LCWR Region X Meeting at May Center Sept. 9, 2017 [These pages - - PDF document

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 1

LCWR Region X – Meeting at May Center Sept. 9, 2017

[These pages combine notes taken by Sr. Barbara Schlatter with the power point slides provided us by Sr. Teresa Maya, available on the Members Only section of our CPPS website.] Introduction: Sister Teresa Maya, CCVI, born in Mexico, degrees in history from Yale, systemic theology from GTU Berkeley, doctorate in Mexico. Entered CCVI in Mexico City. “U. S. Religious Life and Diversity” – also presented to Region 4 She uses “Conversations at the Well” images because we need to go to a different place, away from our comfort zones. Why are we here? Why the urgency? What is religious life to do at this time? We have to recognize Trump’s us of an old narrative on immigration. There is a double narrative going on,

• ne that began 100 years ago.

Recognize that we are called to this encounter, called to the well. Retiring in comfort is not ours to do at this time. What we are called to is critical to the future of the world. REFLECT: What are the wells in my life? What are the wells in our U.S. context? The US. Church has privileged opportunity to truly become the first “world church.” More diversity in U.S. – Each Sunday, Mass is said in 85 different languages. Jesus started in Galilee. We are now called one more time. Pope Francis says, “Galilee . . . is a frontier, a place of transit where people of different races, culture and religion encounter each

• ther. Galilee is a place symbolic of openness to all peoples. Galilee looks like today’s world:

diverse cultures need to confront certain realities and encounters...” The Incarnation came into

• diversity. Acts 2 mentions 16 ethnic identities.

Four Wells of Diversity in U.S.: geographic, demographic, chronological, ethnic. Many wells of “Encuentro” – [Spanish for fiesta, community gathering]. The Well of our Diversity Pew Report: The Next America. See www.pewresearch. “America is in throes of a demographic overhaul. Huge generation gaps have opened up in

• ur political and social values, our economic well-being, our family structure, our racial and

ethnic identity, our gender norms, our religious affiliation, and our technology use. In this series, the Pew Research Center explores where we are headed – toward a future marked by the most striking social, racial, and economic shifts the country has seen in a century” (http://www.pewresearch.org/packages/the-next-america/) 17 Sept 2017.

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 2 Here are 5 facts about the modern family [Teresa referred to some; Barbara looked these up on line]:

1 Americans are putting off life’s big milestones. Today, the median age at first marriage is 29 for men and 27 for women—the highest in modern history. (In 2013, more than one-in-four (26%) of people ages 18 to 32 were married. But in 1960, well over half (65%) of Americans were.) Mothers are also waiting longer to have children. In 1960, women ages 15 to 24 accounted for 40% of mothers with infants. By 2011, that number had dropped to 22%. 2 Today, an American woman, on average, is expected to have 1.9 children, compared with a total fertility rate of 3.7 children in 1960. Current levels are below the “replacement rate” of about 2.1 children, the number of births needed for children to replace their parents in the

• population. Some European countries have lower total fertility rates.

3 Some 3 million (37% of) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults have had a child at some point in their lives, according to the Williams Institute. Among women under the age of 50 who identify as LGBT (and live alone or with a spouse/partner), about half (48%) have a child younger than 18. Some one-in-five LGBT men say the same. 4 Families today are more blended and differently constructed. Nearly half (44%) of young

people ages 18 to 29 have a step sibling. About half as many (23%) of those ages 50 to 64—and just 16% of those 65 or older—have a step sibling. More babies are born to unmarried mothers than

ever before. Unmarried women accounted for 41% of births in 2011, up from just 5% in 1960. In

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 3 2011, 72% of births to black women were to unmarried mothers, compared with 53% of births to Hispanic women and 29% of births to white women. (The sample size was too small to analyze results among Asians.) But just 9% of new mothers with a bachelor’s degree, regardless of race, were unmarried when they gave birth. 5 Intermarriage among people of different races is increasingly common. In 1980, just 7% of

all marriages in the U.S. were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity. In 2010, that

share has doubled to 15% of all new marriages in the U.S.Hispanics (26%) and Asians (28%) were most likely to “marry out,” compared with 9% of whites and 17% of blacks. (www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/30/5-facts-about-the-modern-american-family/) 17

• Sept. 2017.

Teresa showed a Coke commercial televised during Superbowl (2014/2017) – It included shots

• f diverse population with overvoice of “America the Beautiful” sung in in multiple languages.

Ends with tag: “Together is beautiful.” Teresa asked, “What has Coke learned that has taken the Catholic Church so long to learn?” She showed a Cheerios commercial which features a biracial couple and child. What is happening in front of us that is not changing our narrative? We have more middle aged people than young, so who will replace our laborers? In 2000 – 150 million migrants in world; in 2010, 214 million; expected in 2020, 244 million. The U.S. is the top migrant destination country in the world, hosting 20% of the world’s

• migrants. In 2015 the immigrant population in the U. S. was 14.49 percent of the total resident

population. What are the wells for religious life in the U.S., given the context of what we just heard? We meet as equals, not with the idea that we have to give. The well is encuentro; we have to move to be there to receive. The well is a place of transformation. We must face our demons: “It’s not accidental that religious life in the U.S. is so white.” (Shannon Dees at 2016 LCWR) DEMONS

• 1. Nativism. See Who Are We: Challenges to Americans National Identity by Samuel
• Huntington. Teresa called him the “ideological father of Steve Bannon.” Mexico is taking
• ver “American” culture. How do we undo this?

Mexican immigration is leading toward the demographic Reconquista of areas Americans took from Mexico by force in the 1830s and 1840s, Mexicanizing them in a manner comparable to, although different from, the Cubanization that has occurred in southern Florida.

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 4 It is also blurring the border between Mexico and America, introducing a very different culture, while promoting the emergence, in some areas, of a blended society and culture, half‐ American and half Mexican. Along with immigration from other Latin American countries, it is advancing Hispanization throughout Americas and social, linguistic, and economic practices appropriate for an Anglo‐Hispanic society. (221)

• 2. Blindness: See movie A Day Without Mexicans: shows L.A. when the Mexicans
• disappear. Why don’t we see all the “invisible” millions who do so much for us? What is

required to change our blindness?

• 3. Racism: the “Voldemort” of the American South. [Voldemort: “He who must not be

named” in Harry Potter books] Ted Talks has a presentation which says that shame is the reason we can’t deal with racism. Notice: Eduardo Bonifla-Silva, Racism Without Racists. We have to name it or we can’t deal with it.

“The more we assume that the problem of racism is limited to the Klan, the birthers, the tea party or to the Republican Party, the less we understand that racial domination is a collective process and we are all in this game.“

Also see Massengale’s Racial Justice and the Catholic Church.

Racism is one of the central human rights challenges facing the country; it is the subtext of almost every social concern in our nation. It is my conviction – one that has only grown stronger with sustained study and reflection – that “Catholic failure to engage adequately the pivotal issue of racial injustice decisively compromises its theology of justice and renders its praxis of justice ineffective.” “Most of us are trained to see how racism disadvantages or burdens people of color…we are not so accustomed to see how racism results in unfair advantages or benefits for the dominant racial group. White privilege refers to the reality that in the U.S. society, “there are

• pportunities which are afforded whites that people of color simply do not share.”
• 4. Classism: We are comfortably middle class.

Example: We question those “hillbillies” who elected our current President. In 2010, of the 15.2% who were in poverty in the US, using “supplemental Poverty Measures,” the highest percentage (28.2) were Hispanic; 11.1% white; 25.4 Black; 16.7 Asian (Pew).  How can a “middle class” Church move to serve the poor and be poor?  How can our “middle class culture” religious communities identify class issues?  What about our “place” in the cities and in US Geography? Reflection questions for table

• 1. How are we willing to assume the racism/classism of the system we are in?
• 2. How do we move beyond “personalizing” racism/ classism to working for transformation
• f a culture/system?
• 3. How do we name the unnamable?

PART II: RELIGIOUS LIFE: WHAT CAN WE OFFER? How do we “encounter” Jesus today in our lives? [Why do we need to? In order to experience transformation.]

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 5

What does a fresh “Encounter” with Jesus look like today in our communities? Conversation is critical. We have to stay in the conversation [Mary Whited’s “stay at the table.”] We have learned two critical things:

• 1. Approach from a contemplative stance
• 2. Stay in conversation.

Contemplative Stance  “The call to move into a contemplative stance invites us to ‘notice,’ to become aware, to listen deeply” (Nancy Shreck, OSF).  “We know we are moving into a new spiral of the evolution of consciousness (Nancy Sylvester, IHM)  We can enter into it with full awareness (awake) “Facing a breakdown or a breakthrough, we people of faith are challenged to put on the mind of

• Christ. To transform our own consciousness so that we can take a long loving look at the real and

see our connectedness, our unity, so that we can imagine new ways of responding to the crises of

• ur time” (Nancy Sylvester, IHM).

Called to “Encuentro” with the other See The Conquest of America: The Encounter with the Other by Tzvetan Todorov, who also wrote The Fear of Barbarians. The Spaniards had no reference to the “other” they met. Where did the idea of the “other” originate? This distinction started in Greece, when there were the civilized and the barbarians, the citizens and the foreigners, us and them. The other was not Greek, so a foreigner; spoke no Greek, so not capable; not civilized, so not human. We “dumb down” to the non-English other. We are called to respect the other as human.  Paul: no longer Greek or barbarian, slave or free  Defenders of the Indians denied “other” was barbarian. Peter Claver: spent years deciding that the Africans had a soul.

“This inhuman side is part of the human. Until we recognize that inhumanity is something human, we will be stuck with a pious lie. By behaving in an odious way, human beings do not stop being human. More: their best qualities and their worst failings, what they call their “humanity” and their “inhumanity,” stem from the same origin. Compassion and cruelty depend on the faculty an individual has to imagine the effect of his attitude on someone else.” Tzvtetan Todorov, The Fear of Barbarians: Beyond the Clash of Civilizations

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 6 A Civilized person is one who is able, at all times and in all places, to recognize the humanity of others

• fully. So two stages need to be crossed before anyone can become civilized: in the first stage, you

discover that others live in a way different from you; in the second, you agree to see them as bearers

• f the same humanity as yourself. The moral demand comes with an intellectual dimension: getting

those with whom you live to understand a foreign identity, whether individual or collective, is an act of civilization, since this is the way you are enlarging the circle of humanity.” Tzvetan Todorov, The Fear of Barbarians: Beyond the Clash of Civilizations

Francis talks about the Encuentro, living together. Culture of Encounter:

Today, when the networks and means of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a “mystique” of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide, which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage. Greater possibilities for communication thus turn into greater possibilities for encounter and solidarity for everyone. If we were able to take this route, it would be so good, so soothing, so liberating and hope‐filled! To go out of ourselves and to join others is healthy for us. To be self‐enclosed is to taste the bitter poison of immanence, and humanity will be worse for every selfish choice we make.” (EG, 87) People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers that be. Let us not forget that “responsible” citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.” Yet becoming a people demands something more. It is an ongoing process in which every new generation must take part: a slow and arduous effort calling for a desire for integration and a willingness to achieve this through the growth of a peaceful and multifaceted culture of encounter. (EG, 220) We must take part. The encuentro is a spiral process, Christ centered: including living together,

culture, spirituality. It is a missionary, on-going process. Called to encounter as followers of Jesus: Jesus struggled with diversity – think of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15: 23-28); the centurion in Capernaum (Mt. 8:5-13); Jesus was constantly moving, encountering people, places and ideas. Movement was part of his ministry. He “left” Nazareth in different ways. He probably walked 15,000 miles in his lifetime. How is our tradition challenging us today? Called to conversation for/with the other. Francis said he went to Mexico “So I can see Guadalupe and Guadalupe can see me.” She mentioned Virgilia Elizondo who called for a spirituality of diversity. What can we do locally, one-on-one? Reconcile diversity, transformative love, Mestizaje [Spanish word for mixing the process through which two totally different peoples mix biologically and culturally so that a new people begins to emerge, e.g., Europeans and Asians

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 7

give birth to Eurasians; Iberians and Indians gave birth to the Mexican and Latin American

• people. (Virgilio Elizondo)]

“The message of peace is not about a negotiated settlement but rather the conviction that the unity brought by the Spirit can harmonize every diversity. It overcomes every conflict by creating a new and promising synthesis. Diversity is a beautiful thing when it can constantly enter into a process of reconciliation and seal a sort of cultural covenant resulting in a “reconciled diversity.” As the bishops of the Congo have put it: “Our ethnic diversity is our wealth… It is only in unity, through conversion of hearts and reconciliation that we will be able to help our country to develop on all levels.” ‐EG, No. 230 Mestizaje in the Americas: Throughout history and in the midst of contradictions, mestizo culture, which is the most widespread among many peoples in the region, has sought to combine these multiple

• riginal cultural sources, facilitating the dialogue of their respective worldviews, and enabling them to

converge into a shared history. To this cultural complexity would also have to be added that of the many European immigrants who settled in the countries of our region. (Aparecida, No.56) Transformative Love “Transformative love occurs when whites intentionally place themselves, if only partially into the racist world of the oppressed…” “Such transformative love or interracial solidarity, what I have been calling compassion, has the power to profoundly affect the racial attitudes‐ and even the very identity – of white Americans.” “Deep interracial friendship and love can shatter the false personal identity built into the racialized set of meanings and values that informs American Society.” Bryan Massingale, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church Our challenge: Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about

• God. (ED, 272).

What are we hearing? What is the call to conversion? (personal, congregational, regional) How might we respond? White supremacy is not a chosen way to be, but it is in us, as is “nun privilege,” geography privilege, educational privilege. How be around a common table? Go to a parish where this is possible. PART III: LCWR CALL TO ACTION AND DIVERSITY We are sent from the well. Teresa heard in Rome: Refugee crisis does not begin as a global crisis but a local one. If nothing is done locally, it becomes global. Sent from the well, we must “expose them to Jesus.” The responsibility shifts: We have heard for

• urselves. Jesus speaks to them through us.

What is mine to do at this time?

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SENT FROM THE WELL: LCWR ASSEMBLY CALL for 2015-2022 Assembly Resolution of 2016

SYSTEMIC CAUSES OF INJUSTICE In keeping with our commitment to contemplative listening, and aware of the initiatives of regions to implement the 2015 Assembly Resolution, the Global Concerns Committee has heard a call from the membership to recognize racism as a systemic, structural cause underlying and contributing to the multiple situations of injustice identified in the LCWR Call. We recommend that the 2015 Resolution be amended to reflect this awareness and propose the following for consideration at the LCWR 2016 assembly. RESOLUTION Grounded in our belief that action on behalf of justice is a constitutive element of the Gospel, we, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, affirm the interrelatedness of the justice concerns addressed by our recent assembly resolutions. Following in the footsteps of Jesus, we commit ourselves to examine the root causes of injustice, particularly racism, and our own complicity as congregations, and to work to effect systemic change as we struggle to establish economic justice, abolish modern-day slavery, ensure immigrant rights, promote nonviolence, and protect Earth and its biosphere. We pledge prayer, education, and advocacy and commit to using our collective voice, resources, and power in collaboration with others to establish justice which reflects God’s abundant love and desire that all may have life. RATIONALE LCWR has a long history of action for justice. We are committed to contemplative listening to the signs

• f our times and compassionate response to the thirst of the world for integrity and communion. This

resolution builds on the work undertaken in response to the calls of previous assemblies and is consistent with the LCWR Call for 2015-2022. SUGGESTED ACTIONS  LCWR members are encouraged to address the root causes of injustice as well as our own complicity as congregations and to urge their social justice promoters to coordinate communication, share resources, and act in collaboration with other justice groups in their

• region. Congregations are encouraged to use the contemplative process and social analysis to

gain a deeper understanding of the interrelated systemic causes of the justice issues addressed by resolutions from past years.  Regions are encouraged to engage in conversation around an identified local, regional, national,

• r global concern and to examine its effects, explore its underlying causes, formulate a common

response and report on strategic initiatives taken in pursuit of justice. CALL 2015-2022 Standing for Social Justice in Response to the Needs of the Time

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 9 We claim our moral imperative as Gospel women through our collective voice, resources, and power by partnering with others to:



establish economic justice



abolish modern-day slavery



ensure immigrant rights



promote nonviolence



protect Earth and its biosphere



systemic racism

We pledge to recognize racism as a systemic structural cause underlying and contributing to the multiple situations of injustice identified in the LCWR Call.  action on behalf of justice  interrelatedness of the justice concerns (poverty related to environment)  following in the footsteps of Jesus  examining root causes of injustice, particularly racism, and our own complicity and congregations’ complicity systemic change: work together must speak locally Teresa: Religious life in the U.S has the unique opportunity  in a new demographic crossroads  from sender to receiver  intercultural experience comes home  apostolic congregation: what ministry changes (migrant ministries/ beyond institutions) Think of migrant students without grandparents. Accompany – walk beside them – a great gift of

• ur aging.

RACIAL MAKE-UP OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN 2009 Perpetual Vows Initial Formation White 94% 57% Latina 3% 21% Asian 2% 14% Black 1% 6% Other 0% 2% Mary Johnson study: 4000 sisters who are not Americans are now serving in the U.S. WHAT WE MUST UNLEARN/LEARN

• 1. The way we handle multiculturality: both of us must encounter changes

Maya, Teresa LCWR X, Sept. 2017 10

• 2. Religious life is becoming more diverse than ever. Half of the “Giving Voice” group was

born outside the U.S.

• 3. Ministry in U. S. Catholic Church has changed. Go back to the parish: that’s where

migrants and refugees are coming; they need help in less than 5 years. We can re-imagine ministries now that we are retired.

• 4. How is diversity reflected in theology?
• 5. International experiences: how do we benefit from them? Returning missionaries need

room. WHAT CAN WE DO? (Part III)  Lean into our call to communal contemplation and contemplative dialogue  Listen deeply  Notice everything  Engage the work on racism

• One more time…work on Racism
• Convene the conversation and ask the difficult questions
• Focus on white privilege
• Intentional “Encounter” with other . . . in our local communities
• Identify our bridge sisters and empower them

 Engage with process of V Encuentro

• Engage with local parish or Diocese – director of Hispanic Ministry of representative
• Partner with an organizations – National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry,

Catholic Migrant Farmworkers Network, La RED  Read: Bryan Massingale’s Racial Justice and the Catholic Church; Timothy Montovina’s Latino Catholicism; Ospino’s Hispanic Ministry in Catholic Parishes TABLE DISCUSSION List practical local actions for congregation/ our region  Consider using 3-day intensive program called “Crossroads” that Mercies used. See Mercy website https://www.sistersofmercy.org/resources/social-justice-advocacy/critical- concerns/racism/  Intentionally engage with a diverse parish  Gathering of “bridge” people: sisters who have had experiences in other cultures

The world is waiting for us. What are we waiting for?