June 18, 1999
By Mark Shaffer
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
PHOENIX - It was a church born of turmoil in the mid-1920s, made up of Hispanic Catholics who had tired of racism and being forced to sit in the basement of St. Mary's for services.
Now, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in central Phoenix is at loggerheads with the Catholic hierarchy once again, saying that the language and cultural needs of its predominantly immigrant, Spanish-speaking parishioners are being slighted.
At issue is the decision by the Phoenix diocese to combine Immaculate Heart's huge congregation with that of St. Anthony Church and a smaller mission church under the stewardship of one Spanish-speaking priest, Father Saul Madrid.
It's a move admittedly of desperation, said Father Prudencio Rodriguez, vicar for the Phoenix diocese Hispanic ministry. Rodriguez said that the diocese, which has more than 100 parishes and missions, has only about 20 priests who are fluent in Spanish.
And those bilingual priests are being spread increasingly thin. Half of the diocese's parishes and missions have at least one Mass weekly in Spanish.
Diocese officials estimate that they have twice as many Spanish-speaking people attending Mass as they did a decade ago because of the wave of immigration, primarily from Mexico, which has come to the Phoenix area in the 1990s.
But the shortage of Spanish-speaking priests is receiving little sympathy from the congregation at Immaculate Heart.
Worshipers fear that the new priest will change the church's Mexican customs, cut the number of Spanish-speaking Masses and maybe even close the church.
Members have been marching in protest repeatedly from the church, in the 900 block of East Washington Street, to the diocese headquarters a half-mile away.
Rodriguez strongly denies that any changes are being planned at Immaculate Heart, apart from bringing in Madrid and a new assistant pastor. Madrid did not return calls to his office at St. Anthony Church.
``The bishop gave them one of his best men. Sometimes it just makes me want to scratch my head,'' Rodriguez said, adding that Madrid is from Mexico and bilingual.
Members of Immaculate Heart sent 6,000 signed petitions in protest of Madrid's appointment to head their church to Bishop Thomas O'Brien. When Rodriguez was sent to meet with the congregation, the situation was inflamed even more when the vicar suggested that those turning in petitions had gone to a Kmart parking lot for signatures.
Shortly thereafter, the parishioners of Immaculate Heart wrote a letter to the central office of the U.S. Catholic church in Washington, D.C.
``As a parish, we believe that due to our Hispanic heritage, Bishop O'Brien and the diocesan staff that advise him in these matters disrespected and gave no consideration to our feelings, needs or opinions,'' the letter stated.
The congregation demanded in the letter that Father Jose Corral, the assistant to Father Antonio Sotelo, the current priest at the church, be elevated to that position. It also demanded that all current Masses and other church activities be kept intact and that separate church organizations be retained at both Immaculate Heart and St. Anthony.
The letter also demanded that all Immaculate Heart employees be allowed to keep their jobs at their current salaries. Madrid has said that all church employees must reapply for their jobs, which church members likened in their letter to the management style of ``an executive officer of a major corporation with no regard for the personal lives of the employees.''
The congregation also fears that Madrid will eliminate a host of special Masses at Immaculate Heart celebrating Latin American traditions like a girl's 15th birthday, mariachi Masses for Mexican weddings and posadas in the Christmas season, which honor Joseph and Mary on their journey to find an inn for the birth of Christ.
Rodriguez said changes can be expected.
``The theology of Saul (Madrid) is not that of Tony (Sotelo),'' Rodriguez said. ``Immaculate Heart is like a church in Mexico with a lot of images and religiosity. But we also need to bring it into the theology of the Second Vatican Council and make it a church which is much more inclusive.''
But members of Immaculate Heart attending a wedding Saturday afternoon said that all the protests and angry words amount to nothing.
``When you get down to it, whoever is priest, we will go down and worship,'' Anthony Jurado said. ``In the end, God is in charge.''
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