National Hispanic Heritage Month Mass / Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana

Event Details

Date & Time

2025-09-20September 20, 2025
4:00 pm

Organizer

Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach
301-853-4469
malteza@adw.org



Celebrate a special Mass to commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month on Saturday, September 20, 2025. A procession will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET followed by Mass to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church at 5700 Saint Bernard Dr, Riverdale, MD. The Principal Celebrant is Most Reverend Evelio Menjívar, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington for this Mass.

Download Flyer: English | Español

Download Prayer Card: English/Español

Hispanic Popular Spirituality in the United States: English/Español

Please see the recommended resources to Share, Learn, and Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.

For ASL interpretation, contact deafcatholic@adw.org two weeks in advance.

For more information, contact Alma Maltez 301-853-4469 or malteza@adw.org.

Explore the diversity of our community through our cultural events.

Latino Catholics are transforming the Church. It’s ‘about time.’

Latinos are now 40 percent of the U.S. Catholic Church and likely to become the majority. The election of American-Peruvian Pope Leo reflects their ascendence.

July 17, 2025

Mexican American parishioners leave a Catholic Mass on Sept. 15 in Brooklyn. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis News/Getty Images)

By Michelle Boorstein and

Rachel Hatzipanagos


DES PLAINES, Ill. — Latino Catholics are building more of their own institutions, including a major leadership-training group and the country’s first Latino owned-and-run Catholic retreat center. Spanish-speaking Catholics are reviving shrinking White parishes. And the percentage of Latino Catholics born in the United States — not abroad — is rising.

This is a time of change for Latino Catholics, who now make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. church, and who some U.S. Catholicism experts predict are likely to become the majority in the coming decades.

Fourteen percent of Catholics born between 1928 and 1945 were Latino compared with 54 percent of Gen Z Catholics born between 1997 and 2005, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“It’s been about time,” Vicente Del Real, 35, said of the prominent, self-built Latino Catholic institutions becoming more common in the United States. Del Real emigrated from Mexico as a teen to Illinois and founded Iskali, a group that supports young Latino Catholics, and Casa Iskali, a retreat center in Des Plaines, Illinois. “I could have said this 50 years ago and it would have been true. There should be another 200 or 300 organizations like ours around the country.”

But the U.S. Catholic Church is still facing significant challenges, including the disruptive impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies. Also, Latinos are a bigger share of the U.S. Catholic population, but younger Latinos are fleeing Catholicism, mostly to become religiously unaffiliated.

In 2010, 67 percent of Hispanic Americans were Catholic compared with 43 percent now, according to Pew Research.

The Hebrew Israelites’ Cult & FAKE Gospel EXPOSED! (Bible Study)

Plant-based diets are linked to lower obesity among Hispanic Adventists

Original Research ARTICLE 

Front. Nutr., 09 April 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2019.00034

Plant-Based Diets Are Associated With Lower Adiposity Levels Among Hispanic/Latino Adults in the Adventist Multi-Ethnic Nutrition (AMEN) Study

Pramil N. Singh1,2*, Karen Jaceldo-Siegl1, Wendy Shih2, Nancy Collado2, Lap T. Le2, Krystal Silguero2, Dennys Estevez2, Michael Jordan3, Hector Flores4, David E. Hayes-Bautista5 and William J. McCarthy6

• 1Center for Nutrition, Healthy Lifestyles and Disease Prevention, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
• 2Center for Health Research, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
• 3Center for Hispanic Health, White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
• 4Department of Family Medicine, White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
• 5Center for Study of Latino Health and Culture, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
• 6Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Background: The Hispanic/Latino population in the US is experiencing high rates of obesity and cardio-metabolic disease that may be attributable to a nutrition transition away from traditional diets emphasizing whole plant foods. In the US, plant-based diets have been shown to be effective in preventing and controlling obesity and cardio-metabolic disease in large samples of primarily non-Hispanic subjects. Studying this association in US Hispanic/Latinos could inform culturally tailored interventions.

Objective: To examine whether the plant-based diet pattern that is frequently followed by Hispanic/Latino Seventh-day Adventists is associated with lower levels of adiposity and adiposity-related biomarkers.

Methods: The Adventist Multiethnic Nutrition Study (AMEN) enrolled 74 Seventh-day Adventists from five Hispanic/Latino churches within a 20 mile radius of Loma Linda, CA into a cross-sectional study of diet (24 h recalls, surveys) and health (anthropometrics and biomarkers).

Results: Vegetarian diet patterns (Vegan, Lacto-ovo vegetarian, Pesco-vegetarian) were associated with significantly lower BMI (24.5 kg/m2 vs. 27.9 kg/m2, p = 0.006), waist circumference (34.8 cm vs. 37.5 cm, p = 0.01), and fat mass (18.3 kg vs. 23.9 kg, p = 0.007), as compared to non-vegetarians. Adiposity was positively associated with pro-inflammatory cytokines (Interleukin-6) in this sample, but adjusting for this effect did not alter the associations with vegetarian diet.

Conclusions: Plant-based eating as practiced by US-based Hispanic/Latino Seventh-day Adventists is associated with BMI in the recommended range. Further work is needed to characterize this type of diet for use in obesity-related interventions among Hispanic/Latinos in the US.

Catholicism in Decline Among Latino Population

By Rodrigo Ugarte (staff@latinpost.com)
First Posted: Jun 14, 2014 02:12 PM EDT

Less Latinos identified as Catholics in 2013 than four years ago. (Photo : Twitter/Champion News)



Catholicism has always been an identifier of Latinos. In supermarkets throughout the United States religious candles decorated with the images saints line the shelves of the Latino food sections along with Goya products and Milo chocolate powder. However, Latinos continue to desert the Catholic faith in exchange of Protestantism or no faith at all.

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that the popularity of Catholicism among Latinos has been in decline despite the fact that Latinos are a growing number of Catholics.

Catholicism arrived in Latin America alongside the Spanish conquistadors who brought priests to the New World to instruct the native peoples and convert them to the Church of Rome. For three centuries Catholicism was the dominant religious dogma from California to the Patagonia and until recently ithad not faltered in the competition for Latinos' souls.

With the increase of Latino immigration to the United States, the racial and ethnic make up of the country continues to evolve; however, in exchange the U.S. has been affecting the faith of Latinos. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 55 percent of Latinos identify as Catholic, a 12-point drop in the last four years. Yet, the number of Latinos who identify as Protestant or to no religion continues to rise.

The survey, as the report states, also separated religious affiliation by nationality. Those who were of Mexican or Dominican descent were more likely to identify as Catholic whereas those who were Salvadorian were more likely to call themselves evangelical.

The Pew Research Center survey was conducted between May 24 and July 28, 2013 and interviewed 5,103 Hispanic adultsranging from the ages of 18 and up. The authors of the survey point out that they found marginal changes in those older than 50 years of age. However, those within the 18 to 29 year old cohort saw a departure from Catholicism to no religious affiliation. Those between the ages of 30 and 49 were more likely to leave Catholicism for Protestantism.

According to the Pew Research Center, the trend of younger Latinos leaving religion altogether follows a larger trend within the nation. The greatest shift has been found between those raised Catholic and whether they continue to identify as such. Seventy-seven percent of Latinos interviewed were raised Catholic but only 55 percent identified as such, 22-point change.

Meanwhile Protestant affiliation has risen by 8 points to 22 percent from 14 and no affiliation has risen from 6 percent to 18. The survey revealed that of those Latinos who migrated to the U.S. and were raised Catholics half changed their faith after arriving in the country while the other half had changed it before. However, there is a greater discrepancy among those born in the United States, with Catholics garnering the greatest losses.

Though Catholicism seems to be on the decline among Latinos, they still make up a third of Catholics in the nation, a number that continues to rise adds the Pew Research Center. They state the reason is because of the growing number of Latinos in the nation offsets the losses of Catholics.

It is still too soon to tell whether supermarkets around the country will begin dropping the votive candles from the Latino food aisles; nonetheless, it is evident that faith is changing among Latinos much like the rest of the country. For more details and information look through the survey here.

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A Different Kind Of Catholicism Grows In Latino Communities

by Marlon Bishop and
January 23, 2014 5:00 AM

Listen to the Story
Morning Edition

4 min 30 sec




Worshippers are brought to tears at the Wednesday night Charismatic prayer meetings at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in the Bronx, New York City. Marlon Bishop/Latino USA

In the Saint Anthony of Padua Church in the Bronx, Wednesday night is prayer meeting night.

Fifty people gather in the spare assembly room for a ceremony that looks very different from a Catholic Sunday Mass.



For one thing, the service is led by a woman rather than a male priest. She preaches excitedly while a rock band of young Salvadoran immigrants backs her up.




Some people in the audience hold up their hands; others are swaying gently. There are tears in the crowd.

Suddenly, the woman stops speaking in Spanish and begins speaking in tongues.

It may sound indecipherable, but for the faithful, it's a sacred language given to them by the Holy Spirit.

Welcome To A Different Kind Of Catholicism

For members of the Charismatic Catholic movement, worship centers on establishing a personal connection with God.

According to a recent survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, about one-third of Latino Catholics in the U.S. identify as Charismatic. For non-Latino Catholics, this number is closer to one-tenth, according to an .

Marvin Rodriguez says he joined the movement seven years ago. "It means happiness. We like to express ourselves in a different way, like applauding, laughing and joy," says Rodriguez.

There are also miraculous healings and prophesying. It's very similar to what you'd expect to see at a Pentecostal church — where the number of Latino converts is growing quickly.

An Intense Spiritual Experience

By joining the Charismatic movement, Latinos can have those kinds of intense spiritual experiences without cutting their ties with the Catholic Church.

Belinda De Los Santos says she had her first direct encounter with the Holy Spirit after becoming a carismatica. "In that moment, I laughed, I cried, I fell into the Holy Spirit," says De Los Santos.

Bronx native Johnny Torres is a former drug addict who joined the Charismatic Catholic movement 10 years ago. Growing up, his parents' more tempered style of Catholicism never really caught his interest.



Bronx native Johnny Torres says he was addicted to drugs before he found Jesus in the Charismatic Catholic movement. Marlon Bishop/Latino USA


"The first time I came over here, I started crying, my body started shaking, but I didn't know what it was," says Torres.

Charismatic Catholicism in the U.S. dates back about 50 years. Latinos are a driving force in the movement today.

The Rev. Jim Sheehan, a Charismatic priest and chaplain at Bronx Community College, says traditional Catholicism just isn't connecting with the Latinos he ministers to, especially recent immigrants who are struggling.

"I think that many of us have a distant relationship with a God of the future," says Sheehan. "Charismatics, Latinos expect God to come today — hoy día."

Despite the Charismatic movement's success in engaging Latinos, Sheehan says, some more conservative members of the Catholic Church disapprove of the healings and speaking in tongues.

A Permanent Change In Direction

Fordham University theologian Michael Lee says they'd better get used to it.



Catholics attending World Youth Day await the arrival of Pope Francis for the final Mass of his visit to Brazil, at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on July 28. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images


"I would argue that, especially now with Pope Francis, that there's an openness to this kind of worship," says Lee. "Given the numbers of Latinos and Latinas in the country and in the future of Catholicism, I definitely think it's a way forward."

The movement's influence on the Catholic community worldwide was clearly visible during last year's World Youth Day celebrations in Brazil.

Though he was an early skeptic, Pope Francis told reporters that the movement has had a positive influence on the Catholic Church.

"I don't think that the Charismatic renewal movement merely prevents people from passing over to Pentecostal denominations," said the pope. "No, it's a service to the church herself — it renews us."


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P.S.

I turned on the radio early this morning to hear the news and I heard this...


 Is this a Public Service Announcement for the Roman Catholic Church USA, or what?

Arsenio.
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Thousands Still Need To Apply For DACA Program

 

by Ted Robbins

December 16, 2013 4:35 AM

4 min 20 sec

• Listen to Story
• Morning Edition
  

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation. They can also get a work permit for two years.


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Journalist Ray Suarez On Quitting Public Television: 'They Didn’t Have Much Of A Plan For Me'

By Lucia Suarez

Published October 28, 2013
Fox News Latino

Ray Suarez during the PBS Election Coverage panel on January 4, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Getty Images)

Many fans of renowned Latino journalist Ray Suarez were shocked to hear about his resignation from PBS’ “NewsHour” after more than a decade as a senior correspondent two weeks ago.

While the Public Broadcasting Service has not elaborated on the reasons for his departure, Suarez spoke candidly with Fox News Latino about what led to his decision to leave his longtime post. He said it was the right “time to go – that was a choice that I made.”

“I felt like I didn’t have much of a future with the broadcast,” Suarez said Monday morning. “(They) didn’t have much of a plan for me.”

He said his resignation came because his contributions to the “NewsHour” were heavily minimized. Suarez (no relation to the writer) said he just “didn’t see 2014 and 2015 were going to be better" for him than the last couple of years.

The 56-year-old, who joined the “NewsHour” in 1999, said over the last couple of years his contributions to the broadcast were passed over and marginalized many times. He said decisions made recently by the company and new constrictions also played a part in his resignation — it just made it difficult to stay, he said.

“When you look at the prospects realistically, I was there 14 years,” Suarez said. “The responsibility, the high responsibility … had all been gradually taken away.”

He said his profile on the broadcasting network was in such decline that people on social media were asking what he was doing after the “NewsHour.”

An example, he said, was during the most recent presidential election where his coverage of the Latino vote was minimal, unlike during the 2004 elections where he co-moderated a bilingual debate with Univision.

“That was great fun,” Suarez said recalling the debate. “It anticipated where things were going to be going. People were not talking about the Latino vote then – it was a glimpse into the crystal ball.”

According to several reports, the show’s executive producer, Linda Winslow, told staff in a memo that Suarez was leaving to “pursue other ventures.”

“At the ‘NewsHour’ Ray has been a member of the Senior Correspondent team that has helped us cover an enormous array of topics and story developments over the years,” Winslow wrote in the memo. “My inbox is filled with rave reviews of his performances written by delighted station executives around the PBS universe.”

The news came out just days after “NewsHours” founders Jim Lehrer and Robin MacNeil announced they intended to transfer ownership of the program to producing partner WETA in Arlington, Va.

Suarez said although he is leaving the company, he is very proud of the work he accomplished during his tenure and holds no ill will towards anyone.

“I am not some bitter guy. It was just time to go,” he said, adding that his departure was amicable between both parties. “I left on good terms.”

He continued: “I love the people there. I think it’s important to have a strong news broadcast on public television. I was definitely doing important work. … I am not sitting here regretting all that time, not at all.”

But Suarez just didn’t see it getting any better.

“I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes,” he said. “People come and go.”

For his next move, the New York City-born-Puerto Rican said he has been fielding several offers that include going into academia and writing a book on the 2016 elections. He said he couldn’t go into specifics about his plans because contractual agreements are still being discussed, but that he would be going back to television broadcasting.

“I still have one more high-demand, high-stress job in me,” he said.


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Latino Groups Rally Around Ray Suarez After He Claimed He Was Marginalized At PBS NewsHour

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Supreme Court overturns driving law targeting noncitizens

Acadiana bureau

LAFAYETTE — The state Supreme Court has ruled that a Louisiana law that makes it a felony for noncitizens to drive without proof they are legally in the United States cannot be enforced.

The opinion, released Wednesday, came in a group of cases out of Lafayette Parish, where the law was challenged.

At issue is Louisiana’s “operating a vehicle without lawful presence” statute, which carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.

In the court ruling, the justices cited a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on a similar law in Arizona.

The federal justices had ruled Arizona was improperly trying to enforce immigration laws, the realm of the federal government.

The challenge to the Louisiana law had attracted the support of several civil rights and immigrant rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and Southern Poverty Law Center, and group of foreign governments that included Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

They argued, among other things, that the Louisiana law allows officers to pull people over for “driving while Latino.”


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Anti-Catholic Facebook pages worry Latino communities

By Kevin J. Jones




Lima, Peru, Aug 11, 2013 / 04:02 pm (CNA).- Facebook's continued tolerance for obscene anti-Catholic pages in Spanish are causing some users to question the site's policies – and whether they should keep using the social network.

“I report anti-Catholic pages every so often,” user Carlos Wadsworth of Costa Rica said in response to an open Facebook query from CNA executive director Alejandro Bermudez.

“...and it is so disgusting that when I report a comment that is literally an insult to a bishop and/or to all Catholics the answer from Facebook is that the post does not violate Facebook policies.”

Mario De Jesús Gallardo Mendiolea, who says he is involved in evangelization in the Diocese of Leon, Mexico, claims that Facebook's policy is “very tolerant of anti-Catholicism.”

“They have blocked me three times. At first I thought it was because of complaints from Protestant brothers and sisters because of what I posted on my wall. Now I think that Facebook tolerates anti-Catholicism and is targeting us,” he said.

Another user, Rodrigo Perez M. of Colombia, said Facebook allows “open anti-Catholicism that is out of control and unfettered.”

“I am about to close my account, it bothers me to see so much hatred and venom towards the Catholic Church. There is no control and on the contrary if you make a comment warning about Satanism, the first thing Facebook does is temporarily block your account, as it did to me.”

While many Catholic users say anti-Catholicism faces little rebuke from Facebook's Spanish-language administrators, positive Catholic pages have not been as fortunate. One of the most popular Spanish-language pages, “Memes Católicos,” was deleted from Facebook.

Yhonathan Luque Reyes of Peru created the page, which helped others learn more about the Catholic faith and counter anti-Catholic attitudes in a humorous, accessible way. His page had drawn over 110,000 followers.

In fall of 2012 Facebook notified him that various users had denounced his page for allegedly promoting language that incited religious hatred. The social network offered him the alternative of locating the page under the category “polemical humor” to be maintained on the site.

In January 2013, several anti-Christian groups campaigned for Facebook to ban the page as offensive. The page was removed in such a way that it could not be restored.

The elimination of the page drew the attention of the Pontifical Council for Communications, which noted the deletion on its Twitter account.

Though “Memes Católicos” has been deleted, the Spanish-language Facebook page “Peneadicto XVI” continues to broadcast anti-Catholic and anti-religion messages to over 44,000 followers.

The Facebook page, whose name has a lewd connotation in Spanish, denigrates Jesus Christ, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict, and the Catholic Church. It depicts both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict as pedophiles

The page also directs campaigns that promote hatred of religion and acts of physical aggression against the Pope and other Catholic leaders.

Despite Facebook's prohibitions on pornography, for a time the Facebook page's cover image was a montage that included a depiction of Pope Benedict XVI in a sex act with a naked man at the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica.

A manager of the Facebook page, Carlos Alberto Becerra Mendoza of Peru, is the subject of a lawsuit from Catholic News Agency’s Lima-based partner ACI Prensa for allegedly hacking the news agency’s website in January. The “Peneadicto XVI” page published images of hacked pages at ACI Prensa website, even though the hacked pages were only visible for about an hour.

Facebook's Latin American division declined to respond to specific charges that the Facebook page violated the social network’s policy.

“The conversations that take place on Facebook as well as the opinions that its users express, are a reflection of the diversity of people that use Facebook,” Alberto Arebalos, Facebook’s head of communications for Latin America, told ACI Prensa Aug. 5.

“In order to balance the interests and needs of a worldwide public, Facebook protects expressions of opinion and content that meets the norms described in our policies.”

“I can assure you that there is no anti-Catholic spirit at our company,” he said, declining to respond to the specific incidents ACI Prensa reported to him.

“Every complaint is studied and analyzed in accord with our policies, without any slant in one direction or the other.”

In May, Facebook announced that a review of its policies on removing offensive content and hate speech, indicating that it has listened to women's groups and Jewish, Muslim and LGBT groups for feedback.

The move appeared to have some effects, including the deletion of anti-Christian pages like “Christians I’d Like to Throat Punch.”

However, this policy may not exclude obscene attacks on Jesus Christ and the Pope.

Alison Schumer, a member of Facebook’s communications and public policy section, on June 10 told CNA that its anti-harassment standards “do not cover public figures.”

She cited Facebook’s community standards, which say “We allow users to speak freely on matters and people of public interest, but take action on all reports of abusive behavior directed at private individuals.”

The standards also bar “hate speech,” meaning “direct and serious attacks on any protected category of people,” including religious categories. The company says that some “distasteful humor” does not qualify as hate speech.

Asked if Facebook was working with any Catholic or Christian groups for feedback about its policy, Schumer said that in early June Facebook’s Washington, D.C. office held a meeting with “national faith-based leaders” created under the guidance from the leaders of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

Schumer said June 19 that the meeting was “private” but she said it was “one example of many in which we meet with external groups regarding our policies.” The U.S. bishops’ conference confirmed that the meeting took place, but likewise described it as “private.”

Facebook has been in operation for nine years. While it has come to dominate social media, it has shown signs of stagnating growth and declining enthusiasm among some younger users.

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Evangelical Hispanics hold annual prayer breakfast

Charlie Butts (OneNewsNow.com) Tuesday, June 18, 2013



Evangelical Hispanics are convening in Washington, DC, this week for a time of prayer and worship.

The National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference is June 18-20. At the bi-annual event, Hispanics "join together, we pray and then we hear from political leaders on issues of the day," Pastor Luis Cortes of Esperanza Ministries tells OneNewsNow.

"We also have other Christian leaders come and address us as to things they want to challenge us to consider and do," he adds.

Cortes

Musicians include Latin Grammy Awards nominee Daniel Calveti and Christine D'Clario, a 2012 Dove Award nominee. Marcos Witt, a five-time Latin Grammy Award winner, will emcee.

The chair of the Republican National Committee and the chair of the Democratic National Committee are also confirmed as speakers.

The prayer breakfast began in 2002 and featured then-President George W. Bush as speaker. President Obama has been invited to speak this year.

One issue that has caused a lively debate is immigration, but another issue for Hispanics is STEM - an acronym for science, technology, engineering and science.

"One of our concerns is for the future of this country," says Cortes. "We need to find ways to educate better our young people and get them involved and more productive in the areas of math and science."

Afterwards, participants in the conference will spend time with their congressional representatives discussing issues important to Hispanics.



Source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2013/06/18/evangelical-hispanics-hold-prayer-breakfast#.UcJd7_n2Zgk

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Daughter Hunts Down Father’s Killer 26 Years Later

06/11/2013 PIX11.
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26 years after her father’s death, Joselyn Martinez was able to help the NYPD track down her father’s killer.
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Conservative Hispanic Groups Targeted In IRS Scandal

By Andrew O'Reilly

Published May 16, 2013

Fox News Latino

The Internal Revenue Service scandal involving the apparently unjustified targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups has also hit home with the Hispanic community.

George Rodriguez, former president of the San Antonio Tea Party, said that when the organization applied for non-profit status, leaders were intimidated by IRS workers with excessive paperwork and meddling questions.

“They asked us all sorts of things that were out of the norm,” Rodriguez, now head of the conservative South Texas Alliance, told Fox News Latino. “We knew these questions were not the norm and we had our suspicions about them.”

SUMMARY

The complaint from the San Antonio group is just one of many nationwide leveled against the federal agency, which surfaced last Friday when Lois G. Lerner director of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, let slip that low-level IRS staffers had given extra scrutiny to conservative groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names.

The public slip started a furor among conservative groups and pundits and forced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into the matter.

Rodriguez said the group received a questionnaire from the IRS with “well over 50 questions,” including inquiries into who the group met with, where they held their meetings, who was in attendance and what the subject of their internal emails were.

“They should have been worried about the numbers, not who we were meeting with,” he added. “It was flat-out dirty politics.”

The complaint from the San Antonio group is one of many nationwide leveled against the embattled federal agency, in the escalating case that surfaced last week when Lois G. Lerner, director of the IRS’ exempt-organizations division, let slip that low-level IRS staffers had given extra scrutiny to conservative groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names.

Republicans have pressed the Obama administration for heads to roll. On Wednesday, Obama asked for and received the resignation of the agency's acting commissioner, Steve Miller.

The scandal sparked a furor among conservative groups and pundits, forcing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into the matter.

Holder followed the announcement by adding Wednesday that the FBI’s criminal investigation could include charges of civil rights violations, false statements and potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities.

“I can assure you and the American people that we will take a dispassionate view of this,” Holder said. “This will not be about parties, this will not be about ideological persuasions. Anybody who has broken the law will be held accountable.”

The revelations also spurred calls for investigations into the practices of the administration of President Barack Obama and allegations of a potential cover-up operation.

“It’s an abuse of power and it smells of Watergate,” said Bob Quasius, the president of the conservative Latino group Café con Leche, referring to the political scandal that led to the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

“I think it goes to the top levels of his administration,” Quasius added. “If it doesn’t directly connect to him it at least connects to someone close to him.”

So far, however, there has been no evidence directly linking the Obama administration to the IRS mess-up. For its part, the administration has tried to portray the scandal as something done independently of the federal government in Washington by the IRS field office in Cincinnati.

The federal government enacted strict measures following the Watergate scandal to keep the executive branch of government away from the IRS, making it very difficult for the president to interfere in the agency’s affairs.

Of the 296 applications for nonprofit status the inspector general reviewed, the San Antonio Tea Party was one of the 108 that were approved. Of the others, 28 were withdrawn by the applicants and 160 were still open.

Despite the approval of the group’s application, which Rodriguez said required the help of the American Center for Law and Justice, he still believes that the hoops it had to jump through were indicative of the “shenanigans” that were going on in the IRS.

“We understand we need to show we’re a nonprofit,” Rodriguez said. “But these questions were way beyond what the norm is and were way out of line.”


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Switching Sides: Latinos Ditching Catholicism For Evangelical Churches

By Lauren Green

Published May 10, 2013

Fox News Latino

Alfredo De Jesus is a fire-and-brimstone preacher who represents a global groundswell of Hispanics who've left the Catholic Church to become Protestant Evangelical Christians.

De Jesus pastors the New Life Church in Chicago, helping to expand it from 120 members in 2000 to over 17,000 today on multiple campuses.

"In the Evangelical church, we find freedom to worship, and with Hispanics, it's in us to be able to love people. Naturally, we just love people. We are hugging people," De Jesus said.

Latinos make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States — 52 million, according to latest Census stats. The majority — two-thirds — are still traditionally Roman Catholic. But there's been a palpable shift from one generation to the next, with the newer ones being "born again."

Evangelicals now number about 20 percent of the Latino population, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

The change poses the greatest concern for the Catholic Church — though many are leaving for evangelical churches, the volume of Catholics had remained steady primarily through immigration from Mexico and Central American countries.

The irony is that many evangelical converts tend to more closely mirror Catholic teaching on issues like abortion and gay marriage.

"It's an odd mixture where the Roman Catholic church is losing members but in so far as those members going to Pentecostal Evangelicals, they are in fact becoming more closely identified and more supportive of the Roman Catholic Church on these social issues," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion.

So what's the difference?

It’s the relationship between worshiper and God that each denomination affords its respective followers, according to De Jesus.

"What I have seen, at least in my own experience, is this encounter with God that we didn't experience in the Catholic Church,” he said. “A system that was so rigid and God seemed so far."

With the election of Pope Francis, the first pope from Latin America, the Catholic Church is hoping to halt the exodus.

It’s definitely a step in the right direction, said De Jesus, but by itself it’s not likely to reverse the tide.

"We applaud the Pope and he is Hispanic. [But] people still want a relationship with God. And if the Catholic Church does not offer that, they will continue to see an exodus from their organizations to Protestants."

The research seems to back up his conclusion.

"We are not picking up any trends of people returning to the Roman Catholic Church. If they don't become Protestant or Pentecostal, they typically become un-affiliated,” said Lugo.

Source: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2013/05/10/switching-sides-latinos-ditching-catholicism-for-evangelical-churches/#ixzz2T7zalv4X\

DC youth salsa dance for immigrant outreach

By Kevin Jones



The Spanish Catholic Center's Música y Sueños benefit was held at the US Chamber of Commerce on March 22, 2013. Courtesy of Catholic Charites of the Archdiocese of Washington.

Washington D.C., Mar 28, 2013 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A recent Latin-style party in Washington, D.C., drew hundreds of young adults for a night of music, food and salsa dancing that benefited Catholic outreach to low-income immigrants.

“We had so many young people there, so many new people. It was a fun night,” Monsignor John Enzler, president of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, told CNA March 27.

“There was an excitement there that we hadn’t had before,” he said. “Community was built in a very special way on Friday night.”

The Música y Sueños event, which means “Music and Dreams,” featured a sit-down Latin-inspired dinner buffet and salsa dancing at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building March 22.

D.C. salsa dancer Ricardo Loaiza provided dance lessons and a live DJ provided the music.

“People enjoyed themselves. It was not expensive,” Msgr. Enzler said, characterizing the event as an effort to “raise new friendships rather than funds.”

The event benefitted the Catholic Charities-run Spanish Catholic Center, which has been in operation for more than 45 years. With three different locations in the District of Columbia and Maryland, the center served 18,000 clients last year.

The center provides medical and dental clinics, food pantries, employment counseling, legal aid and language instruction. Its social services help provide those in need with food, shelter and clothing.

“It’s our goal and our effort to try to meet their needs where they are and make sure we can assist in whatever way we can,” Msgr. Enzler said.

He noted the growing Latino population in the United States and in the archdiocese. Hispanics make up about 40 percent of the U.S. Catholic population and are expected to reach 50 percent within the decade.

The Spanish Catholic Center, he said, is part of “a huge and important effort for us to make sure that we are meeting the needs of this burgeoning population.”

He explained that clients want “the services and commitment that the Church provides” and also “help to grow in their faith.”

Catholic Charities invited young Latino leaders to the event through social media like Twitter. Msgr. Enzler said about 300 of the 400 attendees were new to Catholic Charities events.

A silent movie played during the event to help partygoers learn more about the center. Spanish Catholic Center staff also mingled with the crowd and spoke about their work.

The archdiocese’s Catholic Charities intends to make Música y Sueños an annual event.

“People were excited and thrilled and felt they were being asked to participate, but also asked to collaborate. And they did,” Msgr. Enzler added.

He noted that the event supports Catholic Charities’ efforts to serve anyone who comes to their doors, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

“I think we do a great job of making that happen,” he said.

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Evangelicos: A Way Back for the GOP

Religion

By Elizabeth Dias

April 08, 2013

MARCO GROB FOR TIME


Can Latino evangelicals help Republicans take a bite out of the Democratic advantage with Hispanic voters?

Maybe. As my cover story “The Latino Reformation“ this week suggests, Latino evangelicals are a group that has strong conservative social values—meaning the Republican Party should find them very attractive. They prize the nuclear family. They are largely against abortion and gay marriage. They also tend to be wealthier than Latino Catholics, and they are more likely to have been born in the United States.

It is a point that Michael Warren of The Weekly Standard explored a couple weeks ago. Republicans have lost a net 30 points among evangélicos since the 2004 presidential campaign. George W. Bush got 69% of the Latino evangelical vote in 2004, and Mitt Romney only had support of 39% of Latino evangelicals in 2012. Warren argues that Republicans should see this as an opening:

Somewhere in the party’s long tradition, there are principles and policies that can attract a group that values family, community, and the church. A party that can win Hispanic evangelicals might be one that can combine pro-family tax policies, pro-growth economic policies, traditionalism on social issues, and a realistic immigration policy.

What I learned after spending time in Iglesias in Chicago and the far suburbs of Washington is a little more complicated than that. But Warren is on to something. But before Republicans can win them over, they have to know who the evangélicos really are. That is what we explore in the magazine this week.

Source: http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/08/evangelicos-a-way-back-for-the-gop/#ixzz2PtHNwzBP

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A Mayoral Campaign Fueled by the Religious, Conservative Wing of the NYC Democratic Party

As the old saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows, and that is certainly true in this year’s mayoral election. One dark-horse candidate is being backed by an alliance made from an odd coupling of religious Jews and Evangelical Christian Latinos to support his socially conservative yet resolutely Democratic agenda. In a city—and a mayoral race—where even Republicans tend to be socially liberal, a religious, right-wing Democrat is certainly a novelty. But Pastor Erick Salgado would like to be more than that. Mr. Salgado, who lives in Staten Island and claims his Iglesia Jovenes Cristianos, or Churdch of the Young Christians, now has “around twenty” congregations “in the New York area,” said Jews and Christians with conservative religious beliefs have been denied “the respect that they deserve” from the city’s dominant political party.

“We are Democrats; we don’t want to do this in another party, we want to do this here in this one,” he explained to Politicker when we spoke with him last week in a small campaign office a few blocks from one of his churches in Bath Beach READ MORE


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Lawmakers accuse Obama of 'declaring war on Arizona'

Jun 27, 2012- 4:11 -

New immigration memo criticized as pandering to Hispanic voters

11th Annual Wall Street Summit to Discuss Latino Role in US Economy

By Andrea Marcela Madambashi | Christian Post Correspondent


The New America Alliance (NAA) has announced the 11th Annual Wall Street Summit to take place in New York City from October 26-28. The event will gather CEOs, entrepreneurs, top business leaders and other thought-leaders to discuss American Latino participation in the nation's economy.

The event has been described by the CEO of the Alliance, Maria del Pilar Avila, as a celebration of the spirit of the American Latino community, and an opportunity to continue to identify the path for further advancement.

“The goal of the Wall Street Summit is to equip the nation's business leaders with the knowledge and network to access and address the growing importance and increasing impact of the American Latino community on the U.S. economy," NAA states in its webpage.

Key stakeholders in government and Corporate America are confirmed to have deep discussions on the critical issues facing the American Latino business community.

Distinguished Speakers will include, Cesar Conde, Univision Networks president; Jamie Dimon, CEO & Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Honorable Carlos Gutierrez, 35th United States Secretary of Commerce.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn and engage in several topics such as: expanding the influence and participation of American Latinos In public and private financial institutions; Latino control of capital and access to capital markets, diversity in foundation and non-profit boardrooms, and identifying new market opportunities.

Last year the Summit attendants examined the state of the U.S. economy from the position of the American Latino community around the theme, "Economy in Transformation: Our Proactive Solutions to Our Nation's Needs."
“The importance of coming together to discuss the economic state of the American Latino community and develop strategies for progress has never been greater,” said The Honorable Roel C. Campos, former U.S. Securities & Exchange Commissioner, Partner in Charge at Cooley LLP about last year’s event, according to Hispanic Tips.

“The American economy is experiencing a historic transformation and organizations such as the NAA have a strategic role in guiding decision-makers to ensure that Latino businesses are positioned to capture new opportunities, and promoting Latino wealth-building, political participation and educational attainment,” Campos added.

Other Prominent participants at the Summit will include, the Honorable William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States; the Honorable Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State; the Honorable Ken Salazar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co; Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo and Randall Stephenson, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, AT&T.


Source

Obama: 'I'd like to work my way around Congress'

September 15, 2011 1:30am

by Byron York Chief Political Correspondent


Follow on Twitter:@byronyork

President Barack Obama speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 34th Annual Awards Gala at the Washington Convention Center, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Facing growing opposition to his economic proposals and dimming prospects that Congress will pass other parts of his agenda, President Obama told a Hispanic group in Washington Wednesday that when it comes to the issue of immigration, "I'd like to work my way around Congress."

"As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this all happen on my own," Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "There are times where -- until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again -- I'd like to work my way around Congress."

As he continued, Obama conceded that "we've got laws on the books that have to be upheld." But he quickly added there are different ways to uphold the laws on the books. "You know as well as anyone that…how we enforce those laws is also important," Obama said. Last month, the administration made a major, unilateral change in immigration law enforcement when it announced that the government will not initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants unless they have committed serious crimes. To critics, Obama had indeed worked his way around Congress. To the Hispanic Caucus, Obama said his new policy will "prioritize criminals who endanger our communities, not students trying to achieve the American dream."

The bigger problem, Obama said, is that sort of unilateral enforcement (or non-enforcement) only goes so far. "We live in a democracy, and at the end of the day*, I can't do this all by myself under our democratic system," he said. "If we're going to do big things -- whether it’s passing this jobs bill, or the DREAM Act, or comprehensive immigration reform -- we're going to have to get Congress to act."

This is the second time in recent months that Obama has publicly mused about going around Congress to enact immigration reform. In that speech to La Raza in July, he said that "some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own" -- a prospect Obama said he found "very tempting." But the president quickly added, "that's not how our system works."

Source

P.S. *A pesky cliche repeated unconsciously by many; such as "you know", and "I mean".