ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores some of the ways in which, if thus embraced, the Latino presence might contribute to the future of American Catholicism. He suggests that one important source of tension between US Latino Catholics and Euro-American Catholics is their different notions of symbol as mediating the divine, or the real. Consequently, Iberian Catholicism was not forced to develop a response to the reformers’ arguments or rebut them point by point – as, also, European Catholics in the United States would later be forced to do. As Catholicism in the United States becomes increasingly pan-American, the historical argument of scholars like Espin and Francis becomes increasingly relevant for understanding our context sociologically, theologically and pastorally. The author submits a critical retrieval of the medieval Christian worldview might offer resources for addressing the challenges confronting the US Catholic Church.
