Just What Do We Want? Ministry in a Multicultural World

Abstract

SETTING GOALS FOR MINISTRY IN A MULTICULTURAL SETTING Nearly everyone in ministry these days is aware of the complex tapestry of cultures that forms the backdrop to how we operate in our parishes, schools, and agencies. A multicultural setting is not something new in the Catholic Church; that has been the story of the American Church since the 1830s. However that first wave of European migration declined to a trickle in the 1920s, and for about fifty years we experienced the Church as consolidating its position in American society. In the last third of the century, however, immigration has picked up once again. This time the new immigration comes principally from Latin America and from Asia and the Pacific. The immigration from Latin America and from the Caribbean has been particularly large, so much so that the United States is now the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. This population influx is about 80 percent Catholic. The Asian immigration is smaller but culturally even more complex. Percentages of Christians among the Asian immigrants tend to be higher in the United States than in their home countries (except for the Philippines). In the first wave of immigration from 1830 to 1920, national parishes were the pastoral answer. These parishes catered to specific language and cultural groups, often providing not only pastoral service, but a wide range of other services as well. The national parish is not a favored solution today, for a number of different reasons. Immigrant populations often do not live in close proximity of one another and, when they do, are likely to move out of entry neighborhoods as their economic status improves. The attachment to a national parish can be profound, and when there no longer is a need for them, they are notoriously difficult to close down. The path for ministry which is being chosen, whether consciously or not, is toward a single parish ministering to more than one cultural group. This presents a different challenge for those in ministry. At the diocesan level, where one finds offices for ethnic ministries, the challenge is to form policies and provide services which will help those in ministry be more effective.