My article, “Latinx Catholic Financial Giving and Clergy Responses: Understanding Stewardship Frames,” has been published in American Catholic Studies. The findings reveal reasons why Hispanic Catholics tend to give less than their non-Hispanic counterparts as well as the motivations behind those who give more. It also explores the strategies–both successful and less so–pastors of Hispanic parishes employ to solicit donations from their parishioners. A huge thank you to Villanova University’s Center for Church Management for their generous funding of this project. Here is the abstract:

Scholars have demonstrated that Latinx Catholics give less money to their parishes than their non-Latinx counterparts. However, we do not know why this gap exists, and so Catholic clergy are left unsure as to how to respond. There are several pastoral concerns that emerge because of this gap; these have significance now and especially in the future, as U.S. Catholicism is becoming increasingly Latinx. Using interviews with pastors, high-giving Latinx, and low-giving Latinx, this paper explores the cultural understandings of stewardship among Latinx Catholics and examines the strategies pastors of predominantly Latinx parishes use to encourage giving. The results indicate that pastors and parishioners have significant overlap in their stewardship frames; both use “Receive then Give” frames. However, there is also dissonance in other aspects of their frames. Pastors place more emphasis on financial obstacles to giving while lay Catholics indicate that historical factors as well as poor perception of their parish’s financial needs are the biggest obstacles. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings, including recommended practices to increase Latinx giving.