This is the first in a four-part series on the symposium held at San Fernando Cathedral, “San Antonio: Looking Back on 275 Years, Looking Forward to 300.”

    SAN ANTONIO • The “heart of San Antonio,” San Fernando Cathedral, served as the setting on March 3 for a dynamic and heartening conversation by movers and shakers from diverse sectors of the community to outline a moral vision for San Antonio’s next 25 years. The city, along with the cathedral, marked the close of their 275th jubilee year that weekend.
    Held in the cathedral hall, this remarkable event was set in motion by Archbishop José H. Gomez, assisted by Father David Garcia, rector of San Fernando, and Father Virgil Elizondo, the cathedral’s former rector and noted theologian, and was co-hosted by Archbishop Gomez and Mayor Phil Hardberger. Invited to participate were community leaders in religion, government, education, the arts, business and the non-profit sectors, with more than 80 participating.

    Father Garcia welcomed the participants to San Fernando, noting it was especially appropriate that such a “conversation” take place as the city’s and cathedral’s jubilee year drew to a close, since such a year in Scriptures was a time to take stock and refocus.
    That the event was taking place at San Fernando, was also fitting, he said, as it was founded at the same time as the city, making it “home” to all San Antonians. “As part of our common heritage,” he said, “it is an appropriate place where we gather to have a serious conversation about our community — its past, its present and its future.”

    The archbishop expressed his gratitude to those present for being willing to take part in this important dialogue about San Antonio’s future, noting the significant role of the Catholic faith in shaping the city’s identity. “I believe very strongly,” he said, “that San Antonio’s future depends on our faithfulness to the truths and values of the Gospel.” He pointed out the wide variety of cultures and peoples living together here who mutually respect and assist one another. This “great treasure,” he related, sets San Antonio apart from other cities and is attributable to “the city’s deep Catholic roots, which promote a belief in the dignity of the human person.”

    He added this is evidenced by the church’s long history of service in the community through Catholic schools, hospitals and charities. “I believe our great city has much to teach the rest of the nation,” he said, calling on those present to try to make San Antonio America’s “heart,” living up to our country’s foundation on religious faith and moral values.

    Mayor Hardberger, in the same vein, observed that “great cities are righteous cities.” While noting how far the city has come since its founding, he pointed out this progress has been somewhat uneven.     “There have been people left behind,” he said, “and there have been neighborhoods left behind.” He drew attention to the fact that there are people here who go hungry and to the plight of the homeless, noting we have a moral commitment at the most basic level to see that people have adequate food, shelter, clothing and the opportunity to work and receive an education. “Certainly to have their children become educated,” he said, “so that they have a fair shot at things” and can fare better in life than their disadvantaged parents.

    “There are many future mayors out in this city today,” he said. “There are many future heads of the chambers of commerce and CEOs of our great corporations and presidents of universities and church people, but we have to give them an opportunity to develop.”
    He added that, from a mayor’s perspective and in broad terms, a city needs to provide culture in the historic, environmental and artistic sense, business opportunities, a good environment in which to raise a family, an education for all children and ample opportunity for every San Antonian. “These are all moral undertakings,” he said, that were passed on to us by our ancestors. “Now these obligations are passed on to us.”

    Serving as moderator for the symposium was former mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros. “We’re grateful,” said Cisneros, “to live in a city that has such a rich history, that understands the wisdom of stopping to reflect and that understands that the values of looking to the future are built upon the vantage point of our past accomplishments and strongest values.” Referring to the symposium’s special format, he asked participants to “suspend their disbelief,” meaning to forget past negative experiences or reasons why things fail, and instead to open themselves to listening to each other and trying to capture the best ideas set forth.
    “Every idea here deserves respect,” he said, “is rooted on a kind of Quaker notion that because each of us is a product of God, each of us has a little bit of God and therefore our ideas are a bit of God.”

    He called on those assembled to reach for a moral vision for our city, one not constrained by the restrictions of normal feasibility, but which goes beyond the pedestrian realm. “A great city,” he said, “is a place where people work, where people learn, where people play, where people live, and it should be a place where people are uplifted. A great city ought to be a place where people are made better by their association with it and with each other.”

    Juan Sepulveda of The Common Enterprise, a national consulting group, was introduced as the symposium’s facilitator and explained its unique procedure, which is based on an American Indian tradition called the “Kiva Process.” A kiva, Sepulveda noted, is considered a sacred place where important questions involving the community are resolved and involves “The Rule of 6.” Basically, this means asking six members of the community to give their perspectives on an issue, being aware that each will bring a different set of experiences with them and offer a different view of the situation.

    For the symposium at San Fernando, three different sets of six panelists were selected, each panel being asked to initiate discussion on one of the three questions posed regarding their moral vision for San Antonio as a community in 25 years. The questions were: What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? What should we start doing?

    Each of the six panelists was allowed 90 seconds to speak on the question set before them, followed by a second round in which each was again allotted 90 seconds to respond to or elaborate on what their fellow panelists had said. Seated at tables of six throughout the room were the other participants.
    As each panel finished their presentations, they were also seated at a table of six, and participants at all the tables proceeded to share their thoughts with one another, focusing solely on the question posed to the panel. As subsequent panels commenced, audience participants were asked to change seats to ensure more diverse interaction.
    Index card-sized Post-it notes were provided at the tables to jot down individual thoughts, which were then posted on two flip boards at the front of the room. These notes were immediately collected, transcribed and compiled into booklets that were distributed to participants before the event’s end.

    Sepulveda’s final instructions to participants about to tackle the rather daunting questions posed, was advice shared by the tribes on whom the process was based. That was to keep in mind seven generations, stepping beyond the present and perhaps selfish concerns of our own time to remember the three generations that preceded us and all they endured, as well as the three generations that will follow us — our children, grand children and great-grandchildren.
    “If you actually hold all seven of those generations in your head,” he said, “but more importantly, in your heart, these questions actually aren’t as tough as you think.”