Viewpoint Encuentro 2000 a time to address pressing
issues
By JOSEPH A. FIORENZA
The government pleads for accurate
census data. It needs to know who is in the nation so officials can address
their concerns equitably.
Its something the church struggles with too, though church
census taking -- more like a look around the congregation and neighborhood --
seems less precise. Its goal is more significant, however. For the church, the
issue is more than a fair use of resources. It is a matter of passing on the
faith, building up community and feeding the spiritually hungry.
One way for the church to gather vital information will be through
Encuentro 2000: Many Faces in Gods House. The event is slated for July
6-9, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It will be hosted by the Hispanic
community and gather Catholics of all backgrounds, including European, African,
Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American. Church leaders want to know what
todays Catholics are thinking. Church groups need to hear one
anothers concerns.
A look over the last half-century shows a rapidly changing church.
Right now, in fact, current immigration statistics suggest that the church in
the United States is growing at about 300,000 persons a year -- the equivalent
of a mid-sized diocese. This has implications for parish schools, religious
education and social services.
We all worship the same Jesus Christ, of course, but how we come
to know Jesus is influenced by everything from styles of art and interpersonal
relationships to devotions learned at home. What is vital to one group can mean
little to another. For example, celebrations to honor St. Patrick, while
culturally significant to the Irish, do not hold similar meaning to other
Christian groups. Celebrations of Our Lady of Lavang mark the Vietnamese
community but are not well-known beyond it. One hopes that those who attend
Encuentro 2000 will be reinforced in the pride they feel in their own religious
heritage and come to better appreciate the religious sensitivities of
others.
Encuentro 2000 also will let parish leaders explore local concerns
with the wider church. Its one thing to feel tension over parish groups
with differing concerns. Its another to know that people in other
parishes and other parts of the country share similar experiences. It is even
better to see how some parishes have addressed the challenge of integrating
separate groups into one community.
In recent days, several church leaders have asked forgiveness for
the failings of individuals and groups within the church. In Los Angeles,
Cardinal Roger Mahony cited several offenses, including those against religious
women. In Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law also asked forgiveness for his own and
Boston Catholics offenses against a number of groups, citing, among
others, slaves and women. In Rome, Pope John Paul II made headlines when he
asked forgiveness for instances of anti-Semitism in the church.
At Encuentro 2000, the church in the United States will have the
opportunity to look at these and other areas for which the church needs to
express contrition.
Encuentro 2000, however, is more than a moment for talk and
atonement. It is a Jubilee Year event that calls for celebration with prayer,
music, dance and feasting. Ours is a glorious church! Many of us grew up when
this country viewed itself as the melting pot where people of different nations
merged into one America. Today, the Catholic church in the United States has
gone beyond being a variation of this melting pot and has become a microcosm of
world society, where people of many nations must learn to live as one
community.
The church in the United States has the opportunity to exemplify
how such a community can flourish and how differences can complement one
another. It can show by example that such growth does not come easily because
it involves some degree of conflict and at times the creation of new
structures. It may give a message to people of Bosnia, where ethnic strife
keeps people apart. It may have a message for the Middle East, where Jewish,
Christian and Muslim groups struggle over land sacred to all.
Encuentro 2000 will be the time to address several questions.
Among them:
- What does the parish of 2000 look like and what will it look
like in 2020 and in 2050?
- What is happening to lay leadership almost 40 years after the
Second Vatican Councils call for a renewed understanding of lay people in
the church?
- Do the priesthood, religious orders and the diaconate mirror
the ethnic makeup of the church in the United States?
- How can parish prayer combine the structures of the universal
church with the expressions of local cultures? How do differences enhance our
spiritual lives?
- How do Catholic schools and religious education programs reach
out to the new immigrants pouring into the church right now?
- How do Catholics stand together as one people in the face of
abuses of charity and justice directed at some of the family -- recent
immigrants and people of color -- simply because they seem
different?
- How does the church welcome people into its midst?
These are pressing issues now. My hope is that at Encuentro 2000
we start to address them.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas, is
president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
National Catholic Reporter, April 28,
2000
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