<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

The sacrifice and fearlessness shown by progressive sisters and clergy prompted some laypeople to re-examine their own views on race relations and support new strategies to fight Mexican-American poverty and inequality. Writings about Catholic social doctrine also inspired some individuals to work for a more just society. Tatton, for example, wrote poignantly about the effects on her own thinking of one particular book that explained the Catholic Church’s teachings on social justice. “Have you got it in your library?” she asked Mother Angelique. “We think it ought to be a ‘must’ book for all Catholic students of economics and of welfare work,” she proclaimed. The book was a revelation of self-understanding: “I am so impressed because it has made me see for the first time how I, personally, can contribute in a constructive if small way to the betterment of poor muddled and wretched humanity.” Tatton understood that no single person could change society, but she insisted that “if every Catholic felt and saw his responsibility to humanity and would really study and become imbued with the teachings of the Church and moral law . . . then things would begin to improve.” The book--and, importantly, her association with the Sisters of Divine Providence and Archbishop Lucey —led her to reevaluate how the dominant ethos had shaped some of her basic beliefs: “I, too, was suffocated by the individualism of the age in which I was born,” she confessed. But she had begun to overcome her own shortcomings and society’s fetters: “I have only now come to realize my social responsibility in a concrete sort of way,” Tatton confided. Enthusiastically she told her mentor she would be working to promote Lucey’s program of religious social work among Mexicans in the San Antonio Archdiocese. Tatton to Ayers, 17 August 1942 and 13 October 1942. Tatton’s reference was to Virgil Michael, O.S.B., Christian Social Reconstruction (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1937). Like others of her time, Tatton experienced the introspection needed to think differently about the “Mexican Problem.” Clearly, Catholic mentors had played a large part in shaping the outlook of this new ally in the struggle against Mexican-American inequality.

Of course the campaign against Mexican-American inequality in Texas would continue to be painfully slow and hard-fought. Despite the signs of progressive changes emerging by the 1930s and 1940s, even those at the forefront of change sometimes revealed a nagging ambivalence about Texas Mexicans, and at times they remained captives of deeply engrained racial myths and social biases. For example, Archbishop Lucey had to fight long and hard to persuade the Sisters of Divine Providence to accept the Mexican-American Catechists as a group deserving first-rate treatment and support. The congregational leaders initially opposed Lucey’s idea to seek papal approval for a separate order of Catechists, and they refused to accept into their own community “a large number of Latin-Americans who would be able to work devotedly amongst their own, but who would have difficulty in adjusting to the Anglo-American culture or way of thinking that is now characteristic of our group.” Privett, The U.S. Catholic Church , 126-33; quote on p. 129.

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Immigration in the united states and spain: considerations for educational leaders. OpenStax CNX. Jul 26, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11174/1.28
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Immigration in the united states and spain: considerations for educational leaders' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask