AVONDALE, Pa. (AP) — The Rev. Frank Depman came to the farmlands of southeastern Pennsylvania in 1990 to serve Latino Roman Catholics. He had to borrow space in a church to celebrate one weekly Mass in Spanish.
Today, the Latino community supports six Spanish-language Masses at five churches each week. Depman said it had the most baptisms last year— about 425 — of any parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The growth has turned spiritual life into a series of logistical challenges for Latinos as they try to schedule an increasing number of liturgies, weddings, funerals, baptisms, and first communions.