(This is a continuation of a series of reflections drawing on the core values mentioned in the Diocese of CK pastoral plan)
So, what is involved when we apply these meanings of culture to the concept of Catholic culture?
When I was a child I lived in a neighborhood that was comprised primarily of German and Italian Catholics. My grandparents’ house was just around the corner and only two doors down from our parish church. When I was old enough I attended the parish elementary school and then went on to a Catholic high school. Even on my mother’s side, there was a strong Polish Catholic tradition. The only religion I knew was Catholic. Catholic practice and values pervaded everything that we did as a family, as well as much of went on in the neighborhood. All of this reflected a European flavor of Catholicism (German, Italian, Polish) but it seems reasonable to refer to it as a Catholic culture, or at least a Catholic subculture.
Things have changed a lot in the old neighborhood since I was a kid. The German, Italian and Polish immigrants have all moved to the suburbs. The ethnic mix in the neighborhood is much more African American, Hispanic and Middle Eastern than anything else. The old parish school has become a social services center run by the Diocese and the parish was merged with a neighboring parish and the church building was sold to a Coptic Orthodox community about a decade ago. The most common churches in the neighborhood now are Baptist and Pentecostal.
My brother continues to live in the city where we grew up, though now he is a member of a suburban Catholic parish. He is active in his parish and in his Faith. He even earned a graduate degree and taught theology at one of the local Catholic High Schools for over a decade, so he stayed immersed in the Faith. Yet, his experience of Catholic Culture as an adult has been quite different from his experience of Catholic Culture as a child. A big part of that difference is that the general US culture changed a great deal from the time we were children to the present day and along with it US Catholic Culture has undergone change.
Culture is not static. It changes over time because it is the product of a community of living persons. It reflects the values, beliefs, practices and life circumstances of a specific group of people. People are shaped by their experiences, by the technology available to them, by their history and the stories they share. As these factors change over time, the culture shifts as well. People adapt to these external changes and what is characteristic of their culture shifts as well.
Back in the early 90’s I was in conversation with a woman from Guam. She was a very well educated, young professional woman. She explained that when she was growing up on Guam, Chamorro was the major cultural influence on her family. Catholic culture was still very much part of life with frequent Mass attendance, novenas, rosaries, fiestas and everything else that is characteristic of Chamorro Catholic culture. She explained that nowadays she felt spiritually adrift. The old practices had lost some of their mystery and power. They seemed more cultural than spiritual for her and didn’t speak to her inner spiritual needs. Yet, she was having a difficult time relating to the contemporary practices in the Church at a meaningful level because they seemed to be cultural imports that didn’t resonate with her.
Looking back on that conversation and my subsequent reflections on her dilemma, it is apparent that she was caught in the challenge of transition from one cultural era to another. Life on Guam was experiencing a great deal of change during the second half of the 20th century, as was Chamorro culture. Further, her advanced education exposed her to different cultures, values and concepts from those in which she was raised. This added to the challenge she experienced and the frustration she felt. What once resonated with her at a meaningful level lost its power because it no longer related to the circumstances of her life or life on Guam, at least for her. The challenge for her and for many people of her generation and current generations is to foster the emergence of a contemporary Catholic Culture that allows our faith to resonate more deeply with life in the Marianas in the 21st century.