Asian American Catholics: Diversity within Diversity

Abstract

At its November 2001 General Meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a landmark pastoral letter, Asian and Pacific Presence: Harmony in Faith. For the first time, the episcopal leadership of the U.S. Catholic church publicly acknowledged the presence of Asian American Catholics and the rich diversity of cultures, traditions, and gifts that they bring to the U.S. Catholic church. At the same time, the U.S. bishops also conceded that Asian Americans, be they newly arrived immigrants or native-born whose roots in the United States extend many generations, “have remained, until very recently, nearly invisible in the Church in the United States” (USCCB 2001, 4). This admission echoes an earlier statement in the 1992 position paper of the USCCB’s Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, The Pastoral Care of Immigrants from the Philippines, that the “Filipino Catholic community has been one of the least recognized in the country,” because their surnames often result in them being mistaken for Latino/as, and since many of them are fluent in English, they are expected to assimilate fully into the “American style” of Catholicism