Clinton Franciscan Ministry in a Multi

Robert Schreiter C.PP.S., noted author, lecturer and professor at the Catholic Theological Union, has written extensively on the challenge of ministry in a multicultural world. In "Just What Do We Want?" [New Theology Review, February, 2000], Rev. Schreiter highlights welcoming "the other" - building long lasting relationships through genuine hospitality and an ongoing commitment to learn, understand and appreciate persons of different cultures. Welcoming, he explains, leads to respect for cultural differences, which entails engagement - an interactive and growing relationship that does not attempt to sweep "difference" aside, but engages difference as a reciprocal "gift." Engagement can lead to "healthy interaction" - a form of "communion" in which persons from different cultures, without losing their own identity, take to themselves elements of each other's culture.

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Carmel

Jacobs

OSF

spends

much

of her

time

at the St.

Vincent de

Paul Society

in Phoenix

with migrant

families.

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Faithful Citizenship:

A Catholic Call to

Political Responsibility

The Gospel mandate to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger leads the Church to care for and stand with immigrants, both documented and undocumented. While affirming the right and responsibility of sovereign nations to control their borders and to ensure the security of their citizens, especially in the wake of September 11, we seek basic protections for immigrants, including due process rights, access to basic public benefits, and fair naturalization and legalization opportunities. We oppose efforts to stem migration that do not effectively address its root causes and permit the continuation of the political, social, and economic inequities that contribute to it. We believe our nation must remain a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution and suffering exploitation—refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2003

A shared celebration of the "posada" - or coming of Christ - is an annual event at St. Augustine Parish, Phoenix..

Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago, addressing the Heartland Conference on immigration in Kansas City, Mo., on March 1, 2004, called for "A Church Without Walls."

"A church is a place and a people where Christ has become the bridge connecting them to God and to one another...and to the world."

As it does every four years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement in September 2003 on the responsibilities of Catholics to society, "Faithful Citizenship: a Catholic Call to Political Responsibility."

Among the myriad of issues addressed, the bishops singled out the call to "care for and stand with immigrants."

Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, who testified before the U.S. Senate in February 2004 concerning the proposed comprehensive immigration reform, stated,

"The current immigration system, which can lead to family separation, suffering and death, is morally unacceptable and must be reformed."

In January 2003, the Bishops issued a landmark document, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope," a pastoral letter on migration from the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States, which advocated scrutinizing and reforming all aspects of U.S. immigration policy to reflect the new reality of migration in an increasingly globalized world..

Strangers No Longer developed themes enunciated three years earlier in the Bishops' Jubilee year statement, "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity," which echoed the call of Pope John Paul II for "communion with and a genuine spirit of welcome for refugees, migrants and immigrants."

"A large part of the challenge in building multicultural communities is moving beyond cultural sensitivity to mutual ownership, beyond extending welcome to a sense of belonging, beyond hospitality to homecoming."

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"Inclusivity involves more than just making a place for people but also being able to hear with another's ears, to see with another's eyes, to speak with another's voice. Inclusivity requires that we become as familiar with the culture of another as we want them to be with our culture. Inclusivity at worship happens when there is a lived experience of inclusivity in daily life."

Mary Sellers Malloy & Georgette Zalewska, "Let's Do Something"

Liturgy Summer Camp," RITE, Liturgical Training Publications,

Archdiocese of Chicago, Feb.-Mar., 2002.

Jane McCarthy OSF works with students in the bi-lingual religious education program in her parish, St. James in Washington, Ia.

From Chicago to San Diego, from Kansas City to Chino, Clinton Franciscans are working and living in the multi-cultural reality of 21st century America, heeding the Gospel call ..."For I was ...a stranger and you welcomed me." (Mt 25:35)	Click to Enlarge
	Jeanine Bradford OSF prepares bi-lingual catechists at her parish, St. Augustine in Phoenix, Ariz