From the Pastor’s Desk:

Since November of 2020 I have been reading, studying and trying to understand what has been the driving force of anger in our country. At first I thought it must be the pandemic. We had given up so much with our shut down of our economy. It did not change when we began to open up, it seemed to intensify. I began to look at the loss of practicing our faith in community, not only within the Catholic Church, but mainstream non Catholic churches as well. I also wondered about all the demonstrations in many cities against police etc. We seem to be on a powder keg ready to blow.

Much of the anger seems to be coming from misinformation on the internet, fueled by white power groups. Most but not all, the anger or the fighting in the streets, on the planes, in our Capital is driven by “white people” and many times against “black people” or people of color.

I decided to look into our US census. In the last 13 years Asian immigrants are second only to Latinos, China is first followed by India. In the latest census, 66% of Asians were born in another country compared to only 37% of Latinos being born outside the 50 states. Asian peoples have become a larger share of the US population and they are playing an important role in helping the US economy to grow. Across the country they own 1.5 million small businesses. Due to the birth rate of Asians and Hispanics who are having families of more than one or two children the races of color in the US continues to grow, whereas the white population has a falling birth rate and is now only 57.8% of the population.

The population of the US is rapidly changing and in a number of states the white population is moving to a minority. Is this the cause of anger? Is this helping to fuel the white power movements? All of this I pose only as thought for further study. Across the world populations are on the move, more than at any other time since WWII.

Here in the US, with the white majority shrinking in number, these young minorities are important for our future growth economically. They are the country’s future labor force. Within the Catholic Church may be find the hope of the Church as many Asians; Indian, Vietnamese and Pilipino are Catholic. They can become an important part of the Church here in the US, but in order for this to happen, our Church must be a melting pot around the Eucharistic Table.