MINISTRY
"The church must be constantly attentive to the Lord’s voice as He calls on His people daily not to harden their hearts. We urge that on all levels the Catholic Church in the United States examine it's conscience regarding attitudes and behavior towards blacks, Hispanics, Native American, and Asians. We urge consideration of the evil of racism as it exists in the local Church and reflection upon the means of combating it. We urge scrupulous attention at mere tokenism and authentic sharing in responsibility and decision making."
"Particular care should be taken to foster vocations among minority groups. Training for the priesthood, the permanent diaconate, and religious life should not entail an abandonment of culture and traditions or a loss of racial identity but should seek ways in which such culture and traditions might contribute to that training. Special attention is required whenever it is necessary to correct racist attitudes or behaviors among seminary staff and seminarians. Seminary education ought to include an awareness of the history and the contributions of minorities as well as an appreciation of the enrichment of the liturgical expression, especially at the local parish level, which can be found in their respective cultures."
"We recommend that leadership training programs be established on the local level in order to encourage effective leadership among racial minorities on all levels of the Church, local as well as national."
Brothers and Sisters To Us.
Racial justice for all aspects of ministry will require a continuous process of education for all ministers and ministry formation persons at every level of our diocesan and parochial structures. As the listening sessions have revealed, racism is very real, sometimes blatant, but always offensive and destructive of Christian living out of the basic gospel message.
Some steps have been taken, especially in recent years, for more direct dealing with the multicultural presence within our diocese: addition of a multicultural consultant at the Religious Education Office, programs that raise awareness of the difficulties of immigrants, identifying multicultural issues as part of diocesan objectives, to name a few. How can these actions be fleshed out with a deeper more fundamental addressing of the basic racism that permeates our very culture and world perspective? This societal permeation with racism is well described in the 1979 U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter "Brothers and Sisters to Us." Our call as Church is to name the sin and admit our own participation in it: our structures, budgetary priorities, employment practices, programming and even pastoral approach. It is insidious because it is something that is so ingrained in our psyche and practice that we are unaware of its very presence. It is so deeply intertwined with our very thinking that we need special help to identify it, recognize it in our practice and then discover approaches that are quite different from our established ways of acting. Further, we must not be mistaken that training in multicultural sensitivity and prejudice reduction is the same thing as dismantling racism and achieving racial justice. Unlike the terms "prejudice reduction" or "diversity training", racial justice involves changing systems and institutions that maintain White power and privilege and perpetuate internalized oppression among People of Color.
Observations
Diocesan Agencies and Parishes
Surveys to diocesan agencies as well as to the Priests’ Continuing Education reveal some efforts to "do multiculturalism". Unfortunatley, there is a danger that this can result in a tokenism approach to ministry. Attendance at diocesan and parish programs, workshops, and activities generally reveals a minimum or even no attendance by minorities. While efforts have been made to serve those who come to us, we are asked, "How do we go out to those who do not come to us?" We could correctly be called, for the most part, a "receptionist church" because we do our best to respond to those who come to us on their own. But we need to learn how to better find out why people do not come to our churches or programs. Do we seek out the opinions of other cultures to disover what their needs or interests are? If another language is involved, do we seek a way to accommodate for that handicap? Is our choice of program presenters adequately inclusive of minorities? Is our programming and style of advertising and promotion of the same geared to middle-aged, middle-to-upper class whites? If so, we need assistance to see how this can be changed.
Priests and Deacons On-going Education
While it is a mistake to think that everything depends on the priests, it is also a mistake to think that much of anything of real consequence will happen without the priests’ endorsement, enthusiasm and leadership, especially for something as difficult to deal with as racism. Have we provided our clergy with the help, education and motivation to be the important cog in the machinery of racial justice transformation at the diocesan as well as parish level? Can we make available a systematic, effective, and on-going program to involve more of the priests and deacons in the diocese in continuing education and awareness so necessary for change to take place? Can we asked that the programs of our seminaries be evaluated and periodically reviewed to insure that anti-racism education and training are a significant component of priest formation?
