In Tuesday's Zenit, liturgical expert Fr. McNamara speaks to whether laymen should "read" priest-written homilies to Spanish-speaking congregations in the United States:
Some readers illustrated the huge difficulties faced by many priests seeking to accommodate the influx of Spanish-speaking parishioners throughout the continental United States, including in some unexpected regions.
One reader pointed out these difficulties are often compounded by the fact that not all immigrants speak the same variety of Spanish. And there are even rural immigrants from countries such as Peru and Mexico for whom Spanish is not their first language.
In such cases, even standard Spanish can leave them perplexed in a similar way as happens to English-speaking Americans visiting England who discover the truth behind Churchill's quip that they are two countries separated by the same language.
My father's childhood parish, Ss. Peter & Paul in Rochester, New York, was dominated by Italian-speaking families in the 1950s. To my knowledge, neither Fathers Geffel nor Fox, who served as pastors during that time, spoke a lick of Italian. No one suggested to them that they ought to "get in touch" with their parishioners by learning another tongue, much less delivering homilies in it.
Instead, they taught them English. Young Italian-speaking children like my father were taught the language of their host country at parish schools. Yet these days, it's expected that the Church in America "minister" to Hispanics bilingually. Seminarians are taught Spanish, special Masses are held, and parishes advertise their multiculturalism. (Our parish school dumped Latin in favor of Spanish two years ago, and has a presidential bauble to show for it.)
Here's a thought: rather than balkanizing — or at least bifurcating — the Church in America, why not take our cues from our forebears and teach immigrants English? Sure, parish schools are a thing of the past in many city neighborhoods. But I've got to think more than a few parishioners could teach it, and would if asked. Is anyone doing this? If not, why not?
