Notre Dame scholars address challenges for Latino Catholic education

Luis Ricardo Fraga, Arthur Foundation Endowed Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor of Political Science and co-director of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, served as co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Catholic Education, its first issue ever to focus specifically on Latinos and Catholic education.

According to Fraga, the Jan. 28 special issue, titled “Latinos, Education, and the Church,” concerns the opportunities and challenges confronting the Catholic Church in providing educational opportunities for the children of Latino families.

“Although Latinos now comprise 35 to 40 percent of all Catholics in the U.S., and a much larger share of younger practicing Catholics in the U.S., only 15 percent of students attending Catholic schools are Latinos and only 3 percent of all Latino children attend Catholic schools,” Fraga said. “Notre Dame, through the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the Alliance for Catholic Education and the Catholic School Advantage program, has figured prominently in making this an important issue.”

In addition to Fraga, Notre Dame scholars contributing to the issue include Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C., director of university-school partnerships for ACE; Timothy Matovina, professor of theology and co-director of the Institute for Latino Studies, and Andre P. Audette, doctoral student in political science.

In the article “¿Es Su Escuela Nuestra Escuela? Latino Access to Catholic Schools,” Father Corpora and Fraga write that the Catholic School Advantage program is just one example of the role Catholic universities can play in “promoting new ideas, identifying supportive interests, and developing additional, innovative institutional relationships and structures that can serve dioceses and schools who want to increase Latino enrollment.”

This article was first published at news.nd.edu.