![]() Within the American political scene, Católicos leadership took their cues from other activist and civil rights organizations. The late 1960s was a time of upheaval in the Catholic Church as bishops, theologians, and lay believers came to grips with the changes of Vatican II, such as the call for wider participation of lay Catholics and greater attunement to the plight of the poor. 3 Many of the founders had grown up in Catholic parochial schools and knew well how Catholic social teaching was patterned after the life of Jesus Christ. Católicos, formed with the encouragement of Cesar Chavez in 1969, brought together students from the Chicano Law Students Association at Loyola Marymount College, the La Raza newspaper, and the United Mexican American Students of Los Angeles City College. Chavez’s leadership of the UFW made clear how the power held by religious institutions could be harnessed by activists to further their causes and benefit their communities. Many members of the group began their work in the Chicano rights movement alongside Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). What does it mean for believers on the fringes of faith to confront their leaders during Mass, a moment in the Catholic tradition called the “source and summit of Christian life?” Is it ever appropriate for believers to disrupt the sacrament that functions as the “efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being?” 2 Finally, where can God’s work be found in all of this?Ĭatólicos formed in the fall of 1969 as an association of Chicano Catholic student activists who were proud of both their Catholic and Chicano heritage, twin identities that allowed them to see the suffering that racism in the Catholic Church had caused their community. 1 This essay will explore the theological implications of Católicos’ protest. ![]() The disruption to James Francis Cardinal McIntyre’s midnight Mass was a protest by Católicos Por La Raza, a group of Chicano organizers who intended to challenge their second-class status within a largely Anglo and racist Catholic Church. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles. ![]() ![]() On Christmas Eve 1969, a melee broke out at St. ![]()
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