Catholic Church and Diversity

The Catholic Church is having a problem with diversity in its higher ranking positions. Although there may be a diverse following, there is not a lot of diversity among the Bishops. In the past twenty years Catholic services or Masses had only been in English in America. There are some churches where the language is the one that the followers speak, like Polish or Portuguese. However, those churches are few and far between. Many churches have changed in the past twenty years to incorporate Spanish speaking Masses. There are still many churches that need more diversity and broad ranged of different ethnicites. An article by Frank Ponce for the New Catholic World written in 1980 addressed this problem and set out several solutions to fix it. He points out that while many parishes are diverse the people in power are not. “The conclusion: few dioceses have – or are willing to involve – Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Asian Americans, or other minorities in responsible, diocesan decision-making positions” (Mathisen, 756). He recognized the need for the Catholic Church to be more diverse and give credit to its followers.

Ethnicity is not the only thing that the Catholic Church needs to look at to be more diverse. Women have almost no high ranking positions in the Church's infrastructure. Women can never be priests, they can only be nuns. In Chile, women are taking on roles where they have more power and can do more for the Church. “They are doing many of those tasks traditionally reserved to priests: conducting paraliturgical ceremonies, Catechetics for adults and children, the formation of Mother Catechists, home visiting, the development of primary communities, parochial administration, and even a limited participation in the administration of the Sacraments” (Gillfeather, 39). Women are beginning to find a bigger roles within the church, but they are still not allowed to become priests. Vatican II made a lot of differences in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. “Vatican II itself revealed a degree of pluralism withing the institutional Church that hitherto had not been seen publicly” (D'Antonio,382). This helped the church to modernize some of its old policies and make the Church a friendlier and more accessible venue. “That is, the traditional leaders of the Vatican, with their opposition to just about everything Vatican II stood were confronted by a Pope (John XXIII) who insisted on opening Church windows to let in some fresh air, and by bishops from around the world , eager for a chance to modify at least some aspects of life in the Roman Catholic church” (D'Antonio,382). The Catholic Church has come a long way in terms of being more accepting and welcoming of diversity, however, the Church still has a long way to go to be more accepting of gender and sexuality.


D'Antonio, William V. "Autonomy and democracy in an autocratic organization: The case of the Roman Catholic Church." Sociology of Religion 55.4 (1994): 379-396. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Dec. 2009.

Gilfeather, Katherine "The Changing Role of Women in the Catholic Church in Chile." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 16.1 (1977): 39. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Dec. 2009.

Mathesin, Robert, R. Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader (2nd Revised Edition). Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006. Print.