith of Hispanic Catholics rooted in
family
By Arthur Jones
NCR Staff Washington
The faith bequest of Ronaldo Cruzs late grandmother, Amelia
Cruz, to the U.S. church is a vital element of the Hispanic Catholic heritage
in the United States. It is a bequest to be reflected in a July 2000
gathering in of ideas at a national encuentro
(encounter) proposed by the U.S. bishops (see accompanying story).
For Grandmother Cruz was not a regular churchgoer, though, like
many Hispanic women, she was deeply spiritual. And through that spirituality
passed on the faith to succeeding generations.
She had her rosary and her altar in her Tucson, Ariz., home. She
blessed the children and grandchildren on feast days. Ash Wednesday was her
biggest day. Thats when shed prepare a huge meal of fish and
traditional Lenten foods. Through these devotions, explained Cruz, executive
director of the U.S. bishops Hispanic Affairs Secretariat, she was
the one who passed on the faith to us without being part of the official
institution.
The devoted Catholic Hispanic whose spiritual life exists
primarily outside church functions is a challenge to the U.S. bishops
and it calls for a re-evaluation of how the faith is transmitted, an
understanding vital to holding this increasingly multicultural church
together.
Grandmother Cruzs less formal and almost non-institutional
approach to church also puts Cruz squarely on the spot, for his job is
explaining the Hispanic reality, the Hispanic presence to the U.S.
bishops.
It is also a reality that delegates to the 1997 Synod of the
Americas -- delegates from North and South America, from the Caribbean, Mexico
and Central America -- have to contend with in their home churches.
Cruz is emblematic of second- and third-generation U.S. Hispanics
who have moved into the middle class. Of his seven siblings, three, in addition
to Ronaldo, are really into church, he said. The four younger
ones are not.
Ronaldo and his wife, Jane, have two children, Humberto, 27, a
computer network engineer, and Elida, 25, a computer Web producer.
The Cruzes have been in the Tucson area since it was part of
Mexico, and include Chilean and Yaqui Indian in their heritage. Cruzs
Catholic identity is an integral part of his journey from Tucson to the
bishops conference in Washington.
The Discalced Carmelites and particularly the Redemptorists
were really influential in my life, said Cruz. They were the first
to tell me it was OK to be Chicano and that the church needed me probably more
than I knew.
From a background of poverty and injustices in my
neighborhood -- St. Margarets parish on Tucsons west side --
Cruz moved through local War on Poverty work to a masters in social work
and teaching in Tucsons Salpointe Catholic High School.
Variety became Cruzs life: teaching cultural awareness to
the Tucson police department (they were not very nice to our
people), social service agency work (we set up the first AA in
Spanish in Tucson) and youth work in a school for young offenders
(last chance, either attend or be institutionalized).
Battling for social justice not least through Democratic
Party work he had a great mentor in the person of the late Sister of St.
Joseph Clare Dunn, the only religious ever elected to the Arizona state
legislature, where her portrait hangs.
Also deeply involved in local Mexican-American issues was Bishop
Francis Joseph Green of Tucson. He asked Cruz to direct the dioceses
Hispanic Ministry office, which he did from 1980 to 85. I want to
reunite my church, Green told Cruz. Tucson had a new cathedral, which
instantly became a Mexican parish, and two blocks away was All Saints,
primarily non-Hispanic. The bishop wanted to close All Saints and bring the two
communities together as one in the cathedral. It was accomplished. Cruz was
also into Hispanic parish development: from encouraging Bible studies to
community action.
What didnt happen was saving the inner-city Catholic
schools. We failed to do the awareness regarding the need for
education, he said, not only Catholic but public.
From Tucson, Cruz became 10-state regional director (the plains
states, New Mexico, Texas and more) for the Catholic Campaign for Human
Development, the U.S. bishops domestic antipoverty program, until he
joined the campaigns staff in Washington.
In 1992, he succeeded Pablo Sedillo as director of the U.S.
bishops Hispanic Affairs Secretariat. Its a job that means
hes on the road most of the time. That routine doesnt much lend
itself to parish and small Christian community life, though Cruz is connected
to both.
But hes not bereft.
He has his grandmothers home altar and all her sayings and
her saints.
National Catholic Reporter, August 27,
1999
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