Page 19 - ROCHESTER

In the late 1940s, a new wave of immigration brought to this diocese large numbers of Hispanic immigrants, many of them from Puerto Rico. Since the new immigrants had not arrived with their own priests, the Of ce of the Spanish Apostolate in the mid-1960s and the Instituto Pastoral Hispano in the late 1980s were founded to provide programs and form lay leaders in the Spanish language. Regional diocesan migrant ministries also responded to the sacramental and pastoral needs of Hispanic migrant workers throughout the diocese.
Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, large numbers of Vietnamese migrated to the U.S. In response, the diocese developed an agreement in the mid-1970s with the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix to provide a Vietnamese priest to address the sacramental and pastoral needs of this community.
In 1986, the rst Of ce for Black Ministries in the U.S. was established in Rochester to address the needs and perspectives of black people in the church and in society. In 2012, a Cultural Diversity Of ce was created to coordinate all these efforts.
As the home of Rochester School for the Deaf and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester has the largest per capita population of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the country. In 1981, St. Mary’s Church of the Deaf was founded in the basement of St. Mary’s Church in downtown Rochester. In 1991, the church was renamed Emmanuel Church of the Deaf when it moved to Our Lady of Good Counsel Church. More recently, the deaf Catholic community has worshipped at St. Monica Church.
Parishioners of Emmanuel Church
of the Deaf gather around the altar
as Father Raymond Fleming, who is deaf, celebrates Mass in the former
Our Lady of Good Counsel Church
in November 1985. The deaf community,
still under Father Fleming’s leadership, now worships at St. Monica Church.
The Founding of the Diocese of
Rochester
17
Established in the 1960s to address a new wave of Hispanic immigration, especially from
Puerto Rico, the Spanish Apostolate also fostered development of
the Ibero American Action League.