Shifting Religious Identity
The effect on San Diego’s Christian community
By Brianna Ray
By Brianna Ray
The Mission San Diego is one of the most famous and visited Roman Catholic churches in San Diego. It was only 10 am and the parking lot was filled with school buses and cars. The rose garden and the hallways were filled with visitors. I walked into the gift shop—it was filled with people and souvenirs. I asked the cashier which way the parish office was and I was told to walk down to the gate, make a right and follow the sidewalk to the last door and ring the doorbell. Before I was able to ring the doorbell, a man behind me muttered, “I got it, young lady.” It was Father Richard; he asked if I was his friend from High Tech High, as he opened the door. He led me into his office and began with formally introducing himself.
During my tour, Father Richard and I walked the whole mission. The main church was so beautiful. You would never think that it is eighty-three years old. At the altar, there is a painting of the Virgin Mary, with her son Jesus, welcoming people into heaven. Those people included Native Americans, and that was very moving because it was something they wanted to capture about the mission. In the rose garden, there is a perfect view of the bell tower. The bell tower is one of the most popular parts of the mission. Next to the rose garden is a building attached to the church. The signs next to each door read “La Salla,” and “La Escuela.” Even though the church was rebuilt twice, the Hispanic language has been kept within the mission. Father Richard didn’t have much to say about the Hispanic culture because it isn’t quite present with the mission’s celebrations. But he did say that there are so many parishes in San Diego that largely celebrate Hispanic Catholic holidays. Some of these parishes include Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Michael’s—Saint Michael’s has a large Latino community. He does believe that so much of the Hispanic aspect of Catholicism has been greatly forgotten, especially where there aren’t too many Hispanics and Latinos. He did however enlighten me with some pretty interesting history about the mission. At approximately 1:30 am on November 4th, 1775, between six-hundred and eight-hundred warriors from the surrounding ranches silently crept into the land of the mission. After ransacking the chapel, they set the other buildings on fire. The excitement had soon awakened the missionaries, the Spanish guards, and the Christian newcomers. One life was taken—Father Jayme who became California's first Christian martyr. He had been left behind to run the Mission while Father Serra moved on to build other missions. The mission buildings were soon reduced to ash. A temporary church served until the permanent building was finished in 1813. The present church was built in 1931 to look like the mission church of 1813. The mission had been occupied by the U.S. Army for several years in the 1850s and then abandoned. It then became a school for Native American children in 1892. The present church was built in 1931 to look like the mission church of 1813. 78% of parishioners at the Mission are White, 12% are Hispanic, and 5% are Filipino. Initially, I thought that the majority of parishioners would be Hispanic. Learning that it’s only twelve percent really surprised me because I thought the first Spanish mission in California would be flooded with Hispanics. By 1823, Christianity had been brought to San Diego, and the entire coast of California. Along with Father Junipero, the Spanish padres established a chain of twenty-one missions in California to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The missions stretched along the coast from San Diego to Sonoma, north of San Francisco Bay. Christianity is the world’s largest followed religion. Being Christian, but more specifically, Catholic, makes this topic more interesting to me. I sometimes wonder about why others have chosen to be Christian and follow the religion. I see so many people following Christianity and I sometimes wonder what their reason is. I am Catholic because I was born and raised into a Catholic family, but as I grew up and learned more about the religion, I started to truly believe. I am currently in the process of becoming confirmed in the Catholic Church. Getting confirmed is completely your own decision, but there are some people who are forced to be confirmed because of their families. Luckily for me, I have a choice. I am getting confirmed because I have chosen to be Catholic for the rest of my life, and I would like to be considered an adult in the Catholic Church.
Many of those who claim to be Christian sometimes don’t follow it the right way. There are some Christians who sometimes begin to doubt God, and his ways. There are also those who completely do the opposite of what they are taught in church. The second commandment, “Thou shalt not use the Lord’s name in vain,” is one of the most common commandments to be forgotten and ignored. Catholics believe that whenever you curse, no matter whom, you are cursing at God. They believe this since it is believed that God is within every soul. There is something called the Holy Trinity which consists of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Father comes in the form of your mind, The Son comes in the form of your body, and The Holy Spirit comes in the form of your soul. That’s just one example of the many things that Catholics believe in. So back to Christianity, there are some who just completely stop believing in God. Maybe because of the influence of others who follow a different religion, but who knows. There are some people who go around, door to door, ask for a couple minutes of your time and try and convince you to follow their religion. Those who really believe sometimes shut the door in their face. The question of how the religious lives of Hispanic immigrants change when they come to San Diego was brought to my attention. San Diego is one of the closest cities to the International Mexican border, which means that many of the Mexican immigrants cross the border and end up staying here in San Diego. What do you think of when you think about San Diego as a whole? You should come up with things like the Biotech industry and the beaches, or maybe even the great weather. If you look deeper, you will see how San Diego is a place where people from all over the world come and make a beneficial impact. The most impactful people who have step foot onto San Diego’s culture are Hispanics and Latinos. It’s the food, the architecture, the language, the holidays, and the religion. We have places like Old Town that represents Hispanic history and its culture. We also have places like the Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first Spanish mission in California. San Diego has hundreds of Catholic parishes and Christian churches. Coming from a Catholic background makes this understandable for me. I also understand that many Hispanics come from Christian and Catholic backgrounds. But, I have always wondered if leaving South America, or Mexico, changes the religious lives of these Hispanic immigrants. Fifty-five percent of the Hispanic population in America is Catholic. Twenty-two percent is Protestant. I recently read an article that discussed how many of the Hispanics and Latinos in American are converting from Catholicism to Protestantism. Protestantism is a form of the Christian faith and practice which originated with the Protestant Reformation, a movement against what the Protestants considered to be wrong in the Roman Catholic Church. Eighteen percent is unaffiliated. Three percent is other Christian and one percent is other. If most Hispanics come from a Christian background, why are their religious beliefs shifting? Is this shift on an individual basis or a whole community basis? I thanked Father Richard for his time and walked back into the main church. I walked to the back and past a woman as she muttered, “Amen.” |