Latino Catholics v. political meddling

It is important to note that modern Latin Catholicism has a dual nature: it is "conservative" in the sense of family communalism and tradition that the church offers, yet it is classically "liberal" in the sense of not wanting the Catholic Church to have power in political life-- particularly after the long historical experience of the Latin American Church "meddling in politics." As Mexicans put it: "No meta en la política." A sizable majority of U.S. Latino Catholics shares these attitudes with them. Increasingly they are joining their Latin counterparts in accepting gays and lesbians as part of the social family that is both Catholic and liberal.

This makes sense to me--particularly since so large a proportion of Latinos in California have roots in Mexico, where keeping the church out of public life has been a state ideology since the revolution.

What's worth pondering are the implications of this for Catholicism in America. Over the past couple of decades, the (mostly non-Latino) hierarchy has become increasingly inclined to meddle in politics--an inclination most recently manifested in the USCCB's effective alliance with the Republican Party in seeking to block health care reform.

As the church becomes increasingly Latino, it will be interesting to see if the rank and file become "Americanized" into a more assertive political stance,silk pajamas, or if they stick to their own inclination, and continue to ignore the bishops' heated rhetoric about how (in this case) same-sex marriage signals the end of civilization as we know it. It's even possible, I suppose, that the bishops will take a deep breath and consider the virtues of keeping a respectful distance between the church's norms and the norms of a pluralistic civil society.