Origin
In 1969, Father Ralph Ruiz of San Antonio, Texas, began meeting informally with other Mexican American priests in the area. At the meetings, the same subjects constantly came up for discussion: poverty and social problems in Mexican American parishes, ecclesiastic insensitivity and hostility toward Mexican and Mexican American culture, and the lack of an "indigenous" Mexican American clergy were among the most important.
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by area and population. Located in the South Central region, Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.
The first official meeting of the group that would become PADRES was held from October 7–9, 1969 at LaSalle Catholic High School in West San Antonio. Some important figures in attendance were Fr. Henry Casso of San Antonio, a founder of MALDEF and a former director of the Bishop's Committee for the Spanish-Speaking, Fr. David Duran of Fresno, who later became the first chaplain of the United Farm Workers, and Fr. Virgil Elizondo, author of several works on Our Lady of Guadalupe. While Texan priests were in the majority, there was also clergy from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, and the Washington, D.C., and a few Protestant ministers. Los Angeles priests were conspicuously absent, not having been invited due to the Archdiocese's reputation for repressing progressive priests.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno is a particular church of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in the western region (XI) of the United States, in the State of California. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Geographically, the diocese consists of 35,239 square miles (91,270 km2) of the Southern San Joaquin Valley of California, a portion of the Sierra Nevada and some eastern valleys. The diocese consists of all of the Counties of Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare. The total population of the diocesan region is about 2.4 million inhabitants, of whom 1,074,944 are registered Catholic as of 2012. For administrative purposes the diocese is sub-divided into five deaneries: Fresno City, Fresno (rural), Tulare/Kings, Kern/Inyo, and Merced/Mariposa.
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the AFL-CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a Marian apparition and a venerated image enshrined within the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The basilica is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and the world's third most-visited sacred site. Pope Leo XIII granted the venerated image a Canonical Coronation on 12 October 1895.
At the conference, the topics were much the same as at the informal meetings between Ruiz and his colleagues, but were undertaken in a much more formal manner. The convened priests chose the name "PADRES" for the organization, elected Fr. Ruiz provisional chairman, and set the date for a national congress for February of the following year. They agreed to hold it in Arizona, which was deemed "neutral ground".
Following the conference, Fr. Ruiz set about making arrangements for the national congress. He personally wrote every Mexican-American priest and also sent invitations to white clergy who served predominantly Mexican American parishes. He also wrote a letter to San Antonio Archbishop Francis James Furey to inform him of the congress, and another to the National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), now called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which put forth a set of resolutions and included a fact sheet highlighting PADRES' concerns.
The Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio encompasses 27,841 square miles (72,110 km2) in the US state of Texas.
In Christianity, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In some cases, such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Church of England, the title is borne by the leader of the denomination. Like popes, patriarchs, metropolitans, cardinal bishops, diocesan bishops, and suffragan bishops, archbishops are in the highest of the three traditional orders of bishops, priests, and deacons. An archbishop may be granted the title or ordained as chief pastor of a metropolitan see or another episcopal see to which the title of archbishop is attached.
Francis James Furey was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of San Diego, California (1966-1969) and as Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas (1969-1979).
The resolutions demanded:
- the appointment of Mexican-American bishops
- the appointment of Spanish-speaking priests as pastors in Spanish-speaking communities
- attention to the material needs of the poor and working classes, especially through the establishment of Catholic schools
- a Mexican-American unit of the National Liturgical Commission to adapt the liturgy to Mexican American culture
- support for the grape boycott
A pastor is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. A pastor may be ordained or not. Pastors are to act like shepherds by caring for the flock, and this care includes teaching. The New Testament typically uses the words “bishops” and “elders” for this church position. Likewise, Peter instructs these particular servants to “act like shepherds” as they “oversee” the flock of God. The words “bishop” and “elder” are interchangeable in another passage as well.
PADRES sought an official liaison with the NCCB, but were initially denied. After being pressured, however, the NCCB agreed to set up an "informal liaison committee" of five bishops: Furey, Manning of Los Angeles, Green of Tucson, Medeiros of Brownsville, and Buswell of Pueblo. The committee was ratified in December 1969.
Timothy Manning was an Irish American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1985, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. state of California. Based in Los Angeles, the archdiocese comprises the California counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The cathedral is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and its present archbishop is José Horacio Gómez. With approximately five million professing members, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is numerically the single largest diocese in the United States.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southwestern region of the United States. It is a suffragan see of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The diocese was recently led by its seventh bishop, Most Reverend Gerald Frederick Kicanas, who retired on October 3, 2017.
First national congress
The first national congress was held from February 2–6, 1970 in Tucson. There were more than 200 people in attendance, many of them uninvited. The largest group of crashers was a progressive group of priests, nuns, and laity from Northern California, most of whom were White American. Fr. Ruiz and the other hosts accommodated the other factions as best they could, but the radicals demanded an organization open to laity, which they wanted to call PUEBLOS.
To head off the usurpment of the organization, Ruiz and Fr. Edmundo Rodriguez spent the night following the first day of deliberations drafting a constitution that defined a priest's organization. The next morning, Fr. Ruiz addressed the people assembled. He told the people wishing to form an organization open to laity that they were welcome to do so, and to use the facilities, but that the organization of Chicano priests was meeting in the next room. As he proceeded to the next room, he was followed by the Mexican American priests. The result of the friction was the freezing out of the Anglo priests who wanted to help further the advancement of Mexican Americans.
The reasons for the exclusion were several: the laity were excluded because Ruiz and other founders knew that the opinions of priests carried much more weight with the hierarchy than those of the parishioners, and did not want their influence diluted. Sympathetic white priests were allowed to be dues-paying members, but were not permitted to vote in organizational proceedings. This was due to the paternalism the Catholic Church in the United States had shown toward the Mexican American population since the Mexican–American War, the result of which was the denial of positions of authority to Mexican Americans. PADRES feared having their leadership co-opted and so limited their membership for this reason as well.
The exclusion had several effects. For one, some Mexican American priests were alienated by the exclusion of the white priests, as were some of the white priests themselves. The Mexican American laity, religious brothers, and deacons, were also disappointed that they could not join the organization. The issue continued to fester, and motions were introduced yearly to expand membership. Slowly, more groups were included into PADRES, beginning with Mexican American deacons in 1972, Puerto Ricans in 1974, and finally all brothers, deacons, and priests in 1981.
On the other hand, restricting membership to Chicano priests allowed the group a greater sense of cohesion while simultaneously assuring that the leadership of the organization would remain in their hands. Many white priests understood this and joined as non-voting members.
Activities
In April 1970, PADRES was incorporated in Washington, D.C. In 1971, the group was organized into seven regional chapters, each with its own director who was under the national executive director. At the 1971 national conference in Los Angeles, Fr. Alberto Carrillo delivered an address that articulated a social theory of discrimination within the Church. It analyzed the Church within the framework of majority-minority relations, and concluded that:
- The majority assumes the minority incapable of policymaking and excludes members of that minority from the policymaking process. As a result, the majority makes policy affecting the minority.
- The majority "blames the victim" for the problems of the minority
- The majority acts as if there is no problem until it affects the majority itself, and finally,
- The solution to the problem resides in the hands of the majority.
This analysis provided PADRES with an intellectual basis for their challenge against the Church, and held the Church to the same standards as secular organizations in regards to issues of social and political inclusion.
At the conference, PADRES members identified three goals: The eradication of lack of education, an increase in the religious consciousness, and improvement of the social conditions of Mexican Americans.
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican church, view the diaconate as part of the clerical state.
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A clerical collar, clergy collar, or Roman collar, is an item of Christian clerical clothing. The collar closes at the back of the neck, presenting a seamless front. The shirt may have the collar built in. The clerical tab is almost always white and was originally made of cotton or linen but is now frequently made of plastic. Sometimes it is attached with a collaret or collarino that covers the white collar almost completely, except for a small white square at the base of the throat, and sometimes with the top edge of the collar exposed to mimic the collar of a cassock. It may simply be a detachable tab of white in the front of the clerical shirt. The clerical shirt is traditionally black, but today is available in a variety of colors depending on the wearer's preference. Once the clerical collar is removed the garment is indistinguishable from any other shirt. When clergy are delivering sermons, they sometimes attach preaching bands to their clerical collar.
Católicos por La Raza is a political association organized by Ricardo Cruz in the later 1960s in Los Angeles, California. Formed in the fall of 1969, Católicos por La Raza was made up of Chicano Catholic student activists who were engaged with both "their Catholic and Chicano heritage," enabling them to name and fight against the racism in the Catholic Church and the effects on the community. The CPLR was concerned with the discrimination and hypocrisy of the church's institutional power and wealth, arguing that such should be "brought to bear in solving the current Chicano urban and rural crisis". CPLR sought to transform the Church into an institution for social change, creating projects focussed on housing development, education, and small business development; believing that the Catholic Church in Los Angeles should use its power and wealth to address the economic and social needs of Mexican Americans. The CPRL, among many other organizations in the larger Chicano Movement, served to fight police brutality, employment discrimination, and the systemic racism in religious, educational, and political institutions. While the Católicos por La Raza was only active for a few years, the association's actions propelled various other movements in the 1970s, such as PADRES, an organization of Chicano priests, and Las Hermanas, an organization of Chicana/Latinx religious women.
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Gabino Zavala is a former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
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The CatholicMilitary Ordinariate of Australia, is a Latin Church suffragan military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church immediately subject to the Holy See. It was established in 1969 and managed for administrative purposes by the Archdiocese of Sydney.
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