This morning’s Dallas Morning News has an informative Q&A about Hispanics and religion, with Dr. David Maldonado Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Latino/a Christianity and Religions at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. He echoes a lot of what we’ve heard before — but it’s interesting to see this pop up in a mainstream American newspaper:

There’s been much talk about Hispanics having an influence on America’s politics and culture. What about religion?

Within the Catholic Church, Hispanics will become the dominant population in many parishes and will require Spanish language ministry and services. An immediate impact will be the need to provide Spanish-speaking clergy, especially within immigrant communities. Non-Spanish speaking priests also will need to understand and work within Hispanic cultures and traditions.

Protestant denominations experience the same pressures. They will have to produce Spanish-speaking clergy to minister to this growing population.

The demands for clergy suggest that both Catholic and Protestant seminaries will have to be more responsive in their recruitment, programs and training. Clergy need to know how to minister in a dramatically changing social context that reflects the Hispanic presence and influence.

What else does this mean for the Catholic Church? The Pew Hispanic Center reported recently that numerous Latino evangelicals are former Catholics.

Catholics will need to pay close attention to Hispanics, although the Catholic Church already has initiatives to call Hispanics back to their home church. A potential challenge is the relationship between the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations, especially with evangelical Protestants.

What does the Hispanic footprint mean for mainline Protestants, like Methodists and Presbyterians? That’s not where you normally go for the charismatic experience that attracts some Latinos to Pentecostal churches.

Many denominations will probably explore more Hispanic cultural elements in worship, such as music, language and symbols. Protestant churches tend to be more open to social ministries as a means of outreach.

The question is, to what extent will mainline churches actually incorporate these into their corporate life? Failing to do so could determine their immediate- and long-range success in ministry with the Hispanic populations.

You talked about the preference for Spanish-trained clergy. The Pew report said the same thing, that Hispanics preferred services in Spanish. Does that imply a strong insularity?

Most ethnic immigrants in the United States enjoyed ethnic congregations such as German Methodists, Norwegian Lutherans and Italian Catholics. That Hispanics want to celebrate their faith, enjoy spiritual fellowship and seek meaning within and through their cultures is in line with other American groups. “Insularity” also needs to be understood as a two-way dynamic.

There’s much more brain food there. For Catholics, and Protestants, and anyone who is curious about what the face of America may look like in the next 20 or 30 years.