St. Cecelia Catholic Church and Its Hispanic Constituency

February 24, 2003

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On February 24, 2003 the St. Petersburg Times reported that "church member Julia Forman, 85 and originally from Puerto Rico, organized the first Spanish Mass... at St. Cecelia the year before the Irigoyens moved to the United States. As Maria remembers it, about 100 people attended the services in those days... Lost in an unfamiliar country, adrift in a new culture, they were drawn to the only place they felt at home: St. Cecelia Catholic Church... in Clearwater [FL], where there was a Spanish Mass... 'I felt comfortable someone else knew the same language we did,' said Maria Irigoyen, 19 and a senior at St. Petersburg College. She has been accepted into the University of South Florida medical school and plans to be a neurologist... Now the Mass at 8 p.m. Sundays draws up to 850 Hispanics, most of them Mexican immigrants, according to church officials... And for the first time in St. Cecelia's history, more Hispanics than Anglos will be confirmed by Bishop W. Thomas Larkin in a ceremony on March 2... The 2000 Census accounted for 9,754 Hispanic people in Clearwater, 9 percent of the city's population. The majority of them are Catholics. But diocese officials say there are far more Hispanics than the Census indicates, and they are quickly filling local churches to worship and meet others from their homelands."