Abstract
It was my first Sunday in the United States, so my husband and I decided to go to the main church for my first experience of the “American” Eucharistic celebration in our new home, a medium-sized city in the Midwest. As we walked around the church grounds I came face to face with a statue of Mary I had never seen or heard of before: Our Lady of La Vhang. At first I wondered who this Mary was and wondered what it—a seemingly atypical American name and face—was doing in what I thought was a largely Euro-American city. Things became clear to me when I went inside and found a church filled with mostly Vietnamese-American parishioners, complete with a Vietnamese-American priest and a bilingual Mass. Welcome to the American church or, for that matter, the church of the twenty-first century!
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Notes
James H. Kroeger, M.M., “The Faith-Culture Dialogue in Asia: Ten FABC Insights on Inculturation,” East Asian Pastoral Review Vol. 45, No. 3 (2008): 242.
See also Robert Schreiter, “Globalization, Postmodernity and the New Catholicity,” in For All People: Global Theologies in Contexts ed. Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Holger Law and Peter Lodberg (Grand Rapids, MI: WmB. Eerdmans, 2002): 27.
Aylward Shorter, Toward a Theology of Inculturation (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2006), 11.
Anscar Chupungco, “Liturgical Inculturation,” Handbook for Liturgical Studies II: Fundamental Liturgy (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998), 339 as quoted in
Mark R. Francis, C.S.V., “Hispanic Liturgy in the U.S.: Toward a New Inculturation,” Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology Vol. 8, No. 2 (2000): 38.
Emphasis mine. Randy David, Public Lives: Essays on Selfhood and Social Solidarity (Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, 1998), 50–51.
It also includes other actions of the Church such as the daily prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, the rites of Christian burial, and the rites for the dedication of a church or for those making religious profession. See USCCB, Popular Devotional Practices: Basic Questions and Answers <http://www.nccbuscc.org/bishops/devprac.shtml> accessed September 9, 2012.
This is supposed to represent the couple’s desire to serve the needy as part of the marital covenant. See Bishops’ Committee for Pastoral Research and Practice, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Planning Your Wedding Ceremony (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1990) 11–13 as cited in
Timothy Matovina, “Marriage Celebrations in Mexican-American Communities,” in Mestizo Worship: A Pastoral Approach to Liturgical Ministry ed. Virgilio P. Elizondo and Timothy Matovina (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998): 93.
Mercado puts a biblical basis to his argument by pointing at how the woman who was bleeding for 12 years (Luke 8:43–48) thought she will become well if she touches the clothes of Jesus (and she did get well) or how the Acts of the Apostles (19:11–12) mention that the handkerchiefs that touched the skin of St. Paul were used for curing the sick and expelling evil spirits. Leonardo Mercado, Filipino Popular Devotions: The Interior Dialogue Between Traditional Religion and Christianity (Manila, Phils: Logos, 2000), 70.
Luis Maldonado, “Popular Religion: Its Dimensions, Levels and Types,” in Popular Religion, ed. Norbert Greinacher and Norbert Mette, Concilium 186 (London: T & T Clark, 1986): 4.
This is, of course, most identified with Mexican-Americans. See, for example, Jeanette Rodriguez, “Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe Among Mexican-Americans,” in Many Faces, One Church: Cultural Diversity and the American Catholic Experience, ed. Peter Phan and Diana Hayes (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004): 83–97 and
Michael E. Engh, S.J. “Companion to Immigrants: Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe among Mexicans in the Los Angeles Area, 1900–1940,” Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology Vol. 5, No. 1 (1997): 37–47.
A posada—a reenactment of the journey of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem—is a kind of Advent novena that combines prayers, songs and games. The Via Crucis, Siete Palabras and pésame a la Virgen are Holy Week rituals which are primarily done on Good Friday. Virgilio Elizondo “Living Faith: Resistance and Survival,” in Mestizo Worship: A Pastoral Approach to Liturgical Ministry, ed. Virgilio P. Elizondo and Timothy Matovina (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998): 7–11, 15–17.
Rachel Bundang, “May You Storm Heaven with Your Prayers: Devotions to Mary and Jesus in Filipino-American Catholic Life,” in Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion and Theology, ed. Rita Nakashima Brock etal. (Louisville: WJK Press, 2007): 89, 91. These prayer circles are usually set up by first-generation immigrant women wherever a minimum critical mass of Filipino— American population is reached. These devotions are often centered on a “Filipino” Mary, e.g. Birhen ng Antipolo (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage), Jesus, especially Santo Niño (Infant Jesus of Prague), or a saint. The coordinator of the novena circuit, oftentimes an older pious woman, escorts the current host and the statue to the home of the next sponsoring family. The prayers, which are recited in various languages and often lasting an hour, include a full rosary, various litanies as well as prayers to different images of Jesus and Mary and a couple of saints, e.g. St. Francis and St. Michael the Archangel. See also Glenda Tibe-Bonifacio and Vivienne S.M.Angeles, “Building Communities through Faith: Filipino Catholics in Philadelphia and Alberta,” in Gender, Religion and Migration, 262 and Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet Chafetz, “Reproducing Ethnicity,” in Religion and the New Immigrants, 392 for a similar home-based practice of “the visiting Mary” among Filipino women in Philadelphia and Texas respectively. The latter text also mentions the Mexican-American counterpart of this practice (in this case Our Lady of Guadalupe) which is organized by the women’s group called Guadalupanos.
Keith Pecklers, S.J., “The Liturgical Year and Popular Piety,” in Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: A Commentary, ed. Peter Phan (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002): 87. The clergy takes its cue, of course, from the Church’s official stance on popular piety, especially in relation to the Liturgy. The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, for example, asserts “the preeminence of the Liturgy over any other possible form of legitimate Christian prayer” as well as “the objective superiority of the Liturgy over all other forms of piety”.
See Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, no. 11, 46 <http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20020513_vers-direttorio_en.html> accessed August 9, 2012.
See also Elizabeth McAlister, “The Madonna of 115th Street Revisited: Vodou and Haitian Catholicism in the Age of Trasnationalism,” in Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration, ed. R. Stephen Warner and Judith Wittner (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998): 123–160.
An orisha is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare (God in the Yoruba tradition). Ochún, in the meantime, is a Yoruba goddess seen in Santería as the patroness of Cuba. In the narrative used to counter the mainstream Catholic narrative on Our Lady of Charity as the patroness of Cuba Ochún is presented as the goddess who followed her African children taken to Cuba as slaves, in the process making her hair a little straighter and her skin lighter so that all Cubans, regardless of their color, could worship her. She is also often confused with Our Lady of Charity because of shared symbols e.g. water, the color yellow, sweets, money and love. What makes the shrine a magnet for Santería followers and Cuban Catholics who dabble in Santería is that the shrine is by the water (Biscayne Bay), it is facing Cuba, and yellow rose bushes and painted yellow stones encircle the left exterior of the shrine. Like Ochún the Virgin is also associated with fertility and love as evidenced by prayer cards in the shrine asking the Virgin for a successful pregnancy. See Thomas Tweed, “Identity and Authority at a Cuban Shrine in Miami: Santería, Catholicism, and Struggles for Religious Identity,” Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology Vol. 4, No. 1 (1996): 37–39.
These are especially directed to the significant number of parishioners and pilgrims who dabble in Santería, e.g. those who sporadically visit the santero (Santería minister) looking for good luck, health, protection or for fortune telling. See Agustin Roman, The Popular Piety of the Cuban People Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Barry University, 1976 as cited in Tweed, “Identity and Authority at a Cuban Shrine in Miami,” 35.
Raul R. Gómez, “Beyond Sarapes and Maracas: Liturgical Theology in a Hispanic/Latino Context,” Journal of Hispanic Theology Vol. 8, No. 2 (2000): 56, 58 illustrates this tendency toward superficiality as he laments how, too often, liturgy with a Hispanic/Latino dimension is approached as if all it involved was the placement of a sarape on the altar or the addition of maracas to the choir. Gomez notes that a meaningful liturgical inculturation entails the appropriation and integration of the Church’s prayer by specific cultures in culturally appropriate ways.
While Shorter’s definition of inculturation, for example, does say “culture or cultures” many definition of inculturation still reflect an understanding of inculturation as if the faith is encountering only one culture or only one group that is homogenous. Right below his definition of inculturation, for instance, Shorter quotes Pedro Arrupe’s definition of inculturation which still talks of “the incarnation of Christian life and of the Christian message in a particular cultural context …” (emphasis mine). Pedro Arrupe, S.J., “Letter to the Whole Society on Inculturation” Aixala Vol. 3 (1978): 172 as quoted in Shorter, Toward a Theology of Inculturation, 11.
The case of the Italians in a Brooklyn parish illustrates this. When the procession to St. Cono in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Brooklyn was revived by recent immigrants in 1973 (the procession died after World War II after the attempt by the clergy to control community celebrations) the American-born Teggianesi and the Italian-speaking devotees had problems not only with which language to use during society meetings but also with membership. At that time society membership was open only to those who could trace their roots to Teggiano, despite the fact that devotion to St. Cono had become popular among non-Teggianesi. The American St. Cono Society, which was founded in 1988, complicated relationships by opening its membership to non-Italians. Joseph Sciorra “We Go Where the Italians Live: Religious Processions as Ethnic and Territorial Markers in a Multi-Ethnic Brooklyn Neighborhood,” in Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape, ed. Robert Orsi (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999): 326.
While this may make the task look challenging one could find comfort in the fact that different cultures are not isolated but intertwined with one another. This much is true not just due to colonialism and the cultural hegemony of the West but more so because of the global cultural integration that is happening side by side with the globalization of religion, politics, and economics. Kwok Pui-Lan, “Feminist Theology as Intercultural Discourse,” in The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology, ed. Susan Frank Parsons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002): 24–25.
Roberto Goizueta, “Reflecting on America as a Single Entity: Catholicism and U.S. Latinos,” in Many Faces, One Church: Cultural Diversity and the American Catholic Experience, ed. Peter Phan and Diana Hayes (Lanham, MD: Sheed and Ward, 2004): 73.
These are the words used in Justo Gonzalez, “Hispanic Worship: An Introduction,” in Alabadle!Hispanic Christian Worship, ed. Justo L. Gonzalez (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996): 20–22 to describe and explain the fiesta spirit of Latino worship.
Virgilio Elizondo, “Popular Religion as Support of Identity based on the Mexican-American Experience in the U.S.A.,” in Spirituality of the Third World, ed. K.C. Abraham and Bernadette Mbuy-Beya (New York: Orbis, 1994): 55–63 illustrates this.
On a more focused treatment of popular religion in relation to suffering see Orlando Espin, “Popular Religion as an Epistemology (of Suffering),” Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology Vol. 2, No. 2 (1994): 55–78.
Orlando Espin, The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism (New York: Orbis, 1997): 92. Espin acknowledges, of course, its problematic tendencies by engaging it from a perspective of alienation and hope.
Ricardo Ramirez, “Liturgy from the Mexican-American Perspective,” Worship 51 (July 1977): 296 as quoted in Matovina, “Marriage Celebrations in Mexican-American Communities,” 99.
See Karen Mary Davalos, “The Real Way of Praying: The Via Crucis, Mexicano Sacred Space, and the Architecture of Domination,” in Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism, ed. Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella (New York: Cornell University Press, 2002): 42.
This practice, as studied by Ashley in 1989–1990, emerged months after the 1988 anti-gentrification protest in the area. See Wayne Ashley, “The Stations of the Cross: Christ, Politics and Processions on New York City’s Lower East Side,” in Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape, ed. Robert Orsi (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999): 341–342.
At DePaul University, for example, a young participant spoke about being told to study hard only to find out he cannot attend college because no government financial aid can go to undocumented students. See Michelle Martin, “Posada Draws Attention to Immigration Reform,” <http://ncronline.org/news/immigration-and-church/posada-draws-attention-immigration-reform> accessed April 3, 2012.
Emphasis mine. Michael Pasquier, “Our Lady of Prompt Succor: The Search for an American Marian Cult in New Orleans,” in Saints and Their Cults in the Atlantic World, ed. Margaret Cormack (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2007): 129.
Sociologists Rodney Stark and Alan Miller theorize that there is a “religious gender gap” whereby women are more religious than men by virtually every measure in virtually every culture. One could also see this deep association of women with religion today in the rise of laywomen serving as “pastoral leaders” of the growing number of priestless parishes, especially in the Catholic Church. See David Gibson, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (New York: Harper Collins, 2003).
Other women, in the meantime, are simply forced to conform to traditional gender roles for the sake of continuing to experience the advantages of being a member of a church. In their fieldwork with “at-risk” teenage and college-age Hispanic females involved in youth-based religious groups and activities in Protestant evangelical ministries in the Chicago area, for example, Janet S. Armitage and Rhonda E. Dugan, “Marginalized Experiences of Hispanic Females in Youth-Based Religious Groups,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 45, No. 2 (2006): 217–231 maintain that these churches simultaneously promote traditional gender roles that foster feelings of oppression. Consequently, young Latina members are forced into a difficult position to either conform and maintain connectedness to the ministry, or resist the traditional expectations and forfeit what the youth group provides to at-risk youth.
Pyong Gap Min, “Severe Underrepresentation of Women in Church Leadership in the Korean Immigrant Community in the United States,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 47, No. 2 (2008): 225–241 provides an example in this for the Korean-American community.
Change also happens, of course, in the faith of the migrants themselves. See Joaquin Jay Gonzalez, “Americanizing Philippine Churches and Filipinizing American Congregations,” in Religion at the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana: Politics, Identity and Faith in New Migrant Communities, ed. Lois Ann Lorentzen et al., (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009): 141–165.
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© 2014 Gemma Tulud Cruz
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Cruz, G.T. (2014). Toward an Intercultural Church: Migration and Inculturation. In: Toward a Theology of Migration. Content and Context in Theological Ethics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375513_6
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