Mexico Mission Trip

Page 2 of 3<123>
March 26th, 2018 at 4:39:47 PM permalink
FrGamble
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 67
Posts: 7596
Quote: AZDuffman
How much stricter of Catholics were they down there vs here if you do not mind me asking?


Interesting question and not sure if I have an answer. Because the people don't see priests terribly often the appreciate the Sacraments and things like blessings a whole lot. I didn't get a sense if they were more or less strict.
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” (
March 26th, 2018 at 4:52:50 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569


According to this infographic, Mexico is second only to Paraguay in Latin America by percentage of people who identify as Catholic (in 2014).


Quote: Pew Research: February 10, 2016

At the same time, Catholics in Mexico do not uniformly agree with Catholic Church teachings. Half of Mexican Catholics think gays and lesbians should be permitted to legally marry (a right that exists in certain parts of the country), compared with 42% who side with church policy and oppose gay marriage. Mexican Catholics lean in the opposite direction when homosexuality is framed in terms of morality: 55% say homosexual behavior is morally wrong (compared with 21% who say it is morally acceptable and 17% who say it is not a moral issue).

Even fewer Catholics in Mexico say sex outside marriage (45%), divorce (32%) and contraception (28%) are morally wrong – all of which are behaviors seen as sinful by the Catholic Church. In fact, most Mexican Catholics say the church should allow contraceptive use (66%) and divorce (60%), roughly similar to the shares of U.S. Hispanic Catholics who support these changes to church teachings.

But Mexican Catholics are more traditional in some other ways. Only about three-in-ten Catholics in Mexico say the church should allow priests to marry and women to become priests (31% each).
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/10/a-snapshot-of-catholics-in-mexico-pope-francis-next-stop/
March 26th, 2018 at 5:12:36 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
If no Mexicans want to come here,
as FrG claims, where did the 7 million
illegal Mexicans in this country come
from. Does he have a theory?
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
March 27th, 2018 at 3:39:29 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: FrGamble
Interesting question and not sure if I have an answer. Because the people don't see priests terribly often the appreciate the Sacraments and things like blessings a whole lot. I didn't get a sense if they were more or less strict.


Can you embellish a little? When you day they don't see priests, do they have a regular Sunday Mass? I suppose a layperson could fill in the gaps, I have seen them do readings and I have even seen a Deacon do the Gospel/Homily (is a Deacon a layperson?) Could even handle Communion (not Consecration, but laypeople deliver to the bedridden for example.)

Do they just have fewer priests who travel a small area?

As to "strict" I guess I mean would they more resemble an Irish or Italian Catholic family of the 50s/60s more than today's Catholic?
The President is a fink.
March 27th, 2018 at 7:15:54 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Evenbob
If no Mexicans want to come here...


Median Age has a strong correlation to emigration.

CIA World Factbook Median Ages
Guatemala total: 22.1 years
Belize total: 22.7 years
Honduras total: 23 years
Haiti total: 23 years
Bolivia total: 24.3 years
Nicaragua total: 25.7 years
El Salvador total: 27.1 years
Ecuador total: 27.7 years
Mexico total: 28.3 years
Panama total: 29.2 years
Colombia total: 30 years
World total: 30.4 years
Costa Rica total: 31.3 years
United States total: 38.1 years
Cuba total: 41.5 years
Puerto Rico total: 41.5 years
Japan total: 47.3 years (oldest people in the world)

I think what he said was "not every Mexican wants to come to the US". There are over 130 million people in Mexico at an median age of 27.9 . But only as recently as 1990 the median age in Mexico was 19.5, and the growth rate in Mexico is now half of what it was in 1980.
The peak years of Mexican immigration to the US were in the 1980s and 1990s.

The median age of the US was 28.4 in 1970.

Now, many Central Americans do try to immigrate to the US illegally by travelling through Mexico on buses. Guatemalans and hondurans are much younger than Mexicans and have less opportunity.
March 27th, 2018 at 9:20:56 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
I would wonder about the slums in the mountains surrounding a city in Brazil.
The wealthy live in the city and have wealthy churches. The Church has some presence in the slums but not much. There is certainly an affiliation with the Catholic church but all government is by and for the drug cartels. Sanitation, such as it is, is by the drug lords, immunizations are often by nurses kidnapped from the city and brought forcibly to the slums for a few days, yet such immunizations will take place with the overt cooperation of the local priest.

Is the affiliation with the church or the drug lord? is there a difference that is perceived by the local populace?
March 27th, 2018 at 9:31:29 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: FrGamble
Interesting question and not sure if I have an answer. Because the people don't see priests terribly often the appreciate the Sacraments and things like blessings a whole lot. I didn't get a sense if they were more or less strict.
Perhaps we should all recall Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field wherein the Catholic Church was located in the back of a pickup truck as the priest 'rode circuit' holding services at wide spots in the road. Were the people any less or any more religious than those who attended the posh St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC?
March 27th, 2018 at 10:32:48 AM permalink
FrGamble
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 67
Posts: 7596
Quote: AZDuffman
Can you embellish a little? When you day they don't see priests, do they have a regular Sunday Mass? I suppose a layperson could fill in the gaps, I have seen them do readings and I have even seen a Deacon do the Gospel/Homily (is a Deacon a layperson?) Could even handle Communion (not Consecration, but laypeople deliver to the bedridden for example.)

Do they just have fewer priests who travel a small area?

As to "strict" I guess I mean would they more resemble an Irish or Italian Catholic family of the 50s/60s more than today's Catholic?


They do not have priests for the Sunday Mass usually in the ranchos. Maybe once or twice a year in some places a priest will get there. A lay person will do a communion service in most cases. A deacon is an ordained minister but he cannot celebrate Mass.

I really don't know about the strictness; the good statsPaco posted are usually not taken from the rural areas I was in so maybe your 50s Italian family analogy is right.
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” (
March 27th, 2018 at 11:26:58 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
I would have trouble gauging the beliefs of a group of people just by talking with them. Looking at a survey, I had no idea that JWs were so opposed to same sex marriage, or that Buddhists were so in favor of it.

Views about same-sex marriage by religious group
Strongly favor/favor Religious tradition- Oppose/strongly oppose Don't know Sample Size
84% Buddhist 13% 3% 264
78% Unaffiliated (religious "nones") 16% 6% 7,556
77% Jewish 18% 5% 847
68% Hindu 23% 9% 199
57% Mainline Protestant 35% 8% 6,083
57% Catholic 34% 9% 7,202
54% Orthodox Christian 41% 5% 186
42% Muslim 52% 6% 237
40% Historically Black Protestant 52% 9% 1,916
28% Evangelical Protestant 64% 7% 8,593
26% Mormon 68% 6% 664
14% Jehovah's Witness 76% 10% 245
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-same-sex-marriage/
March 27th, 2018 at 11:52:07 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Pacomartin
I would have trouble gauging the beliefs of a group of people just by talking with them.


It's not possible. They will tell you
what they think you want to hear.
FrG is an American authority figure,
so of course they tell him how happy
they are in their native land. They
think he would be thrilled to hear
that, and right they were.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
Page 2 of 3<123>