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17 - Asian-American Catholics

from Part III - The Many Faces of Catholicism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2021

Margaret M. McGuinness
Affiliation:
La Salle University, Philadelphia
Thomas F. Rzeznik
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University, New Jersey
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Summary

In November 2000, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a pastoral letter, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, which reiterated the fact that the growth of the Catholic Church in the United States was greatly dependent upon immigrants from “many races and cultures.”1 In looking at the changing face of the US Catholic population, it recognized the increasing presence of Asian and Pacific Island Catholics, a community that has been largely invisible within the history of American Catholicism. Awareness of the growing Asian Catholic population prompted the bishops the following year to issue Asian and Pacific Presence: Harmony in Faith, a statement that more clearly acknowledged their presence in the church. Noting that “Christ Was Born in Asia,” the document encouraged a fuller appreciation of the gifts and contributions of Asian and Pacific peoples to the life of the church and acknowledged the need to respond with a “welcoming spirit.”2 A companion statement in 2018, Encountering Christ in Harmony: A Pastoral Response to Our Asian and Pacific Island Brothers and Sisters, laid out a national pastoral plan for Asian and Pacific Island Catholics in the United States. The product of the work of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs, the report recognized the “richness of the spiritual and cultural backgrounds” that Asian and Pacific Island Catholics bring to the church and their contributions to the faith.3 Taken together, these pastoral statements draw attention to two key themes, presence and faith, that have been central to the Asian-American Catholic experience.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Burns, Jeffrey M., Skerrett, Ellen, and White, Joseph M., eds. Keeping Faith: European and Asian Catholic Immigrants. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.Google Scholar
Cherry, Stephen M. Faith, Family, and Filipino American Community Life. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Hoang, Linh, OFM. “The Faith and Practices of Asian American Catholics: Generational Shifts.” New Theology Review (February 2010): 48–57.Google Scholar
Kim, Simon C. and Daeshin Kim, Francis. Embracing Our Inheritance: Jubilee Reflections on Korean American Catholics (1966–2016). Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016.Google Scholar
Phan, Peter C. Vietnamese-American Catholics. New York: Paulist Press, 2005.Google Scholar

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