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Catholics show their diversity
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
NCR STAFF Los Angeles
Its often said that Mass in
Los Angeles is celebrated in more than 50 languages every weekend. But even in
this city where diversity is taken as much for granted as traffic jams, it was
anything but worship as usual when some 5,000 believers, speaking in their
native languages, recited the Lords prayer in unison at the Mass for
Sunday, July 9. Rather, for a few short days it was the norm, one of the many
experiences exhilarating participants in Encuentro 2000 as surely as if
theyd headed for Malibu Beach to ride the towering waves.
For many who gathered at this July 6-9 event, parish and diocesan
representatives from all over the country, this unusual experience of speaking
in many tongues - one that was repeated at several liturgical events - was
proof positive of the way the Spirit is moving in the U.S. church today.
This is the way its supposed to be. Its what we
have to keep working toward, said Immaculate Heart Sr. Dora Vizcarra of
Miami. For her, she said, Encuentro - the Spanish word for encounter or
meeting, had put a face on the theoretical - on the growing body of
data about waves of new immigrants who in just a few more decades are expected
to dominate the Catholic church in the United States. Life will go back
to the way it was before [the Encuentro], but at least people will have a sense
now of how broad the U.S. church is, Vizcarra said.
Vizcarra referred not only to talks and workshops where
participants shared stories of discrimination, faith and struggle to diversify
parishes, but also to vibrant liturgies where prayer was expressed in a mosaic
of song, symbol and dance. Senses feasted on call to worship blown through
conch shells, processions moving to the thump of African drums, petitions in
Tagalog, readings in Apache and Chinese, hallelujahs to a salsa beat,
worshipers decked out for the gift-bringing in feathers, shells and flamboyant
headdresses, in delicate lace and tropical cloths. Smatterings of European
music served to assure Anglos that, though their grandchildren will be a
minority in the U.S. church, they could expect to retain an important
place.
Side by side
During opening ceremonies, Bishop Gabino Zavala, auxiliary bishop
of Los Angeles and chairman of the event, gave the script for what lay ahead
for the next four days.
As we stand side by side, we will see that the music of the
Latinos makes the Anglos feet move, the incense of the Asians reminds
Europeans of the transcendence of God and the drumbeat of the Native American
pulsates in the hearts of all, he said.
Zavala was among more than 80 bishops, including three cardinals
(Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Bernard Law of Boston and Anthony Bevilacqua of
Philadelphia) who attended at least some of the weekend events.
The national gathering was more than a celebration of the mosaic
of nationalities that is the U.S. church. It served as a strong appeal to
prepare for the hard work ahead - the work of making the whole church in the
United States a Los Angeles in its acceptance of diversity.
Greg Chandra, an Indonesian-American from Redlands, Calif., has
experienced that acceptance. Here, even at work, people just want to know
if youre from Orange County, San Bernardino or Los Angeles, he
said. Nobody ever asks about your country of origin. Chandra was
among hundreds of volunteers keeping the gathering on track.
Jim Albright, who works in migrant ministry for Richmond, Va.,
diocese said he hoped people would be energized to look around their own areas
to determine what needs to be done. A lot of legislative work is needed
to improve the lot of workers and to improve immigration laws, he
said.
And Rita Mount of Visitation Parish in Philadelphia said the event
had taught her to go up to people and say I want you to come to
parish events, to give a personal invitation rather than expect a
general invitation to suffice. Vietnamese people are very shy, she
said.
Cardinal Mahony, who celebrated the closing Mass, drew applause
when he urged new initiatives for amnesty for immigrants, whose
illegal status brings problems ranging from unemployment to imprisonment
without trial to deportation, sometimes for minor offenses. At the end of the
Mass, he directed worshipers to tie a ribbon around the wrists of their
neighbors, a Hmong custom that serves as a reminder of hospitality shared on
the journey home.
People saw a different model of church here, and they liked
it, said Ronaldo Cruz, executive director of U.S. bishops
Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs. Cruz said he hoped the event would motivate
people of color to get involved in ministry. We were aiming
this at leadership of dioceses, because thats where change takes
place, he said. I hope this has pushed the Hispanic people to go
beyond the safe zone
to realize they have a place.
Sponsors of the national gathering, particularly Cruz and his
staff, have been preparing for years for demographic change, laying groundwork
that led to the broad representation in Los Angeles - 150 dioceses, Cruz said.
That groundwork has included three previous encuentros aimed at Hispanics, in
1972, 1977 and 1985. Meanwhile, Cruzs office has developed a national
infrastructure for pastoral outreach among immigrants who, though they quickly
become contributors, may arrive with little more than the clothes on their
backs and their multiple needs. Since the early 1970s, 24 Hispanic bishops have
been appointed to U.S. dioceses, and Bishop Patrick K. Flores was elevated to
archbishop of San Antonio.
A broader embrace
Despite justification, given the growing stream of arrivals from
Central and South America, Cruz said bishops had recognized that to aim another
national event at Hispanics would be too narrow an approach. Even though
Hispanics are by far the biggest new immigrant group, other ethnic and racial
groups are also clamoring for acceptance.
Sponsors decided to broaden the millennial year event so that
every group that makes up the U.S. church today would be represented, from the
well-established Irish, Germans, Poles, Italians, Native Americans and
African-Americans to the newer immigrants from Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific
and the many countries and cultures of Latin America.
No other organization in the world, except perhaps Coca Cola
and McDonalds, has such a widespread visibility and identification with
so many cultural groups as the U.S. Catholic church, Bishop Joseph
Fiorenza said in a statement prepared for the press. Fiorenza, of the
Galveston-Houston diocese, is president of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops. One of the goals, he said, is to find out what has to be done to
avoid creating religious communities where Africans, African-Americans, Asian
and Pacific Islanders, Caucasians and Hispanics pray separately.
How to avoid such divisions is the problem faced by a number of
bishops who have emphasized that they want to integrate new immigrants into
established parishes rather than repeat the 19th-century pattern of ethnically
divided parishes.
Some immigrant groups realize, though, that overcoming divisions
isnt just a problem for church leaders. Bartholomew Chung, leader of a
workshop for Korean-Americans that was being conducted in Korean, said in an
interview, We need to open ourselves to engage others, but its hard
for us to do. Chung said Koreans are one of the most closed
of all ethnic groups because of Koreas long isolation from outside
cultural influences.
Some of the dozens of small-group sessions were conducted in
Spanish. One was conducted in sign language for the deaf. Two focused on
homosexuals. A common theme was how to break down barriers and build bonds.
Responding to a recent call from Pope John Paul II for the church,
during the year 2000, to kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the
past and present sins of her sons and daughters, Cardinal Law presided
over a reconciliation service, asking forgiveness for sins of the U.S. church.
Many cited that service as a high point.
During the service, five members of often-marginalized groups
described the pain that prejudice and discrimination had caused them. The five
included Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., the nations first
Native American bishop, who spoke of growing up in dire poverty,
dilapidated housing
with an alcoholic, physically abusive father who
ended up a suicide like so many of our Indian people today.
Although Pelotte personally ordained his twin brother a priest
last September, he said his two older brothers, like his father, had not
survived the struggle.
Tales of discrimination
Oblate of Providence Sr. Mary Paul Lee said she was forced to
leave her home in Philadelphia to become a nun because no womens order in
that city would accept an African-American. Later, when a member of her order
became critically ill in Charleston, S.C., the black sister was refused
treatment in a Catholic hospital there. Lee, granddaughter of a slave owned by
Jesuits, noted that the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866 had debated
whether slaves had souls.
K. La Verne Redden, president of the National Council of Catholic
Women, said, I grieve when women tell me that they are not permitted by
pastors to serve in ministries in the church that are open to them.
Redden, an African-American, sobbed as she described discrimination on that
score. Redden said she had avoided drinking from the Communion cup in many
parishes because she knew that once she had, nobody else would touch
it.
Maricela Fruto, a union organizer, described her struggle to find
decent employment after emigrating from Mexico 21 years ago. Mary Jane Owen,
who is blind, hearing-impaired and uses a wheelchair, described being whisked
off, over her protests, to sit with other handicapped people at a Vatican
meeting, even though she was one of the featured speakers. Tears rolled down
her cheeks as she rolled her wheelchair with one hand, held a candle high in
the other and placed the candle at the foot of a wooden cross.
As speakers placed candles in turn, an African-American vocalist
sang the familiar spiritual about a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded
whole.
Intolerable situations have caused great pain and sometimes
caused alienation from the church, Law said in his remarks. There
are the obvious cases of sexual abuse, which have so seared us all, and the
less celebrated cases of harsh words, as well as rough and unjust treatment
that have affected clergy, religious and laity.
As Catholics, we have
too often been exclusive in our love and concern, defining ourselves
erroneously by race or language or land of origin.
Law recited petitions naming specific sins. He asked forgiveness
for racism and discrimination against Native Americans, African-Americans,
Japanese-Americans; hostility toward Protestants and Jews; for failing to reach
out to people alienated from the church; for failing to welcome new immigrants,
people with disabilities and people living and dying with HIV-AIDS, and for
tolerating sexual misconduct of clergy especially toward minors and
women.
Piarist Fr. Mairo Vizcaíno, a Cuban-American from Miami,
said Encuentro 2000, though a prophetic gesture
a glance of the
kingdom, was only a beginning. Vizcaíno is one of
eight regional directors who oversee Hispanic affairs in the U.S. church.
Multiculturalism is one of the strongest signs of the times,
but it is being ignored by the church, he said. Vizcaíno thinks
blending the many cultures into one comfortable whole - into a creation he
likens to an orchestra, a salad, an Irish stew rather than a
melting pot - will take at least 50 years. The melting pot concept, which
suggests that people lose their identity, is against human dignity,
he said.
Meanwhile, Vizcaíno said, theres the hard road of
overcoming not only separation but hostility and prejudice. Cultures
create prejudice, but we cannot be afraid of each other as Catholics, he
said. We cannot be this way in the church.
National Catholic Reporter, July 28,
2000
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