Have you ever heard of “leading economic indicator”?  Well, The Catholic church in the United States is a leading demographic indicator, according to the Pew Forum.  In other words, if you want to know what the country’s demographics are as a whole, just look at the U.S. Catholic church.  It has it all.  And according to their data, Hispanics are the future of the church.  This brings about concerns for Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike regarding how this change will play out.  One of the people at Fordham’s panel discussion (”Becoming Latino: the Transformation of U.S. Catholicism”) pointed out the importance of integration versus assimilation.  As a Hispanic myself, I too often viewed assimilation as a harmless, even positive requirement for anyone wanting to make it in a new country.  But after realizing the distinction between adding to, not giving up what makes up a culture, I realized the church’s embracing of all new immigrants (Hispanic or not) makes for a win-win situation.