Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Parish Priest: Fr
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for gathering us together
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission
of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will
for the spiritual renewal of our parish.
Give us strength, courage, and clear vision
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,
and ask for her intercession and guidance
as we strive to bear witness
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm – 5:45pm)
Penguin - Saturday (5:15pm - 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is in need of assistance and has given permission to be contacted by Care and Concern, please phone the Parish Office.
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Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Weekday Masses 7th - 10th February, 2017 Next Weekend 11th & 12th February, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Devonport …Feast Day
Thursday: 10:30am Eliza Purton Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
12noon Devonport 9:00am Ulverstone
Friday 9:30am Ulverstone …St Scholastica 10:30am Devonport
11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Every
Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport:
Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of each month.
Legion of Mary: Sacred Heart Church Community Room,
Ulverstone, Wednesdays, 11am
Christian Meditation:
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.
Prayer Group:
Charismatic Renewal - Devonport, Emmaus House - Thursdays
7.00pm
Meetings, with Adoration and Benediction are held each
Second Thursday of the Month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7.00 pm
Ministry Rosters 11th & 12th February, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: M Gerrand, M Gaffney, H Lim 10:30am
F Sly, J Tuxworth
Ministers of Communion: Vigil
B & B
Windebank, T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker, Beau Windebank
10.30am: S Riley, M
Sherriff, R Beaton, M O’Brien-Evans, D & M Barrientos
Cleaners 10th
Feb: B Paul, D
Atkins, V Riley 17th Feb: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 11th
Feb: L Murfet 12th Feb: D French Flowers: A O’Connor
Ulverstone:
Reader: E Cox Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M O’Halloran
Cleaners: V
Ferguson, E Cox Flowers: M Bryan Hospitality:
B O’Rourke, S McGrath
Penguin:
Greeters: Fifita Family Commentator: Readers: Fefita Family
Ministers of Communion: A Guest, J Garnsey Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J
Setting Up: S Ewing Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, T Clayton
Port Sorell:
Readers: M Badcock, G Duff Ministers of Communion: B Lee
Clean/Flow/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Clean/Flow/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Readings this Week 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
First Reading: Isaiah 58:7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:
As I settle to pray this week’s gospel, I ask myself how I
feel, what frame of mind I am in.
What am I hoping will happen during this prayer time?
I ask the Spirit to guide my heart and my mind.
Eventually, I come to reading the text.
I read it carefully several times even if the words are familiar.
There may be a line or expression which strikes me anew, which I had not really ‘heard’ before.
If I slightly change the beginning and read: ‘Jesus said to ____________’ (insert your name).
What happens?
Jesus tells me that I am the salt of the earth.
Perhaps I am drawn to reflect on the uses of salt.
How do I add flavour to other people’s life?
In what ways do I preserve them and keep them safe?
Am I an agent for helping them live a steady life on an even keel?
Jesus also tells me that I am the light of the world.
I reflect on the way I use this light.
Does it shine for all to see?
How easy is it for people around me to be aware of my Christian values?
Maybe I remember the people in my life whose lights have inspired me.
What did I find attractive in the way their lights shone?
I thank the Lord for them with gratitude.
I ask him to help me to always keep my light on a lamp stand so that I can be, like them, an encouragement for others.
I finish my prayer in the name of the Father……
What am I hoping will happen during this prayer time?
I ask the Spirit to guide my heart and my mind.
Eventually, I come to reading the text.
I read it carefully several times even if the words are familiar.
There may be a line or expression which strikes me anew, which I had not really ‘heard’ before.
If I slightly change the beginning and read: ‘Jesus said to ____________’ (insert your name).
What happens?
Jesus tells me that I am the salt of the earth.
Perhaps I am drawn to reflect on the uses of salt.
How do I add flavour to other people’s life?
In what ways do I preserve them and keep them safe?
Am I an agent for helping them live a steady life on an even keel?
Jesus also tells me that I am the light of the world.
I reflect on the way I use this light.
Does it shine for all to see?
How easy is it for people around me to be aware of my Christian values?
Maybe I remember the people in my life whose lights have inspired me.
What did I find attractive in the way their lights shone?
I thank the Lord for them with gratitude.
I ask him to help me to always keep my light on a lamp stand so that I can be, like them, an encouragement for others.
I finish my prayer in the name of the Father……
Readings Next Week 6th Sunday
in Ordinary Time (Year A)
First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Gospel:
Matthew 5:17-37
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: David Welch, Connie Fulton & ...
Let us pray
for those who have died recently: Hilda Kennedy, Des Hanson, Nell Nettlefold, Joy Griffiths, Ivan Bourke, Angela
Lester, Joanne Nash-Lade, Kevin Kingsley,
Val
Palmer, Sheila Tranter & Val Fielding.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 1st – 7th
February
Lachlan Berwick, Frank Meagher, Mick Groves, Arthur James, Pamela
Haslock, Joan Nolan, Basil Cassidy, Darrell Smith, Betty Hodgson, Sylvia Strange, David
Rutherford, Verna Crabtree, Lawrence McGuire, Jessie Kiely and Nicola Tenaglia. Also Leon & Hilaria Carcuevas and Fortunato &
Asuncsion Makiputin.
May
they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings,
Sometimes when you get busy you can lose sight of the
little things or you even fail to hear what you have been told. That’s
regularly what happens to me so could I please ask that if anyone has anything
they want done it is much better to ring the Parish House and let us know there
(Office Hours: Tues –Thurs from 10am to 3pm). Recently someone asked me about a
Baptism and I have no idea who it was and if they are waiting for me to ring
them back then it probably won’t happen!! Simply because I was asked at a time
when other things were happening and because I’m a man I can only do one thing
at a time (lol!).
Whilst we don’t have too much contact with Refugees and
Asylum Seekers here on the NW we know that they are not always treated that
fairly. I recently heard of a young Vietnamese Asylum Seeker who was Captain of
his College, did exceptionally well in his studies but whose appeal for
Refugees status was denied. Except our system is so flawed that even as the
Department rejected his claim it recommended that the Minister intervene!!!
This young man, like so many others, has the potential to be great contributor
to our nation yet we ‘don’t have room for people who jump the queue’!
If we are to be salt and light to the world then we need to
make a stand for justice, we need to become a welcoming community. And right
now, we have a prime opportunity to speak up for the Australia we want. The
Government is writing a long term plan for Australia’s foreign policy and our
role in the world, and they’re inviting our input. Go to http://uptous.org.au/?org=caritas
and have your say about the type of Community we want Australia to be into the
future.
Please take care on the
roads and in your homes,
HEALING MASS 2017
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, are sponsoring a HEALING MASS
at St Mary’s Catholic Church Penguin on Thursday 16th February commencing
at 7.00pm. All denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the
liturgy in a vibrant and dynamic way using charismatic praise and worship, with
the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and healing. After Mass teams will be available
for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate for supper and
fellowship in the adjacent hall. Please
note early start at 7.00 pm.
If you wish to know more or require transport, please
contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Tom Knaap
6425:2442.
A warm welcome back to our school Principals,
all staff and
students of all Schools
within the Mersey Leven Parish
as the new school year
begins.
(How many schools do you think that is?
– answer next week)
God of
wisdom and might,
We praise you for the wonder of our being,
for mind, body and
spirit.
Bless all teachers, staff and children
as they begin a new school
year.
Give them strength and grace,
wisdom and knowledge and peace to their hearts.
We ask this prayer through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
COLUMBAN ART CALENDARS 2017:
We have seven calendars left to sell at a reduced price of
$6.00 available from the Piety Shop at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport.
As this is the second year that we have had extra calendars we will be reducing
our order by this number next year!!!(Just in case you thought to wait until
they go on sale next year lol).
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:
Families with children in Grade 3 or above
are warmly invited to participate in our Sacramental Program to prepare to
celebrate the sacraments of RECONCILIATION, CONFIRMATION and EUCHARIST this
year.
Information sessions to explain the
preparation program will be held on:
Monday 20th February, 7.00pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church,
Stewart Street, Devonport or
Tuesday 21st February 7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church,
Alexandra Road, Ulverstone
For further information please contact the
Parish Office 6424:2783
LENTEN PROGRAM 2017:
A Lenten Program is planned to begin on Thursday
2nd March starting at 10am and finishing at 11:30am at Emmaus House, 88 Stewart
Street Devonport. We will meet for six weeks finishing on 6th April. If
you would like to join the group contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 6428:2760
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 9th
February Tony Ryan & Merv Tippett.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE
ARCHDIOCESE
ST MARY’S COLLEGE is seeking nominations for a very
special book being created and published as part of its 150 year anniversary
celebrations in 2018 featuring images and stories by and about 150 significant
College members over its history. All information, including contact details
and submission criteria, plus an online or printable form can be found at
smc.tas.edu.au/150-faces-project/ we look forward to receiving your
submissions. Further enquiries to Marg Rootes College Archivist on 6108:2560.
GOD’S POWER AS POWERLESSNESS
This article is by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
The French novelist and essayist, Leon Bloy, once made this comment about God’s power in our world: “God seems to have condemned himself until the end of time not to exercise any immediate right of a master over a servant or a king over a subject. We can do what we want. He will defend himself only by his patience and his beauty.”
God defends himself only by his patience and his beauty! How true! And how significant for our understanding of power!
The way we understand power is invariably bound up with how we see power exercised in our world. Our world understands power precisely as a force that can lord it over others, a force that can compel others to obey. In our world, power is understood to be real only when it can forcibly assert itself to make others obey it. For us, strong people have power, political rulers have power, economic systems have power, billionaires have power, the rich and the famous have power, muscular bodies have power, and the playground bully has power; power that can make you buckle under, one way or the other.
But such a notion of power is adolescent and superficial. Power that can make you buckle under is only one kind of power and ultimately not the most transformative kind. Real power is moral. Real power is the power of truth, beauty, and patience. Paradoxically, real power generally looks helpless. For example: If you put a powerfully muscled athlete, the CEO of a powerful corporation, a playground bully, an academy-award winning movie star, and a baby into the same room, who has the most power? Ultimately, it’s the baby. At the end of the day, the baby’s helplessness overpowers physical muscle, economic muscle, and charismatic muscle. Babies cleanse a room morally; they do exorcisms, even the most callous watch their language around a baby.
That’s the kind of power God revealed in the incarnation. Against almost all human expectation, God was born into this world, not as Superman or Superstar, but as a baby, helpless to care for its own needs. And that’s how God is still essentially present in our lives. Pulitzer prize-winning writer, Annie Dillard, suggests that this how we forever find God in our lives, as a helpless infant lying in the straw whom we need to pick up, nurture, and provide with give human flesh.
She’s right, and her insight, like that of Leon Bloy, has huge implications for how we understand God’s power in our lives and for how we understand God’s, seeming, silence in our lives.
First, God’s power in our lives: When we examine the biblical account of Adam and Eve and original sin, we see that the primary motivation for eating the apple was their desire to somehow grasp at divinity, to become like God. They wanted Godlike power. But they, like us, badly misunderstood what makes for genuine power. St. Paul shows us the antithesis of that in how he describes Jesus in the famous Christological hymn in the Epistle to the Philippians. Paul writes there that Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather that he emptied himself of that power to become helpless, trusting that this emptying and helplessness would ultimately be the most transformative power of all. Jesus submitted to helplessness to become truly powerful.
That insight can shed light on how we understand God’s apparent absence in our world. How might we comprehend what is often called “the silence of God”? Where was God during the Holocaust? Where is God during natural disasters that kill thousands of people? Where is God when senseless accidents and illnesses take the lives of countless persons? Why doesn’t God forcefully intervene?
God is present and intervening in all these situations, but not in the way we ordinarily understand presence, power, and intervention. God is present the way beauty is present, in the way a helpless, innocent newborn is present, and in the way truth as a moral agent is always present. God is never silent because beauty, innocence, helplessness, and truth are never silent. They’re always present and intervening, but unlike ordinary human power, they’re present in a way that is completely non-manipulative and fully respectful of your freedom. God’s power, like that of a new born, like the power of beauty itself, fully respects you.
When we look at the struggles within our world and within our private lives, it often seems like divine power is forever being trumped by human power. As the cartoon character, Ziggy, likes to put it: The poor are still getting clobbered in our world. But, like David, standing with a just a boy’s slingshot before Goliath, a giant who looks overpowering in terms of muscle and iron; and just like the apostles being asked to set five little loaves of bread and two tiny fish before a crowd of 5000, God always looks underwhelming in our world.
But we know how these stories end.
Falling and
Failing into Love
In many ways
prayer—certainly contemplative prayer or meditation—is planned and organized
failure. If you’re not prepared for failure, you’ll avoid prayer, and that’s
what most people do. Prayer is typically not an experience of immediate union,
satisfaction, or joy; in fact, quite the opposite. Usually you meet your own
incapacity for and resistance to union. You encounter your thinking, judging,
controlling, accusing, blaming, fearing mind. So why pray?
Julian of Norwich,
my favorite mystic, uses the word “sin” to mean a state of separateness or
disunion. She writes that you become aware of your state of resistance or
separateness, and then when you try to sink into the experience of
one-ing—Julian’s word for unitive consciousness—you realize you can’t get there
by yourself. You can’t make it happen. You can’t make yourself one.
Julian’s
Revelations of Divine Love suggests that only in the falling apart of your own
foundation can you experience God as your total foundation and your real
foundation. [1] Otherwise you keep creating your own foundation, by your own
righteousness, by your own intelligent and holy thoughts. Julian describes this
reality in terms of what God does: God reveals God’s-self as your authentic foundation.
What we’re
doing in prayer is letting our self-made foundation crumble so that God’s
foundation can be our reality. Prayer is a practice in failure that overcomes
our resistance to union with Love. Let’s fall into and rest in that Love one
more time. . . .
References:
[1] My
encapsulation of Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 78.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, an unpublished talk, September 19, 2011.
UPDATING OLD SCHOOL “PULPIT ANNOUNCEMENTS”
This article is taken from the blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore, USA. You can find the original blog here
For some reason, the Mass announcements hold a high position on the list of things in church world that generate disagreement. There is lots of disagreement about who, where, when, and how the announcements will show up on Sunday morning.
At Nativity the long time custom was for the celebrant to read announcements from the pulpit following communion. There was no strategy to it, just whatever he thought was worthy of special attention in the bulletin or what some special interest lobbied him to mention.
The announcements were not very interesting, mostly parish meetings and fundraisers. Maybe that’s why most people left after communion.
A couple of years ago we transitioned to a prerecorded video presentation given by an attractive and engaging announcer.
We show the video before Mass. More than the message itself, these announcements were mostly a way to create energy and excitement as parishioners and guests arrived. We were OK with that but more recently began to consider, how about if people actually listened to the announcements? Before, many people would either talk over them or be distracted in other ways. Now people stop what they are doing and pay attention. Here are five reasons we think it’s working.
We branded the announcements.
Branding programs can really help with engagement. We have found this over and over again in our different ministries. Generic can get lost or overlooked. We now call our announcements “5b4” (i.e., the five announcements we make before Mass).
We make fewer announcements for bigger impact.
So many times churches hand out bulletins stuffed with ads and inserts and load up the home page of their web site with everything that is going on. And then, they repeat it all from the pulpit. When everything is important nothing is important. We were guilty of this too. In our new format we only make five announcements and we bill them as “the 5 things you need to know this week.” These are church-wide announcements that are of potential interest to everyone. So, we wouldn’t have an announcement for the next meeting of the parish council, but we would have an announcement about small group sign up. Most of the time we avoid specifics like where an event is going to be held or the details of how to get involved, instead driving them to our web site.
We present the announcements as a countdown.
The order of announcements is not just arbitrary. Instead it creates a countdown, from 5 to 1. They form a sort of mildly compelling crescendo that builds anticipation and excitement, progressing in importance and proximity. In other words, the list counts down to what matters most to the most people at this moment.
We moved from one announcers to two.
One of the problems in Catholic churches is that one person does all the talking, from the consecration to announcements and instructions and everything in between. This diminishes the power of that voice. When Father insists on doing it all, he is actually reducing his effectiveness. More voices means greater engagement. Our announcements are now done with two announcers. We still have the attractive and engaging voice, Kristin, who is joined by Tony. Tony is the guy next door, he’s “Timonium Tim.”
With two people on the screen at the same time it looks more conversational and they can play off one another. Their interaction creates an ongoing “story” of our parish, they’re “who we are.” We pre-record our announcements, but you can do two voices live as well.
We added a musical sound track to our announcements.
This sounds pretty inconsequential, but in reality transitions are vitally important in communication. We don’t often appreciate a smooth transition until we are forced to sit through awkward ones. Music is one of the most effective transitions, and keeps the presentation moving. Obviously this is only possible in a pre-packaged video presentation.
If you’d like to check out for yourself what these announcements look like, visit us online: churchnativity.com.
Even if your parish doesn’t have the technology or resources to make video presentation every week, there are simple things you can do to improve your announcements:
1. Give them a brand.
2. Cut down on the number of announcements.
3. Write them out ahead of time.
4. Father needs to stop doing them- another voice or two is needed.
5. Make sure your announcers practice and rehearse.
The Changing Face of US Catholicism
The growing number of immigrants crossing the Mexican border are changing the way that the Catholic faith is lived and practised in the United States. Despite the challenges they may present to and face in civil society, their vibrant presence is a blessing for the church, argues Nathan Stone SJ. This article is from the ThinkingFaith website - the original article can be found here
Although Catholicism is actually the largest unified religious denomination in the United States, counting nearly a third of US residents among her faithful, she still perceives herself as a marginalized and misunderstood people. In many ways, she is. Most Americans, even Catholic Americans, feel threatened by Catholic intensity, by the sense of community, and by sacramental devotion, which, for Puritans, smacks of witchcraft. Americans get nervous about being in touch with transcendent reality. It might change their plans, or their illusion of controlling the world.
Most Americans are afraid of a Church that might come out of the churches, into the streets. We have separation of Church and State. We have freedom of religion, but with the condition that one never see or hear about it. Most people go to some church, but no reference to religion may ever be heard in public schools. In 1984, actor Martin Sheen was arrested along with others, for peaceful protest against the US funding of right-wing forces in the Central American wars. A heckler shouted at him, as he was carted away, Are you a communist? His retort was, Much worse. I’m a Catholic. What happens now, with the arrival of Mexican immigrant Catholics, for whom prayer, as often as not, is a procession through the city streets?
Protestantism, and more exactly Calvinist Puritanism, is the bedrock on which the United States of America was founded. That is her ideological foundation, even among those who are agnostics, or assimilated Catholics, today. The first colonies were generally Protestant. Some were business ventures, like Jamestown, in Virginia. Others were overtly religious movements, like the Mayflower pilgrims, of Massachusetts. The marriage of business and Puritanism has begotten this new nation. One notes strains of Freemasonry, sometimes, a balance to evangelical fundamentalism. Catholic, on the other hand, was never part of the equation.
Demographically, if you add the members of all the Protestant denominations, they are far more numerous. Protestantism, you might say, is an individualist’s religion, and it tends to subdivide, but it retains certain characteristics. From Luther, we get radical individualism. In liberal discourse, this becomes the right to do whatever one feels like, and demand that the government pay for it. In ethics, it becomes the tyranny of an untrained conscience – in Catholic parlance, ethical relativism.
From Calvin, we get double predestination: a sharp divide between the saved and the lost, an impenetrable border fence separating them. My Baptist grandmother lived within shouting distance of the Mexican border most of her life, and never learned a word of Spanish. Why would she learn the language of the lost people? If God had wanted to save them, he would have made them white and English-speaking, right?
It’s interesting to note the prominent place purgatory holds on the American Catholic catechetical horizon. In other places, it might be a quaint metaphor for God’s solid and never-ending mercy that transcends even death. This is a right understanding, and we should probably leave it at that. For American Catholics, though, it’s a big deal, because it’s something that makes us different. Luther sends you straight to heaven or hell, at the hour of your death. So, American Catholics spend hours praying for their poor souls in Purgatory, her silent dissent.
Some take that to mean that the Catholic God is punishing. But the point is that the Catholic God is forgiving. He always finds a way for you to come back to Him. The American Calvinist God does not forgive, or so it seems. He closes the door on sinners, once and for all. This explains the high prison population, and the persistence of the death penalty in a world that has, for the most part, given that up. Civil society is permissive, but unforgiving. Catholicism is demanding, but willing to give a second chance.
Calvinism can then be used to justify a whole range of social sins, from racial discrimination to the gratuitous invasion of foreign lands. It also rationalizes economic gain as a gift from God. The chosen people will be blessed with lots of money, even if it means they steal it from the not-chosen, or exploit their labour. The gospel of prosperity drives a nation, and puts the power of the purse where Calvin would say it belongs, among the saved.
Freemasons are few and far between, among them George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. They tend to be of the northern European, and thus, more tolerant, variety. Aside from their usual culture of hubris, they did also leave a Constitution allowing for no established Church, and freedom of religious practice. Through this loophole in the Puritan network, the Catholic immigrants have come.
With many others, notably Eastern European Jews, they came to Ellis Island, in New York. The Catholics were Polish, Italian and Irish, all looking for a better way of life, in a New World. They were distrusted and segregated, but by banding together (a Catholic thing) they managed to get by. The parish, and often its adjoining school and convent, became the cultural centre, and source of connection with tradition, family and the Old World. Being Catholic meant being different. It also meant belonging to a family where you had a place at the table.
Enter the Mexican immigrant. Always an important presence, today the undocumented are estimated to be over twelve million. These are the guys who fly under the radar, in order to tend the gardens, wash the dishes, build the homes, prepare the food, and attend Sunday mass at the local Catholic parish, if they have one in Spanish.
Studies have shown that, in the US, one in every four Catholics raised in the faith has left it by adulthood. In spite of that, the Church continues to grow, especially in areas where the immigrants are numerous. Fifty percent of Dallas Catholics today are Spanish-speakers. Fort Worth only trails a bit behind, at forty-five.
They come from Mexico and Central America, pilgrims through the desert, bringing traditional food, dance, devotion, language, colour, smell and, most important, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here they are, trying to graft themselves onto an American Church, where the emphasis is on rules, catechism, and liturgical propriety.
The American Church, in her efforts to become mainstream, has adopted Calvinist attitudes about right and wrong, saved and lost. She therefore has difficulty processing the irregular migratory status of the new faithful, and the spontaneous and colourful nature of their devotion.
Some of the most open-minded white people find the pageantry of Latin American religion to be at least, interesting. Evangelical Protestants often regard theatre as sinful, along with dancing and alcohol. When public schools and churches wanted to have a presentation, it consisted of costumes and some wooden walking out and making pronouncements of historical facts. This was called a pageant.
Latin Americans don’t do pageants, the do la pasión. They act out what is in their heart. There is no place for them to stay, so they are Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, searching for a place to take them in. That is Posadas. The matachines dance a devotion that won’t come out in words. One man said, it was as if Jesus himself were lifted up on the cross before my eyes. This is as real as it gets, an outpouring of uncontrollable passion.
The immigrant faithful of today relive the humbling of the haughty and the exalting of the lowly in the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. At a recent presentation of the apariciones, the actors wept during the final scene, because they were seeing her again. She is always with them, sharing their joys and sorrows, as a good mother would, as Holy Mother Church is called to do.
The Church is becoming colourful and tasty. In some places, the balance has already tipped. What often began as outreach to the Mexican community, has become all there is. The Dallas area traditionally had a very small Mexican American community, part of an already minority Catholic population. The Church has grown from less than 200,000, twenty-five years ago, to over a million today. Half of those are immigrant Mexicans and Central Americans. Most are of childbearing age. Most English-speakers from the post war “baby boom” are becoming elderly.
Predictions are that, by 2040, up to 80% of Catholics in this area will be of Latin American ancestry. Of course, by then, they will be second and third generation US citizens, if the authorities don’t deport them first, or deport their parents and leave them in foster care. Will they still dance for our Lady of Guadalupe? Good question.
The story is very different in San Antonio. This city was there long before Texas was Texas. Over 85% of the Church there is of Mexican descent, colourful, and devotional, and at the same time, rule-oriented and catechetical. But they speak English, they are US citizens, they shop at Walmart, they vote Republican and they serve in the military. And, they have done so for many decades.
At the Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, a national meeting of Catholic Hispanic youth at the University of Notre Dame in 2006, there were young Hispanics from all over the country. Dallas and Fort Worth sent Spanish-speaking delegations. Two thirds of the three thousand delegates were immigrant, and non-English-speaking. Like Dallas, there are many places with a very recent immigrant presence: North Carolina, Chicago, and the Midwest. But San Antonio sent an English-only delegation. That is their reality. The same is true of many parts of the Southwest, New York and Florida.
One would think that people with Latin American ancestors might be the most sensitive and welcoming to the immigrant, yet it is not always so. The Mexican American, in Texas, New Mexico and California, often resents the Mexican national. They say, those people are ruining it for us. And, it’s true, in a way. If your name is Juan Perez, nowadays, you have to prove that you are not a foreigner if you are stopped for a traffic violation, or if you want to apply for a job. John Smith has nothing to prove.
For San Antonio Catholics, the struggle, over the years, has been parallel to the Civil Rights Movement: how to claim their inalienable rights as citizens, alongside African-American brothers. For the immigrant there is no citizenship and, therefore, no rights.
The American economydepends, more and more, on foreign labour. When the jobs themselves can be outsourced, they are. Bicycles are assembled in China, and telephone services are answered in India. But it’s hard to have the roof put on your house in Michoacán, or your dishes washed in San Salvador. So, here they are. The US needs them, and yet, asks them, please be invisible.
Xenophobia is, of course, on the rise since 9/11, and the brownness of the Mexicans and Central Americans is often associated with the brownness of the Saudis who made that attack. Some have even imagined terrorist cells walking across the southern border disguised as Mexicans looking for work. Far-fetched, but for Americans who don’t travel and are afraid, it’s plausible. So, Manuel the brick-layer must pay the price.
The US Bishops have called the Church to welcome the stranger among us, with all the Biblical richness that calling evokes. This is an eye-opener, and a challenge. Leviticus calls on the people of God to remember when they lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. There are no Catholic families who were not, at some point, first generation immigrants. And yet, it is easy to forget, and to run the Mexicans out because they don’t have the same notion of rules and times and straight lines.
Among English-speakers, the Church is experiencing a resurgence of pre-Council piety. This is, in part, the legacy of the late Pope John Paul II, and it is especially strong among young people, who never knew incense or Latin. It is ethically demanding, politically active, and liturgically old-fashioned. And it’s very fair-skinned. It’s good to see the new fervour, and some are discovering a real sense of the sacred, which they have never known. This could be complimented by Hispanic religiosity, but it is not a segment of the Church that tends to be particularly welcoming to strangers.
Some, obsessed with Biblical righteousness[1], criticize the immigrant for not queuing up to get his visa before crossing the River. With over twelve million waiting, and only 66,000 visas available for labourers each year, the queue is 185 years long.
By Baptism, the undocumented immigrant has a canonical right to come to Church. Natural law obliges him to feed his family. Economic law requires him to take his supply of labour to where the demand is. Yet, civil law forbids him to be on the street. That is our contradiction. But we know where our priorities are.
An attempt at immigration reform failed in the Congress in 2007. It was well-intentioned, perhaps, but it had a fatal flaw. It dealt mostly with the path to citizenship. It essentially said, You can stay here if you learn English and be like us. In some way, that means, be Protestant, individualist, and Puritan. Yet most workers here have homes on the other side, and would go back and forth across the border, as they did for decades, if allowed to do so. That has become very dangerous now.
The border,with its growing fence,now divides families. Most of the immigrants are young men, many of them unmarried. Their mothers, sisters, wives and girlfriends are back home. This is hard for men from a very family-oriented culture. The Church is their family here, a link to what they know. I’ve never seen so many young men at Sunday mass, making retreats, seeking the sacraments. The Lord is clearly their strength and their salvation.
Some say that the wave of Latin American immigrants is just like earlier waves of immigrants from Europe. There are similarities and differences. The US has a border and a history with Mexico. The oldest generations of Mexican Americans were Spanish settlers in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. They stayed where they were and, in 1848, the border moved south on them. In the 1920s and 30s, many Mexicans fled the chaotic social upheavals at home, seeking asylum in the US.
During the Second World War, workers were invited to come, as part of the Bracero program. Crossing the border to work is a tradition started by the US government. The American labour force was in military service, so Mexicans were needed for food production and manufacture.
After the war, they were invited to leave. But the law of supply and demand still requires them to come. Anti-immigrant feeling runs high. Since most immigrants from south of the border are Catholic, at least when they arrive, anti-immigrant feeling reinforces a pre-existent anti-Catholic feeling.
In some places, the Catholic Church has done a wonderful job of welcoming the outsiders. In other places, there is tension. Local rules and procedures are often used to marginalize the newcomer. Cultural misunderstandings are often taken as deep-seated doctrinal errors. Other times, the grace of God wins out, even if only on the invisible underside, where the Risen Lord and the ragged people tend to gather.
There is the Houston Catholic Worker House, called Casa Juan Diego, where the recently arrived are taken in for their first few days. The neighbours complain about the Catholics bringing in droves of Mexicans. But Dorothy Day was a believer in the Benedictine tradition: a door must be always open to the wayfarer.
Inner city parishes have become Little Mexico. The rules change, the smells change, the activities change, and the English-speaker can feel like an outsider. Requirements such as registration, filling in forms and paying fees – all sacred doings in the American Church – are often put off for later.
Other mega-parishes in wealthy suburbs have taken on the growing Latin population as their on site mission, with varying degrees of success. The danger is perceived as a formation of parallel churches: one where rules and catechism win the day, the other where the passion play and Guadalupe are most important. Each has what the other lacks, if we could only see it.
One local parish has a new building that can hold fifteen hundred faithful for one mass. They have three English masses and three Spanish masses every Sunday. All are full. The collection at the three English masses is eight times as high as the collection at the Spanish masses. This, of course, reflects an economic reality. As a percentage of income, that’s not too far off the mark. But it causes bad feeling. Another statistic is telling. Every week there are baptisms. Two or three children will be brought to the English service, and twenty-five will come for the Spanish.
This might mean that the American Church will grow in numbers, and yet become poorer. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing. It would make the Church in the US more like the Church in the rest of the world. And the gospel tells us that the poor are happier than the rich. This could be a great favour.
The best part of it all is that this is not something anyone can control. The Holy Spirit has got us into this, and will see to the outcome. That might be the greatest learning opportunity for the American Church. She wants to control everything, to try and stay among those few predestined for Calvinist salvation. The Latin American attitude is that God will take care of it. Some days will be good, and some bad, but all will be God’s. We might finally be saved from our cultural Calvinism, after all.
Holy Spirit, we thank you for the missionaries you have sent us.
Nathan Stone SJ is a native Texan, 1979 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and 1987 MA from the University of Texas, with a concentration in rhetoric. As a teaching volunteer in Chile, and inspired by the Ignatian model, he became a Jesuit in 1992. A member of the Chilean province, he studied Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and he was ordained to the priesthood there in 2000. He has worked in education, youth and social action ministry in Santiago, Antofagasta and Montevideo. His most recent publication is an article called, Thoughts on Youth and the Ignatian Method, Spiritual Exercises for Life Choices, (Review of Ignatian Spirituality, 117, CIS, Rome, January, 2008).
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