PADRES - Origin

Origin

In 1969, Father Ralph Ruiz of San Antonio, Texas, began meeting informally with other Mexican American priests in the area. At the meetings, the same subjects constantly came up for discussion: poverty and social problems in Mexican American parishes, ecclesiastic insensitivity and hostility toward Mexican and Mexican American culture, and the lack of an "indigenous" Mexican American clergy were among the most important.

The first official meeting of the group that would become PADRES was held from October 7–9, 1969 at LaSalle Catholic High School in West San Antonio. Some important figures in attendance were Fr. Henry Casso of San Antonio, a founder of MALDEF and a former director of the Bishop's Committee for the Spanish-Speaking, Fr. David Duran of Fresno, who later became the first chaplain of the United Farm Workers, and Fr. Virgil Elizondo, author of several works on Our Lady of Guadalupe. While Texan priests were in the majority, there was also clergy from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, and the Washington, D.C., and a few Protestant ministers. Los Angeles priests were conspicuously absent, not having been invited due to the Archdiocese's reputation for repressing progressive priests.

At the conference, the topics were much the same as at the informal meetings between Ruiz and his colleagues, but were undertaken in a much more formal manner. The convened priests chose the name "PADRES" for the organization, elected Fr. Ruiz provisional chairman, and set the date for a national congress for February of the following year. They agreed to hold it in Arizona, which was deemed "neutral ground".

Following the conference, Fr. Ruiz set about making arrangements for the national congress. He personally wrote every Mexican-American priest and also sent invitations to white clergy who served predominantly Mexican American parishes. He also wrote a letter to San Antonio Archbishop Francis James Furey to inform him of the congress, and another to the National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), now called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which put forth a set of resolutions and included a fact sheet highlighting PADRES' concerns.

The resolutions demanded:

• the appointment of Mexican-American bishops
• the appointment of Spanish-speaking priests as pastors in Spanish-speaking communities
• attention to the material needs of the poor and working classes, especially through the establishment of Catholic schools
• a Mexican-American unit of the National Liturgical Commission to adapt the liturgy to Mexican American culture
• support for the grape boycott

PADRES sought an official liaison with the NCCB, but were initially denied. After being pressured, however, the NCCB agreed to set up an "informal liaison committee" of five bishops: Furey, Manning of Los Angeles, Green of Tucson, Medeiros of Brownsville, and Buswell of Pueblo. The committee was ratified in December 1969.