Latinos in the U.S., including Latino immigrants, are secularizing as they assimilate, and are now as likely to report “no religion” as Americans with other ethnic backgrounds. That’s eating into the political power of the Catholic church. The Speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles, just told Cardinal Mahony to go fry ice (politely, but firmly) after Mahoney linked Nunez to “the culture of death” for supporting a “death with dignity” bill.
As the Los Angeles Times story points out, the Church was all-powerful in the Latino community when prelates were the only high-profile Latino spokesmen. Now there are Latino Speakers and Mayors.
Add this to the statistics on intermarriage, and it’s very hard to see any rational basis for the fear that Latino immigration is going to give the U.S. the sort of bicultural headaches Canada or Belgium have. That’s not the way this place works.
