by non Catholic>>
The problem is that many ARE Catholics, they are Hispanics (Dominican Republic and Mexicans) who do not attend mass regularly or join in the faith community participating in the parish functions. There are dozens of cities in NJ in the same situation. Many of the Parishes are "national" parishes denoting a specific nationality of the European neighborhood in which the church reflected. Many of the Italian, Polish, German, Slovak, Hungarian, and Irish people who once lived in these great industrial cities moved out into the suburbs and either joined parishes there or drove into the city for mass and that was it. The new Hispanic Immigrants really aren't involved with the church unfortunately, and won't attend mass unless it's after 1 or 2 pm and in their native language.
Thanks for the tidbit on Mother Cabrini, I didn't know what she did.
As far as Hispanics in NJ are concerned, the problem for the Church is not just schedules and languages. The problem is that an increasing number of these immigrants belong to store-front evangelical churches.
The Pope acknowledged this problem in Mexico years ago; the Church was losing Hispanics in droves.