A workshop sponsored by Glenmary's Department of Pastoral Ministers & Pastoral Services in Nashville in October 2002 brought together pastoral leaders working among Hispanics in Glenmary mission areas. Sister Kris Vorenkamp (Houston, Miss.), Tony Barbour (Glennville, Ga.) and Elquin Gonzalez (Tupelo, Miss.) led the group in song and worship.

'Being Missionary in a Culturally Diverse Community'

By Liz Dudas

Some 41 Glenmarians and coworkers participated in a three-day workshop at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn., October 14-16, 2002. The workshop was held in response to missioners’ need to better understand the unique opportunity that newly arrived Latino immigrants present to Glenmary’s mission and ministry. Sponsored by the Glenmary Department of Pastoral Ministers & Pastoral Services, this workshop drew together pastoral leaders who work or will work among the Spanish speakers in Glenmary areas.

We were extremely fortunate to have a workshop presenter, Divine Word Father Gary Riebe-Estrella who serves as vice-president and academic dean of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. With the rare mix of his own Mexican-American upbringing, theological studies, seminary formation work, Latino missionary experience, and humor, Father Gary helped participants understand and appreciate the dynamics that are operative when cultures “bump into each other.”

Among the topics that Father Gary addressed: “Crossing Over: A Gospel Paradigm,” “The Dynamics of Culture and Cultural Differences,” “A Sketch of the Contrast Between Mexican and US Catholic Experiences of Church,” and “The Journey to Being an Intercultural Parish.”

The challenge to move from seeing “culture as a barrier” to seeing “culture as a resource,” is a very real Gospel experience of “crossing over boundaries” which Father Gary aptly illustrated with the parable of the Good Samaritan. He emphasized that today’s challenge is not multiculturalism; we’ve always been many cultures living side by side. Rather we are being challenged to intercultural living. God’s reign will be apparent when all barriers are crossed, neither bypassed, nor eliminated.

Father Gary reminded us that, we are in fact, intercultural. We all cross into the cultural space of one another. We are forced into an ethnic world that we do not understand. The challenge is: How do we deal with profound differences and, at the same time, live as brothers and sisters with one another? In the best of all possible worlds, we learn to live with differences, not remove or ignore what is different about us. We honor differences and learn to live across them. Intercultural living requires that we have a willingness to be changed by encounter with the other. The goal of intercultural living is exploring a new way for people to live with each other, a healthy interaction among cultures. It is a mutual crossing of boundaries.

After giving extensive cultural insights, Father Gary sketched the contrasts that exist between the Mexican and the US Catholic experience of church. There are very real differences in our understandings and expectations of “church,” both religiously and socio-politically. Father Gary emphasized that “Latino Catholicism” is not "Roman Catholicism." While US Roman Catholicism is a product of the Tridentine Counter Reformation, Latino Catholicism is pre-Tridentine with its emphasis on sacramentals, its cultural understandings, and its faith expression. Latino Catholicism is probably more a cultural expression than it is religious.

In our expectations of Latinos culturally adapting to the US Catholic Church, Father Gary said we need to be realistic. Religion is the last dimension that changes when a person adapts to the new or dominant culture. Given that younger immigrants are more highly motivated to adapt and to find their way, it seems that, as ministers, we need to focus our ministry on them and their needs. It is this “next generation” like no other that will be challenged to cross multiple cultural boundaries and learn to live interculturally in our world.

It would seem that the “reign of God” is on the horizon. As missionaries ministering within a culturally diverse community, we have a long road ahead of us. But, luckily, Jesus has modeled the way through his owe “passing over,” his own openness to cultural differences, and ability to live with ambiguity, that is, not having all of the answers.