Spanish-language Mass draws largest crowd

August 18, 2007
By Bronson Pettitt

In the 11 years she's been in Austin, MN, Maria Ramirez has seen a lot of changes at Queen of Angels Church.

When she arrived from Texas, the church gave bilingual Masses once a month, she said, but few Hispanics attended.

Then those Latinos who were here began to settle down and have families. That boosted the church's Hispanic membership so much that now a weekly Spanish-language Mass is the church's largest service.

With between 265 and 300 mostly Hispanics attending the 11 a.m. Sunday Masses, it makes the church the most popular one among Hispanics in Austin, said the Rev. Dale Tupper. Hispanics account for about 40 percent of the church's membership. The other two services in English each get about 180 people.

"If they speak Spanish, you can feel it in your heart," Ramirez said of the ministry, adding they build "more of a connection with the Spanish-speaking people."

Besides Masses, the church also hosts weddings, baptisms and quinceneras (the celebration marking a girl's 15th birthday) in Spanish. In addition, vacation Bible school and Sunday school are taught in Spanish; even the signs around the church are bilingual.

Integration and interaction between the mix of ethnicities, however, aren't easy.

"People think the barrier is language when it's really cultural," said Tupper, who has lived in Mexico and gives Masses in English and Spanish. "Even the Catholicism is different between southern Minnesota and Latin America."

The church has bilingual Masses during Easter, All Saints Day and recently Corpus Christi, in which churchgoers marched from the Church of St. Augustine to Queen of Angels. Those services, said Tupper, are a good chance for interaction among different ethnicities.

"It's a slow, difficult process, and it has to be intentional," said Queen's pastoral associate and Hispanic ministry coordinator Mary Basset, on the integration of cultures.

Even if the services don't push people into mutual cultural understanding right away, they provide a safe haven for Latinos.

"It's something that feels like home for them," said Tupper. In Mexico, about 90 percent of the population is Catholic.

So will attendance at Spanish Masses continue rising?

Tupper said it's hard to predict, since many churchgoers are children, and it's hard to tell if they will stay in Austin and continue the trend their parents started. Even if they do stay, they might stop going to church.

"Many people only go to church for baptism or communion," said Ramirez. "Many people go only when they need it."

By the numbers

265 to 300 people attend the weekly Spanish masses at Queen of Angels Church

180 people attend each twice-weekly service in English

40 percent of Queen's congregation is Hispanic

90 percent of Mexican citizens are Catholic

Source: The Post-Bulletin