On Nov. 12, the U.S. bishops elected Archbishop Gomez to be the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the first ballot.

“Our nation made a promise to these ‘Dreamers,’” Archbishop Gomez wrote. “We have a moral obligation. It is time for the president and Congress to honor that promise and live up to this obligation.”

“They died on their way to this country and made that journey from life into death,” Ms. Marquez said. “In the end, we will find them there with our God."

Surveys show a long-term decline in U.S. Latinos identifying as Catholic, reports J.D. Long-García. The church is identifying ways to keep second- and third-generation immigrants in the pews.

The racism that is now a part of public life must be named and opposed, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Tex., said in a new pastoral letter.

Catholic organizers, labor leaders, theologians and activists will gather Oct. 11 to Oct. 13 in El Paso, Tex., for a national pilgrimage, teach-in and public action.

The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for each church for information leading to an arrest. Mr. Ceniceros said the diocese is offering an additional $5,000 for each church, adding that the same person or persons are believed to be responsible for all three incidents.

The first Latino pope and Hispanic Heritage Month

Some Catholic schools are implementing dual-language programs, part of an effort to reflect the reality of life in the church in the United States.

A new survey finds that most U.S. Hispanics generally oppose abortion, writes J.D. Long-García, but the community’s complex, pro-family attitudes do not easily fit the two-party political structure.