Luis Fraga, Director of the Institute for Latino Studies, discussed the under enrollment of Latino students in American Catholic schools at the 2017 Hesburgh Lecture Wednesday at the Eck Center.
Latinos now comprise 35 percent of all Catholics living in the United States; for practicing Catholics under 30, Latinos comprise 52 percent. Yet, only 15–17 percent of all students enrolled in Catholic schools are Latino.
Fraga addressed this low enrollment of Latino students in Catholic schools and explained the importance of the Latino and Catholic communities for predicting American demographic trends in his Wednesday night lecture, part of the 2017 Hesburgh Lecture series.
“Those of us in positions of responsibility and in positions of influence — voters, all of us who are Catholic, who are citizens of the country, who are residents of this country — we have a chance to decide what kind of legacy we want to leave subsequent generations,” Fraga said.