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The Southern Cross, Page 9
FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE
In how many languages is the liturgy celebrated
in your diocese? What are they?
“Three: English, Spanish and Vietnamese.” — Jim Bond, director of the
Office of Worship, Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa
“Our liturgies are celebrated in several languages: Chinese (both
Mandarin and Cantonese), Creole, Croatian, Czech-Slovak, French,
German, Indian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Nigerian,
' 0 Pakistani, Filipino (Tagalog), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish,
Ukrainian, Vietnamese and English.” — Frank DeRosa, director of public
information, Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Liturgies are celebrated regularly in three languages: English, Spanish
and Latin. We also have a few special-occasion liturgies throughout the
year which are celebrated in French, Polish and German.” — David
Spotanski, vice-chancellor, Diocese of Belleville, Ill.
“English and Spanish are spoken regularly, and liturgies are occasion
ally celebrated in Creole, Polish, Vietnamese and Korean as well.” — Carol
Brmati, Diocese of Orlando, Fla.
An upcoming edition asks: You know your parish programs. But tell of a
diocesan program or activity that you participated in or from which you
benefited. If you would like to respond for possible publication, please
write: Faith Alive! 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100.
Getting to know the urban milieu
<D
By Sheila Garcia
Catholic News Service
T,
he challenge to evangelize ur
ban culture is formidable.
Writing to Ontario’s bishops in
1999, Pope John Paul II observed that
although cities offer employment and
social opportunities, they can also
generate new kinds of poverty and
boredom. Many people, especially the
H young, are rootless and alone in the
city. They become deeply disappointed
because the city promises so much but
delivers so little.
The pope sees only one effective re
sponse to this experience. We must
create communities of faith where
people can encounter Christ. But we
can no longer expect that people will
flock to the churches on their own. We
need to invite people into the commu-
* nity where they can experience the
“mutual acceptance and closeness”
that draw them to Christ.
St. Matthew’s Cathedral in down
town Washington, D.C., tries to be
that kind of community. Its congrega
tion looks like a mosaic. On weekdays
a diverse group of office workers gath
ers for a few moments of quiet prayer.
On weekends worshipers from the
city’s many ethnic communities come
y? to share their one faith.
Like other urban churches, St.
Matthew’s visibly reminds us of the
call to build the city of God within the
secular city.
Creating such a community in our
ethnically diverse urban parishes can
be difficult. Parishes do not exist
apart from the larger society, and so
ciety often rejects the church’s under
standing of ethnic diversity as a gift.
Instead, ethnic diversity often is
viewed by society in legal terms: What
is the minimum needed in order to
avoid a lawsuit or to retain govern
ment funding?
Ethnic diversity can also be seen as
a problem to be solved. In recent years
the highly urbanized county of Arling
ton, Va., has experienced a huge in
flux of Hispanic immigrants. A heated
debate has ensued about the “prob
lem” of educating large numbers of
Spanish-speaking grade-school chil
dren. Should they be allowed to study
core subjects in their native Spanish
or required to study in English only?
Some people view ethnic diversity
as a threat.
In contrast, the church speaks of
ethnic diversity as a gift that more
fully reveals the face of Christ.
In Los Angeles in 1987 the pope
spoke beautifully about this reality:
“Christ is Anglo and Hispanic, Christ
is Vietnamese and Irish, Christ is Ko
rean and Italian ... and many other
ethnic groups.”
We encounter Christ in many dif
ferent faces. Like the disciples after
Easter, we may not immediately rec
ognize the Lord. We may need to let go
of our idea of a Christ who looks and
thinks like us and, as the pope says,
“allow him to create us in his own
image.” In that letting go, won’t we
come to know more fully the Christ
who draws us together as one body?
(Garcia staffs the U.S. bishops’ Sec
retariat for Family, Laity, Women
and Youth.)
%0
%
]
ln 0 Nutshell
Encuentro 2000 is a jubilee-year event July 6-9 in Los
Angeles. Its focus: the church’s ethnic and racial diversity.
Creating a strong community spirit in ethnically diverse
parishes can be difficult. For the larger society often rejects
the church’s positive understanding of ethnic diversity.
In the church, responding to cultural diversity means
learning how to be one community sharing a multitude
of gifts.
Many cultures,
one liturgy
Bv Father Lawrence E. Mick
Catholic News Service
T
X here are four Catholic
churches within a few blocks of one
another in the city where I live: One is
the Polish parish, one Lithuanian,
one Hungarian and one German.
The establishment of such national
parishes was the response to a
multicultural situation during a great
period of immigration in the 19th cen
tury. These parishes allowed immi
grant Catholics to feel at home in
their new country and to continue to
worship in their own language and
with familiar customs.
Today another approach is taken in
some multicultural parishes. Rather
than having separate parishes for
each group, one parish schedules
Masses in the various languages each
weekend. Each ethnic group comes to
its own Mass; there are several ethnic
communities but officially one parish.
A third approach has been develop
ing in recent years in other parishes.
These parishes, recognizing the gifts
that each culture offers to the whole
using chants in traditional Latin.
Beyond the readings and songs,
there are other ritual moments that
can express the unity among various
groups. Prayers of intercessions
might be proclaimed in various lan
guages or the intentions in the
prayers of the faithful might be pro
claimed in one language while the
assembly’s response incorporates sev
eral languages.
The Communion procession natu
rally will include various nationali
ties, but such inclusiveness is also
possible in the opening procession of
the Mass and the Offertory proces
sion. Those carrying out other liturgi
cal ministries, such as hospitality and
Communion ministers, can also re
flect the parish community’s varied
composition.
The primary goal in planning such
a liturgy is the same as for any lit
urgy: the full, conscious, active par
ticipation of all in the act of worship.
Worshiping with people from differ
ent cultural backgrounds demands a
bit more of everyone in order to enter
into the common act of worship, but it
also offers spiritual benefits and a
W orshiping with people from
different cultural backgrounds
demands a bit more of everyone
.... but it also offers spiritual
benefits.’-
CNS photo by Les Fetchko
church, try to develop a truly
multicultural liturgy. This is a liturgy
that involves various cultural and lan
guage groups in one celebration.
This is, of course, more difficult
than having separate liturgies. It re
quires each group of parishioners to
open themselves to the gifts that the
other groups bring to worship.
Figuring out how to create a
multicultural liturgy is not easy, how
ever. For example, if you proclaim
each reading of the Mass in a different
language, how do you enable those
who do not speak that language to
hear the word of God?
One solution is to print the read
ings in programs written, in the vari
ous languages of the participants.
Each group can listen to one reading
in its own language and then read
along during the others.
A similar challenge is how we can
sing together in different languages.
Can we learn to sing songs that are
not in our native language?
One helpful trend among composers
today is the creation of liturgical music
that uses more than one language in
the same song. Another possibility is
deeper sense of being part of this
church called “Catholic/’ which
means universal. ;f
Some parishes might seek such an
inclusive liturgy every week, while
others might worship more' often in
separate language Masses, uniting
the various ethnic groups periodically
for a multicultural liturgy — for ex
ample on major feast days.
Learning to function as one church
in the midst of cultural diversity is a
matter of learning how we can be one
community sharing a multitude oi
gifts.
(Father Mick is a priest of the
Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, ana
a free-lance writer.)
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