Pope-Admiring Latino Youth Are the Catholic Church's Present, Future
Pope-Admiring Latino Youth Are the Catholic Church's Present, Future
Excerpt: NBC News
Two to three years after Claudia Quiñones "forgot about being a Catholic," she is back in the fold, singing as an alto in the choir, attending Mass regularly and feeling she has something to believe in.
The church, Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, is a family affair for the 20-year-old. Her cousin plays piano. Her aunt prepares flowers every weekend. They are the ones who nudged her back to Mass.
"I come from Bolivia and in Latin America, people are very religious there and when I migrated to the U.S., I completely forgot about being a Catholic and little by little I've been going back," she said. "I felt the same welcome feeling I had when I used to go to church. I felt safe. I realized I needed that in my life."
Quiñones is among the lucky faithful who snagged a ticket through a lottery for the Mass that will be spoken in Spanish by Pope Francis at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. on Thursday. She gave that ticket to her mother and will try to see the pope when he makes his way from the White House to a D.C. church.
As a young Latina Catholic, Quiñones is a central thread in an ongoing revitalization of the church by Latinos Pope Francis is highlighting with his trip to Washington, D.C.
Guzman Carriquiry, vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told The Associated Press that Pope Francis, on his U.S. trip, would uphold Latinos not as an "add on" to church life, but as the heart of American Catholicism.
"I'm really nervous. I want to see him. I want to hear him and I want to be inspired by his word," said Quiñones, who is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and works as a community organizer for CASA of Maryland.