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	The Issue of Justice Daily Journal February 21, 2009 http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=286182&pub=1&div=Lifestyles The Most Rev. Joseph Latino became the 10th bishop of the Catholic Dicoese of Jackson in 2003. Today he shepherds 48,000 Catholics in 105 parishes spread throughout 65 counties. Latino came to Mississippi after serving four decades as a parish priest in his native Louisiana. Q: You came from a state with one of the highest percentage of Catholics to a state with one of the lowest. What's that transition been like? A: I'm from the area around Houma, which is about 65 percent Catholic. Huge parishes and schools, huge confirmation classes. I'd say this has been a welcome change, in many ways, because this is mission territory where we're starting churches and communities, in small, rural areas. I've learned that when I come to a town looking for the Catholic Church I shouldn't look for the big steeple because that's probably the Baptist or Methodist church. I look for what used to be the bank, or the drugstore, where a small Catholic community has moved in. Geographically this is the largest diocese east of the Mississippi River, and it's spread out. But, I really enjoy meeting people and traveling so it's nice. Q: You have a good rapport with Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the Mississippi United Methodist Conference and with Bishop Duncan Gray III of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. What sorts of things do the three of you discuss? A: We meet pretty much every month. We're friends. We may have a different theology in certain areas but we're all solid on the things we know are important to our particular congregations. We all recently met with state legislators and our message to them was essentially about children. Bishop Ward addressed early childhood and preschool. Duncan (Bishop Gray) discussed certain educational issues, and my presentation was on childhood health care. There are 119,000 children in this state who do not have health care, either because their parents are unemployed or because they can't afford it, or for other reasons. Bishop Ward, Bishop Gray and I all agree that raising healthier children is a good step toward overcoming some of the real problems in this state. Q: The Catholic Church in the United States is suffering a dire shortage of priests. Especially in rural Mississippi, where the average age of priests is over 60 and small communities might celebrate Mass twice per month, how do you see the future of the church? A: In rural places like Aberdeen, Houston, Okolona, Ripley, places like this, where a priest might make it out to celebrate Mass a couple times a month, we have lay ecclesial ministers. These are lay people who have taken courses in sacred scripture, or pastoral care of the sick and dying, and other things, and once they get their degree they're appointed to help minister to the community in that area. They don't celebrate the Mass but they're there, everyday, keeping these communities together. Some of these people are nuns. Others are not vowed religious persons but lay people. We believe they're important to the future of the church in this area. We're really putting all our hope in them, and they're doing a fine job. The problem I see is that it's hard to ask a person from, say, Tupelo, to go out to a Shaw, or an Anguilla, or to live there, in such a different, rural setting. We're trying to encourage local people to get their certification, people who know the area, people who can minister to their brothers and sisters in the place where they're from. We don't see lay ecclesial ministry as just a stopgap. We have great faith in its role in the future of the church. Q: After the election you wrote a congratulatory letter to President Obama. Why? A: Because the nation had spoken. I had a ghost writer, a helper, Mary Woodward. We wrote it because for the country or religious people to just sit in the corner and throw a fit would be a disservice to all the people who voted for him. He deserves our commitment to cooperate with him as best we can. I don't agree with a lot of things he's signing right now. Because of special interests he's taken a vow to sign FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act) and if he does this it will be worse than the Black Plague that hit Europe. Catholic Bishops nationwide have asked people in their parishes to flood the government with letters protesting this. If this passes it will threaten Catholic high schools, threaten doctors. They'll no longer be able to say I will not perform abortions.' Catholic hospitals will have to take down crucifixes. It will close down our Catholic charities. It will mean same sex marriages, adoptions to unwed couples, the whole ball of wax. Still, as far as the letter, I'm willing to say, You're the president. Let's see if we can work together.' Q:You mentioned the recent meeting you, Bishop Ward and Bishop Gray had with state legislators. At that meeting you spoke about immigration. Mississippi is thought to have some of the strictest, most aggressive immigration laws in the nation. Do you think this is so? A: I think they're very harsh. They're counterproductive. When they launch these raids they're arresting the breadwinners and leaving wives and children abandoned. These people come here to work. This is a people not afraid to work. It's wrong for the state to say they're simply a burden on the tax system. They do pay taxes, on income, on gasoline, on groceries. I make it a point to notice, around Jackson, say on Saturday evening, or a Sunday morning, and I see these Hispanic people out finishing a government building, or picking up paper alongside the road. They're brick layers, plasterers, hard workers. Myself, I'm Sicilian. We forget that we're an immigrant country. We're an immigrant church. Q: The results of a Gallup Poll published in USA Today recently named Mississippi the most religious state in the country. What evidence do you see for this? A: It puzzles me a little. There are tons of good people here, that's for sure. One survey said we're also the most generous state. We certainly saw that when the storms hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Mississippians were right there helping, giving. Yet, still I see a black and white line, and I wonder about that. How can we be so generous and yet so exclusive? Maybe some of the religion we profess is religion of comfort, you know? It's satisfying. But maybe there are some things we shouldn't be satisfied with. We say, Maybe we can't afford all these Hispanics?' Yes we can. We have to. You know, I'm amazed at how many gated communities I see in the Jackson area. I understand there's some safety in that - maybe - but, I've never seen so many. We're very rigid, very divided, in many ways. Q: Particularly since the sexual abuse crisis, there's a feeling among some people that Catholic bishops are a clandestine, fraternal order that, behind the scenes, concoct all manner of devious schemes. Can you address both the importance of acknowledging the damage done by the sexual abuse as well as the unfair, blanket misconceptions about bishops and religious life in general? A:I'm almost six years a bishop, now, and I can tell you that when 280 bishops are together, arguing, debating, going through drafts until they get something right, it's an amazing thing. All those personalities, all those ideas coming together. Amazing. I understand the suspicion, and there is a kind of close camaraderie, but it's nothing bad or sinister. Even some priests think Oh, you fellows are talking secret stuff in there.' But, really, what bishops talk about, what they're steeped in, is the good of the church. The scandal of the sexual abuse, the people who were hurt and the priests that were dismissed, I can tell you, honestly, that bishops really suffered over that. They really suffered. Knowing the pain that was inflicted and still goes on, knowing they had to dismiss priests, the bishops really suffered, for everyone. Q:What nourishes you in your private life? A:I like to read historical things, historical novels. I don't read as much as I should but when I have time I certainly enjoy historical literature. I enjoy the film "A Man For All Seasons," the story of Thomas Moore. The dialogue is wonderful. I enjoy "The Lion in Winter." I should be reading more spiritual literature, I know. The kinds of new things that are being discussed in the spiritual life. The thing that sustains me the most is celebrating Mass. I try to celebrate Mass everyday, whether I'm on the road or in Jackson. It refreshes me. Q: Is there anything you'd like to add? A: Just that I really enjoy being a priest. I get to meet a lot of people, go places. The business aspect of it? Well, maybe not so much. My only regret in life is that I didn't ask the bishop when I was young to send me to get a degree in canon law. I have great respect for the law, both civil law and for the church's canon law. Without law we're living in the caves. Without canon law in the church, we have no true claim to be church, we're just a club. I really believe that in canon law, and in most of civil law, the Holy Spirit gives inspiration. It has to do with justice. Justice is a big issue for me. Contact Daily Journal religion editor Galen Holley at 678-1510 or galen.holley@djournal.com
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