Católicos Por La Raza and the Future of Catholic Studies

It is Christmas Eve in the year of Huitzilopochtli, 1969. Three hundred Chicanos have gathered in front of St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church. Three hundred brown-eyed children of the sun have come to drive the money-changers out of the richest temple in Los Angeles.

Oscar Zeta Acosta The Revolt of the Cockroach People

With its three dimensional glass windows, seating capacity for 900, and a thirteenth century crucifix hanging above the altar, the newly constructed St. Basil’s Catholic Church was “a magnificent statement of faith” when it opened in 1969.⁷³ Praised for its fortress aesthetics and the contemporary artwork that graced its walls, the church assumed its place as Los Angeles’s de facto cathedral. ⁷⁴ Located off Wilshire Boulevard just west of downtown, the church was the culmination of tremendous growth in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the years after World War II. But underneath the veneer of growth was a growing discontent that took aim at the opulence, power, and three-million-dollar price tag of St. Basil’s. The strongest critique came from a group of young Mexican American activists who called themselves Católicos Por La Raza (CPLR). Organized in 1969 and made up of lay Chicano Catholics – students and militants – CPLR’s demands were clear: the Catholic Church should use its power and wealth to address the economic and social needs of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. In this short essay, I document the brief and spectacular history of CPLR and what their politics as non-clergy Catholics, as institutional outsiders, can teach us about the future of Catholic Studies.

The opening of St. Basil’s Church concretized the belief that the Catholic Church hierarchy cared little about its poor and working-class constituents. At the church’s dedication service in June 1969, concerned Catholics showed up carrying placards that read, “$1,000,000 for glass and stone, but for the poor?” and “Where is the concern for the poor?”⁷⁵ The outspoken and flamboyant lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta, called the church a “monstrosity” with a “fantastic organ [that] pumps out a spooky religious hymn to this Christ Child of Golden Locks and Blue Eyes overlooking the richest drag in town.”⁷⁶

After several failed attempts to meet with Cardinal McIntyre in December 1969, CPLR mobilized to peacefully disrupt Christmas Eve Mass. They organized a list of demands for the Catholic Church that included use of church facilities for community work, for shared governance with religious leaders, housing and educational assistance, and for the development of healthcare programs.⁷⁷ That night, somewhere between 250 to 300 people gathered outside the church and marched toward the church’s front doors shouting, “Que viva la raza” and “Catholics for the people.” Unable to enter the church through the front door – church officials had locked them out – activists entered through side doors where they were met by undercover County Sheriffs who posed as church ushers. Chaos ensued as protesters were beaten and chased off the church grounds by the sheriffs and church officials. The next day, police launched an investigation, which a month later resulted in the arrest of twenty-one CPLR activists charged with disrupting a religious service. The arrests did not stop CPLR from keeping the pressure on the church. Throughout 1970, CPLR organized religious fasts, a “bautismo de fuego” event where participants burned their baptismal cards, and other events to embarrass the church and move it to action on behalf of Mexican Americans.⁷⁸

Disrupting Mass and calling out the opulence of St. Basil’s represented both a class critique and a naming of the church’s historic relationship to white supremacy. Even with the Catholic Church’s history of progressive movements, largely tied to labor, the church paid little attention to issues of racial discrimination, especially in relation to one of its strongest constituent groups, Mexican Americans. “During the period between 1848 and 1960,” historian Richard Martínez argued, “the church effectively functioned as a partner in the colonization process by helping to maintain the racial and capitalist...