NEWS STORY: Catholics Urged to Celebrate the Church’s Diversity

c. 2000 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ In a rousing liturgy resonating with languages from across the globe, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles urged Roman Catholics attending what he called “the first national gathering to lift up the riches of the church’s racial, ethnic and cultural diversity” to actively champion the dignity of […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ In a rousing liturgy resonating with languages from across the globe, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles urged Roman Catholics attending what he called “the first national gathering to lift up the riches of the church’s racial, ethnic and cultural diversity” to actively champion the dignity of others.

Mahony delivered his homily during the Jubilee Mass crowning the last full day of Encuentro 2000, the national meeting July 6-9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Mahony’s message followed a moving admission of the church’s social shortcomings the day before by Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston.


Mahony focused attention on the unifying force of the Eucharist _ Holy Communion. “The Eucharist does not allow for discrimination among persons,” he told the packed gathering. “We must cultivate not just tolerance, but a genuine respect for our sisters and brothers from other racial and ethnic communities.”

The cardinal also spoke of the “public dimension” of the Christian message, which he said beckoned believers to struggle for justice outside church walls.

“The social ministry of the church is not peripheral to our mission,” he said, adding, “when human dignity is compromised … the church not only has a role but a responsibility to intervene in the public arena.”

The Mass embodied the multicultural emphasis of Encuentro 2000. Polyglot singing, the pulsating rhythms of African music, and prayer uttered in the language of each worshipper’s choice set the stage for the Eucharistic service conducted largely in Spanish by Mahony.

“It just seemed as if one thing flowed into the other,” said Sister Olivia Ortiz from Buffalo, N.Y. “I was very touched emotionally and otherwise by the … liturgy.”

David Osuna, from Coos Bay, Ore., said he found the event “real moving,” adding, “but I couldn’t put it into words because then I’d start bawling.”

On Saturday (July 8) Law presided over an emotional “Time for Atoning and Reconciling” in which the prelate’s call to communal repentance was punctuated by stirring stories of men and women who had personally experienced the sting of injustice.


For example, African-American Sister Mary Owen Lee’s grandfather served the Jesuits as a slave. To become a nun, Lee had to leave her home archdiocese of Philadelphia because no religious community would accept her. She also said she knew of African-Americans refused treatment by Catholic hospitals.

Others who spoke of experiencing discrimination included a bishop of Native American ancestry, a visually impaired woman in a wheelchair, and a Latina immigrant who started her American sojourn earning $40 a week sewing.

After each declaration, victims lit a candle and set it at the foot of a cross in the center of the Convention Center’s large General Session Hall. In the background, the audience joined in the soulful “There Is a Balm in Gilead.”

Following the stories speakers expressed a litany of sorrows over past injustices, including those springing from anti-Semitism, slavery, sexism, sexual abuse and “not defending every human life.”

Law echoed Pope John Paul II’s call for the church to invoke divine forgiveness for the burden of sin inherited from past generations. “We do not confess the sins of another,” Law told the worshippers, but “there is a sense in which no sin is only personal.”

The services led by the two cardinals were woven into a format of breakout sessions with bishops and workshops on a variety of issues impacting the increasingly diverse American Roman Catholic population.


In one of the sessions that put bishops face-to-face with participants, Law and Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., discussed “From Conversion to Communion,” the theme of Encuentro 2000’s second day. Organizers sandwiched the topic between an opening focus on conversion itself and a concluding call to mission.

Following the archbishops’ opening remarks, the audience got down to the nuts and bolts of American Catholic life. One questioner, for example, asked how the bishops viewed Roman Catholic politicians.

“Sometimes they think they’re Catholics and then they vote according to their conscience,” McCarrick quipped. “Other times … they think they’re politicians, and then they don’t.

“I think we have to keep after them,” he said.

Law echoed McCarrick’s call for responsibility on the part of each citizen. “The failure lies with the millions of us who are Catholic voters,” he said. As a potentially powerful Catholic electorate, Law lamented, “we roll over and play dead.”

The variety of activities for the more than 5,000 who attended Encuentro 2000 mirrored the ethnic and cultural diversity the event was convened to celebrate.

Nuns swayed alongside lay visitors to the beat of Latin music on a parquet dance floor at “The Gathering Place” set up behind multiple rows of exhibitors. Booths ranged from social justice organizations to the American Bible Society to “Al’s Art,” specializing in images of Jesus and the saints for popular Catholic devotion.


Ron Cruz, executive director of the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said 88 bishops attended and 150 of the church’s 190 dioceses were represented during the meeting.

“I’m on cloud nine,” said Cruz. “The church will start looking at doing things differently.

“The church of the new millennium” will have to take into account the rainbow of cultures brought into view by Encuentro 2000, he said.

DEA END PARKS

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