Greetings!
Cecile L. Motus, Asst. Director, SCAPA
CNS photo/Bob Roller
On behalf of the USCCB and its Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs, welcome to our website.
Fifty years ago, it was not easy to find a Catholic church in this country with a visible presence of multicultural ethnic groups especially of Asian and Pacific origins. Nowadays, it is difficult to find a Catholic parish church without the presence of different ethnic groups including Asian and Pacific Americans and immigrants. Asian and Pacific presence in this country (about 5% of total population in 2006) and in the Catholic Church in the United States (about 5% of total Catholic population) is expected to grow. Many Filipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese and other Asian and Pacific leaders are now actively involved in parish life.
In the United States, Catholics are increasingly diverse in cultural and ethnic origins. This growth phenomenon presents great opportunities and complex challenges to the Church in its evangelizing mission. The continuing influx of strangers is an invitation to live "communion in diversity." In this communion, parishioners have a chance to meet each other without prejudice. The foundation of all is faith and love - the faith and love John mentioned in his first letter (4:18-19), There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear... Anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar." Our work at the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church (SCDC) aims at creating a state of harmony and love as we collectively come to know the multicultural face of God.
This website provides helpful information about Asian and Pacific Catholics in the United States. It is being developed and in process of being relocated from the website of Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) and the former Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees (PCMR). While this site is in flux, information is still available at the MRS website about Catholic ethnic communities of Asian and Pacific, African and Caribbean, European, Brazilian and Mayan heritage.
We hope this site will assist you in your search for resources as you study the importance of interaction between faith and culture especially with Asian and Pacific Catholics. Feel free to contact us should you require more information.
Again, welcome and thank you for your interest in Asian and Pacific communities, their continued evangelization and integration into life in the United States and full participation in the Catholic Church community.
Cecile L. Motus
Assistant Director
Cecile Motus is an Assistant Director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church. She is staff to the Sub-Committee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. Ms. Motus has worked in migration and pastoral outreach to immigrants and refugees, and in cross-cultural education with international organizations for more than thirty years. Cecile served as Director of the Catholic Immigration Center-Catholic Charities Honolulu for six years, the Asia Regional Liaison Officer of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) for nine years; and Director of Adult Language and Culture Program for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the Vietnamese First Asylum Camp in the Philippines for four years. Her immediate past position was Interim Director and Ethnic Ministries Coordinator of the Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees (PCMR), USCCB Migration and Refugee Service Department.
For more than 13 years, Cecile worked as the Training Director of the U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines and was temporarily detailed to Peace Corps programs in Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa. Among her published works are a set of Hiligaynon language books published by the University of Hawaii for training Peace Corps volunteers a cross-cultural orientation manual for Vietnamese refugees resettling in the United States; and several articles on immigrants in parishes published in magazines. She has conducted numerous seminars on migration issues and evangelizing Asian and Pacific families and on building a more welcoming and inclusive parish. Cecile is a member of the U. S. Mission Forum of the United States Catholic Mission Association, a board member of the Philippine Medical Mission Project at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Arlington Diocese and an advisor to the Filipino Family Fund.
Cecile holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the San Carlos University in Cebu, Philippines and a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaii and the East-West International Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is a certified catechist in the Diocese of Arlington.