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The folk song, written by Stan Rogers, describes the changes taking place in the maritime provinces of Canada back in the 1970s, telling of the young moving off and forsaking the old ways, as the fish become less plentiful and large, modern vessels make off with the few that are left, stirring up the bay’s waters.
"It really, I think, captures the same thing we’re facing in the world in which we live,” said Mulhall. “The old way of life is changing and we can look back upon it with nostalgia and try to hold on to it, preserve what was, or we can begin to say, ‘What are the values, what are the things that we need to make sure go with us as we move from then to now? What are the virtues? What are the things that are so critical that we make sure make the journey?’”
He noted that a look at the role of culture and how it affects all that we do offers a new perspective on the challenges facing the church — and religious educators, as well as new ideas for responding to these challenges.
“The church is always in culture,” said Mulhall, adding that there are times when we have to work within the culture to change it and other times when we must immerse ourselves into a culture.
He pointed out that a problem for those of European ancestry is they lack an ethnic ancestry they feel close to, leading to their sometimes seeing themselves as having no culture. It is important that we first identify how we have been shaped by our own culture though, said Mulhall, “because if you are not clear how you have been shaped by your own culture, then you will not be open to how culture shapes and affects other people,” leading to culture clash.
Mulhall reported on various issues currently affecting diocesan directors of religious education. This included the work of the high school textbook committee at the USCCB, which had elicited over 5,000 responses from the bishops that have now been compiled into a lengthy document.
He noted the bishops are looking at developing a curriculum approach for high school students that could be used in the youth ministry field, helping young people develop a relationship with Christ and giving them an understanding of this relationship. However, it would be up to individual bishops to determine whether these should shape the catechetical guidelines for the diocese and Mulhall urged the diocesan DREs to discuss this with their bishops as early as possible.
While there will be many publishers willing to create materials for these high school programs, he added that publishers do not develop high school materials for out of school programs because “they lose money” — the same reason for the scarcity of textbooks in Spanish or languages other than English.
Mulhall observed that the bishops tend to believe it is only through textbooks that they can control the quality of the program content, but an effort is being made to recognize that preparation of catechists and teachers is of even greater importance.
The National Adult Catechism, which is expected to be used in high school religious education and the RCIA, should be available this spring, he reported.
He also touched on the National Organization of Catechists for Hispanics (NOCH), which will be holding a conference prior to the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL) in Chicago in April. A letter is going out, he said, inviting all diocesan directors to become members of NOCH, whose focus is now that of addressing, on a national level, issues concerning catechesis with Hispanics, rather than its former role as trainer of those working with Hispanics.
Mulhall encouraged membership in this organization, noting that it helps keep “on everybody’s radar screen” issues affecting Hispanic catechesis. “We are going to have to find a way on a national level to provide training for catechesis with Hispanics to every diocese in the country,” he added.
He noted that, throughout the country, many dioceses have gone from having specific ethnic ministry offices to more generic offices. Bishops prefer the latter, he said, because they recognize that in the old way the office itself became minister to that specific ethnic group, serving as a “gatekeeper” instead of being a bridge between the community as a whole and the ethnic community.
Mentioned as two underutilized resources in this context were the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), here in San Antonio, and the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI).
Giving an Asian community he had worked with as an example, Mulhall noted that it is important to consider how culturally based our church programs are and to be sure they are responsive to the needs of the various cultures. “Are people not even able to get through your door?” queried Mulhall.
He further noted that programs aimed at ethnic groups should not be “watered down” versions, though it may be necessary to recognize the entry level may be at a lower step than previous generations of immigrants. “We cannot assume,” he said, “that just because we have this structure in place, that it is going to serve the people whom we are working with today.” He pointed out that culture does not mean race.
Cited here were the differences between the European model and the Hispanic model when doing youth ministry. “The European model assumes that we prepare the young people until they are 18 and then we send them off on their own, prepared for life, and they come back when they come back,” he said, whereas the Hispanic model “ignores” the young until they reach the age of 15, when they are invited into the adult community.
Noting that there are very large African-American populations in some Texas dioceses, Mulhall asked, “How many of those people are we growing, nurturing, grooming for the level of professional staff persons?”
One of the problems we have with textbooks, he added, is that they reflect the writers and editors and there is a lack of catechetical materials written for various cultural groups by persons from that group.
Something positive in this regard is being done by Paulist Press, who is publishing a series of books that has been recommended by the Catechesis of Cultures Advisory Committee to the USCCB. In the series, books on various cultures are written by someone actually from the culture, the first in the series being a book on Vietnamese Catholics written by a Vietnamese Catholic.
“Basically, it’s a series of books from various cultural and ethnic perspectives to help those of us who are not part of that group to understand the history, background factors,” said Mulhall. Included in the series, though not actually an ethnic culture, is a book on Eastern Catholic churches. The first book in the series should come out this spring or summer, with subsequent books to cover Mexican-American Catholics, Filipino Catholics, Puerto Rican Catholics, Caribbean Catholics and African-American Catholics. Additional books will be developed down the road.
Mulhall noted one of the values of the Catechesis and Cultures Advisory Committee is the lively discussions that ensue at their yearly meetings, when topics on the table for the bishops’ conference are explored by people from a variety of different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. “One of the things I would encourage you to do at your local level,” he said, “is to form some type of catechesis and cultures committee.”
He added, “Who are the people in your diocese who are not at the table — and need to be at the table, as you begin having conversations on issues?”
Next, Mulhall spoke of what he saw on the horizon. Of prime importance is the issue of priest-less parishes. While the National Directory for Catechesis says a great deal about the need for training seminarians, it does not address training for pastoral administrators, he noted.
“I’m firmly convinced that if we want seminarians and priests to understand catechetical ministry,” he said, “we have to stop relying on seminaries to do the preparation and we need to put in place a training program for the clergy that we do within our dioceses. And we prepare seminarians and we prepare pastoral administrators or upcoming deacons or upcoming pastoral administrators so that we help them as professionals in catechesis.”
Another critical question raised by Mulhall is how cateche-tical ministry will be provided as diocesan budgets are cut and the same number of staff cannot be provided. “If our staffs are cut, what services are going to get cut?” he asked. “How are we going to do it differently?” He suggested a sharing of professional diocesan DREs and youth ministers among parishes as one solution.
Finally, Mulhall asked, “What does it mean to be church in the 21st century?” Comparing the church in today’s world with the church in past centuries must lead us to examine new ways of doing things, he said. Besides addressing the culture factor, we must find innovative ways to engage the young, finding new ways of using technology to change the way we catechize and exploring the possibility of mentoring as parts of the solution.
It is only by re-thinking and revitalizing catechesis in terms of the present culture that the church will survive its current “Make and Break Harbour.”
“She’s a kindly Cape Islander, old but still sound
But so lost in the
long liner’s shadow
Make and break and make do
But the fish are so few
That she won’t be replaced should she founder ...” |