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Corinne Monogue, left, and Bishop Oscar Solis of Salt Lake City at a panel presentation on “Encountering Christ Our Hope,” the U.S. bishops’ pastoral discussion of Asian and Pacific Island Catholics. The panel took place Dec. 7 during the annual California Catholic Ministry Conference in San Jose. (Photo by Nicholas Wolfram Smith/Catholic San Francisco)
Dec. 16, 2019
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
Asian and Pacific Island Catholics make up the fastest growing segment in the U.S. church and bring “rich cultural practices and values that can really contribute to building up parishes and communities in the U.S.,” according to a panel at a recent ministry conference.
The challenge, the panel stressed, is that their gifts are often overlooked.
During the California Catholic Ministry Conference, held Dec. 5-7 in San Jose, Bishop Oscar Solis of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Paulist Father Ricky Manalo and diocesan lay minister Corinne Monogue sat on a panel to discuss the U.S. bishops’ 2018 document on Asian and Pacific Island Catholics, “Encountering Christ In Harmony.”
These communities are “ripe for pastoral engagement,” Bishop Solis said, because of what they can contribute but need pastoral guidance in becoming leaders within the church.
Asians and Pacific Islanders, he said, “have been recipients of outreach by the church. We are called to become leaders and active disciples in the church now. The door is wide open for the full and active participation of API communities in the U.S.”
The key for increasing representation of these cultural communities in the church is to “be open to various expressions of faith,” said Paulist Father Ricky Manalo, who is in residence at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco and served as an advisor to the U.S. bishops on Asian and Pacific Island pastoral matters.
Organizing a potluck dinner where people bring ethnic dishes, or praying for a community in the prayers of the faithful the Sunday before it celebrates a significant feast such as the Vietnamese Martyrs or San Lorenzo Ruiz are simple but important gestures that show hospitality in a parish, he said.
By building “intercultural competence for ministers,” Father Manalo said, the church is better prepared to see “who’s not around the table of ministries” and how to address that.
Corinne Monogue, who stepped down in May after a 13-year stint leading the Arlington, Virginia, diocese’s Office of Multicultural Ministries, said that accessible models of multicultural ministry included the Knights of Columbus, Bible studies using prayers listed in the bishops’ document and encouraging pastors to hold Simbang Gabi Masses, a Filipino Advent tradition, at parishes that are not majority Filipino.
Monogue also said her diocese added Asian and Pacific Island saints to confirmation preparation in order to give everyone in the diocese a chance to learn about them and “make sure more than just the traditional saints were given as options to students across the diocese.”
Maria Celia Magsuci, an audience member at the panel, said that in her experience different parish ethnic groups tend to be active “but the integration and togetherness is just very weak.
“We do our thing,” she said, “and other groups do other things.”
Bishop Solis said “our aspiration as cultural groups in the U.S.” is to have a united worship rather than “everyone celebrating their own liturgies.” But he acknowledged that can be a difficult goal to achieve.
During his time in Los Angeles, where he served as an auxiliary bishop and episcopal vicar for ethnic ministry, Bishop Solis said they incorporated Las Posadas celebrations from the Mexican Christmas tradition into Simbang Gabi. “Unity is not uniformity,” he said.
Father Manalo noted that communities can feel “threatened” and fear losing their identity by integrating celebrations. He said it is critical, therefore, to acknowledge different cultural voices in the church. By emphasizing an intercultural approach that “listens to where other people are at” the church can convey that traditions will be maintained, he said.
Monogue also emphasized that pastors and parish leadership should view the celebrations each cultural group brings as something for the whole parish, not just as an aspect of ethnic ministry.
“I had to change the view that this isn’t for one group, it’s for all,” she said. “Let’s invite everyone to the table.”
The annual California Catholic Ministry Conference, formerly known as the Santa Clara Faith Formation Conference, was renamed this year to reflect the change of venue to the San Jose Convention Center as well as the broad numbers it attracts. Attendance this year was about 3,000, representing 14 dioceses.
Bishop Daniel E. Garcia of the Diocese of Monterey, whose diocese cosponsors the conference with the Diocese of San Jose, said he hopes the conference will continue to grow and affirm everyone involved in ministry in the church.
“There’s a profound hunger in lay leaders not just to be nourished and fed but to be invigorated,” he said. “All of these dioceses in California are growing faster than we can speak so we’re trying to do anything we can to give our people help and sustain them.”
“Encountering Christ In Harmony” is available free on the USCCB website. Visit http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-118.cfm.