RBC 2009 - St. Louis, MO - Session Two – Saturday, July 25th

Fr. Allan Figueroa Deck continued the theme of “backyards’ by looking at what constitutes them. He used the idea of changing landscapes to express the changes in the life of the Religious and the Universal Church, both in the U.S. and around the world. There is a disappointment and lack of affirmation of Religious.

The insiders view at the Bishops’ Conference is that there is a need to change the approach in dealing with the issues of culture and that not enough has been done to address this. A need for dialogue across every element of the Church’s work is evident.
He explains that we have to make the element of diversity primary in everything. This is critical in moving forward as a Church.

We need to move from talking to inter-cultural competencies. There is a need to understand specifically the abilities and skills of different peoples in a way that is constructive. One can be educated but not culturally competent. We have moved from a Church that is primarily European, but not from a Church whose Institutions reflect this.

Statistics show that there are 3% of Latinos in Catholic Schools, but that this represents 14% of all Catholic School children. 50% of Vatican II individuals went to Catholic Schools and have influenced the current Church leadership.

On December 12th, the University of Notre Dame Task Force on Latino Education will release their study. A survey of principals of Catholic Schools was done to determine the readiness of the directors to deal with the education of Latinos. Special attitudes and skills were lacking. Those in leadership positions were culturally incompetent. The study proposes one million Latinos in Catholic Schools in the near future.

Some Religious Congregations have put emphasis on Junior Colleges because poorer Latinos can only afford these two-year programs. But the problems arise more with the faculty than with the Congregations, as there is no prestige in teaching at these institutions. These are only some of the hurdles facing the Church of the future.

After the break, Fr. Figueroa Deck outlined the upcoming convocation at Notre Dame next May called “Catholic Cultural Diversity Network 2010.” By invitation to five of the diverse communities that make up the Church today, there will be an attempt to get insight into the future of evangelization in the Church.

The five groups listed by Fr. Deck were: African American; Hispanics; Asian and Pacific; Native Americans; and migrants, refugees and travelers. The anachronism, PCMRT, was explained as pastoral care of migrants, refugees, and travelers. Surprisingly the definition of ministry to “travelers” included such areas as circus people; carnival people (which is a separate group from circus people); bull riders; NASCAR; racetrack ministry (focusing on the workers behind the scenes); and seafarers. As it so happened, one of our Brother Board members is involved in the seafarer ministry and spoke briefly about his mission.

Fr. Deck elaborated on the area of migrants and refugees as well. Pastoral care is vital to many Iraqi Chaldean Catholics and European immigrants like the Irish for example. All of these groups need insight into their own culture. To be evangelizing everyone needs to know where he or she is coming from culturally. European Americans will also be a part of this convocation, but they will be just one of the various groups.

Important to the future of the Church and evangelization of the Gospel message is the need for these various groups to stop taking a back seat and waiting for someone else, usually the European American group to take charge. This idea is working its way from either coast of the U.S. to the heartland. We need to emphasize dialogue among one another for this to happen. The diverse groups are at different levels of engagement with society and the Church. Hispanics are beginning to realize that they have responsibility for the entire Church.

To meet the challenges of the Church in a world so diversified, you need to have diverse ministries. The parish is an instrument of evangelization and not the end all. Brothers already know this and the ability to diversify ministries is vital today. Some of these ministries were briefly outlined in the discussion session that followed.

Mentoring college students that are Latino, blacks, etc. is one ministry being explored. The need to know Spanish is not vital here, as the students themselves are fluent in English. Different tutoring programs were mentioned. In rural Arkansas, there is a boarding day school, which integrated cultures with a cultural awareness club. CASA, cultural awareness for Subiaco Academy, was so successful that they were invited to other schools to give talks about their individual cultures.

In the Catholic Healthcare System, inter-cultural models already exist and do not have to be created. One Brother explained the multi-cultural faculty that existed in his involvement in healthcare ministry. Another mentioned the skills needed in other cultures to provide Catholic education at Nativity School in Texas. This session ended with many feeling they have already experienced these trends to cultural diversity and realizing that hopefully their expertise can be built upon by the Church as a whole beginning with the Catholic Bishops and their interest and focus.