Home | Headlines |
|
Bishops issue quinceañera ritual
-November 10, 2008-
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Quinceañera, the coming-of-age celebration for girls turning 15 years old, has long been a tradition in Latino families in the United States and a number of Spanish-speaking countries as a rite of passage from childhood to adolescence.
The custom expresses thanksgiving to God for the gift of life and asks for a blessing for the years ahead.
In September the U.S. bishops published the bilingual “Order of the Blessing on the Fifteenth Birthday,” designed to help U.S. communities celebrate this ritual within and outside Mass, according to an announcement on its release.
|
|
In a statement Jesuit Father Allan Deck, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, emphasized the importance of developing a ritual that “helps Latino Catholics celebrate their cultural heritage and build new bridges to other Catholics in their communities.”
Father Deck cited an April 2007 joint survey by the Pew Hispanic Project and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that reported about one-third of all Catholics in the United States are Hispanic, and predicted that percentage will steadily increase, making quinceañeras more mainstream.
|
Advertisement |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
The priest said that the quinceañera ritual was “one of many resources U.S. Hispanics can use to preserve both Catholic and cultural identity.”
Msgr. Anthony Sherman, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship, said the quinceañera ritual can aid young Catholics to “learn more about the importance of upholding one’s baptismal commitment in a spirit of thanksgiving.”
Editor’s Note: The quinceañera ritual book may be ordered online at www.usccbpublishing.org.
|
|
|
|
