Pioneers of Latino Ministry: Claretians and the Evolving World of Catholic America

Deborah Kanter’s new book, Pioneers of Latino Ministry: The Claretians and the Evolution of American Catholicism provide a Latino-centric view of Catholic history. The Claretian Missionaries, a male Catholic congregation, dedicated their mission to Latin American immigrants and their families on the margins of US society since 1902. Today Latinos constitute half of US Catholics. The Claretians’ accompaniment of Latinos makes them distinct in American Catholic history. Kanter takes the Claretian story from Texas to New Jersey, California to Chicago, and beyond, to Central America. If there is one religious community that provides a “history in miniature” for twentieth-century Latino Catholicism, it is the Claretians.

The book can be ordered from all on-line booksellers and from New York University Press.

About the Speaker
Deborah E. Kanter is professor emeritus of history at Albion College. Her prize-wining book Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican (University of Illinois Press, 2020) inspired her just-published Pioneers of Latino Ministry: Claretians and the Evolving World of Catholic America (New York University Press, 2025). She is currently researching “On the Move: Mexican Priests and Migrant Ministry in the Rural United States.”

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