BY SUSAN STEVENOT SULLIVAN

When Father Domingo Rodriguez, ST, speaks of ministering in the multicultural church, he speaks from experience.

He is a Puerto Rican who graduated from a seminary in Alabama. He is the superior general of the Missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Trinity, a missionary order founded by an Irish Bostonian, who must translate the charism of the founder into action as a new mission in Mexico and other locations.

Father Rodriguez shared his insights with priests of the archdiocese April 29 at a continuing education workshop held at All Saints Parish in Dunwoody. As many as 30 priests, including Archbishop john F. Donoghue, attended a portion of the presentation; about 20 were able to attend the entire presentation.

“We are, as we discuss multiculturalism, responding to the signs of the times,” Father Rodriguez said. “It is one of the burning questions of the local church in the U.S.A.”

“In the last 10 years, two million Hispanics have left the Catholic Church in this country. There is frustration. There are unfair expectations,” he said.

Multiculturalism is a major concern in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. According to Gonzalo Saldana, director of the Hispanic Apostolate, 25 parishes and missions in the archdiocese offer a Spanish-language Mass. There are an estimated 250,000 Hispanics living in the archdiocese, most of whom are baptized Catholics.

Understanding how one’s own culture influences one’s behavior is the starting point for developing a sensitivity to the culture and behavior of others, Father Rodriguez said. That sensitivity sets the stage for realistic expectations and better communication.

“The challenge of pasturing is finding and dealing with people where they are at,” he said.

Behavior is rooted in experience, said Father Rodriguez, outlining his points in marker on the first of what was to become a room-spanning row of large sheets of paper. To understand someone’s behavior, he said, you must understand their experience.

Culture is a filter through which people interact with others, who have their own cultural filters. Culture, he pointed out, both enhances and limits life experience, which leads to people behaving in a way we did not expect.

Culture is expressed in the way people touch or don’t touch, in how close they stand to others, in how and what they eat, in speech, gestures, walk, singing and dancing, religious expression and in the way they absorb what others say and the way they respond, Father Rodriguez said.

It is not a question of which culture is right or wrong or best. It is a matter of sensitivity and understanding, he said.

Father Rodriguez did not use a microphone or stand at the podium during his presentation. He projected his voice, moved throughout the space in front of the audience, and used his face, hands and entire body to express his points. He made eye contact frequently and regularly asked if there were any questions, listening attentively to input from the other priests.

His style of communicating is an expression of his culture, he said, but he modified it to fit the group by eliminating touching and hugging which could make people uncomfortable.

Frustration results when expectations of someone’s behavior are not met. One example he gave was the Anglo woman, speaking to the pastor after Mass, who may be frustrated and insulted when an Hispanic grandmother rushes up and begins speaking to the priest. The priest might ask the grandmother to wait a moment while he finishes his conversation with the first woman.

Because of her experience in a polychronic culture, the Hispanic woman is stunned that any adult, particularly a well-educated one, cannot carry on a conversation with more than one person at once.

Is either woman wrong? Yet they both feel they have been treated in a rude manner. The Anglo woman sees waiting in line as a normal procedure, while the Hispanic woman finds lines incomprehensible. She is accustomed to crowds jostling for attention as a group.

Another example: A new family comes to church and sits in the first pew, ignoring one of their younger children as he rips a bulletin to shreds, throwing the pieces. The priest at the altar, blood pressure rising, thinks angrily, “Don’t they know?”

“No,” Father Rodriguez exclaimed. “They don’t know!”

Adaptation and accommodation can be very difficult, he said, ‘but as a church, we are in the business of conversion, of believing people can change, that we can change.”

“Who has to adapt?” he asked. “Both. It is a give and take. Like marriage, the give and take must take place in a setting of love. The parish is a setting of love. ‘That you may love one another as I have loved you.’”

Country of origin, immigration status and time of residency, economic situation and personal history are experiences which further impact behavior.

Many of the priests who attended the workshop are assigned to parishes where multicultural issues, whether they involve Hispanic, African-American, Asian or other cultures, are prominent. They had many comments in the latter half of the workshop.

St. Michael’s Parish in Gainesville is located in Hall County which has an Hispanic population of approximately 20,000. There are 300 Hispanic families registered at the parish. According to Father Bill Hoffman, most Hispanic parishioners are not registered because they are not documented residents and are reluctant to give any information.

As of June 1, St. Michaels’ will add a third Spanish-language Mass to the weekend Mass schedule.

Father Hoffman said many of the Spanish-speaking parishioners are from Mexico. They live very frugally in order to send money to family members still there.

Father Dan Stack is pastor of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Cedartown. The large Hispanic population in his parish is made up mostly of recent arrivals from Mexico and Guatemala. Pastoring challenges include marriages of convenience outside the church for purposes of immigration papers, a huge population of 16- to 20-year-old males and a large number of baptized Catholics who have received little catechesis and have not received first Eucharist or confirmation.

“One question,” Father Stack said, “is how resident are they? The body is here, where is the soul? My guess is that some snagged on the wire at the border.”

Father Stack commented on the diversity of the Hispanic communities within the archdiocese. In Jonesboro, he said, the majority of the Hispanic population is Caribbean, with middle- to upper-middle-income, highly educated professionals from Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico. The dynamics of pasturing differ greatly as the needs of the population differ.

“One of the biggest challenges is the reciprocal scandal the (cultural) populations give each other,” Father Stack said. “That results in ‘How could they possibly behave like that.’ The multidecibel ‘Tsk’ is a tough nut to crack.”

Time is an example. There are two weekend Spanish-language Masses at St. Bernadette. One is set at 4 p.m. – according to the schedule at least.

“It’s at 4:15 actually,” Father Stack said. “It’s a dinner to me. You don’t start the meal until the guests get there. When they arrive the guests are acknowledging the others. You have to greet everyone. You don’t sneak in. Americans get short of breath thinking about it.”

The goal of the multicultural church is meeting the needs of all its members. Neither marginalization – keeping the culture and its people on the fringe, nor assimilation – denying or ignoring cultural roots and character – are desirable. Integration is the goal.

“To integrate you must know who you are and who they are,” Father Rodriguez said. “Each group retains its roots and culture and is also aware of the negative aspects of their culture.”

For example, Father Rodriguez said, if being passionate and emotional are hallmarks of one’s culture one must be on guard against being too sensitive and overreacting.

“Prejudice develops when your ethnicity impairs you from understanding, accepting, acknowledging or praising other people’s behavior. You judge life and behavior through your own style, your ethnicity.”

“It is normal to judge life and those around you according to your own patterns,” he said. “Awareness helps us cope in a healthy way with those who are different. My own difficulties of adapting have not made me a bitter man, but a better man.”

Father Rodriguez recommends the book “One Church Many Cultures” by Joseph Fitzpatrick for further information on this topic.