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A-4 | Introduction
different forms of dedication and generosity,
which are evident in the ministries and lives of
their newly arrived ministers.
• When international pastoral ministers arrive to
care for their compatriots who are now immi-
grants and refugees in the United States, they
provide the local Church with an occasion to
clarify its mission-ministry to immigrant and
refugee populations in its territory. In other
words, the international pastoral minister’s
arrival invites the Church to choose a more
precise direction in its ministerial outreach to
immigrants and refugees. Is themission-ministry
aim to recreate the “old world” in the new? Is
it to be a port of entry for immigrants and ref-
ugees or to support an easy transition into the
new culture? Is the local Church’s ministry to
local immigrant and refugee populations meant
to be part of a fast-track vehicle of assimilation
into the new culture? Or, should it embody
the preference of the Catholic bishops of the
United States for integration over assimilation?
Does the local Church’s mission-ministry have
special care for the multigenerational dimen-
sions of the immigrant experience? The arrival
of international pastoral ministers prompt
these and other questions that can help a local
Church to develop its ministry to immigrants
and refugees.
Challenges for Receiving Churches
Two aspects of the exchange of international pasto-
ral ministers generate challenges for the ministers
themselves and for the receiving communities. They
have to do with communication and culture.
The challenge of communication can be for-
midable. Newly arrived ministers may not know
English. If they do know the language, they may pro-
nounce it in a way that is not readily comprehensible
to American ears. Even if they know the language
and pronounce it clearly, their modes of expression
may come across as puzzling or even off-putting.
When the ministers and the receiving communities
work through these challenges together, both groups
benefit from enhanced capacities for listening and
speaking. The key to enhanced communication is a
spirit of patience and persistence for both ministers
and their communities.
Another challenge and grace both for ministers
and communities has to do with culture. The arrival
of an international pastoral minister brings another
culture into a community’s life. International pasto-
ral ministers may themselves experience significant
culture shock when they arrive in the United States.
They may feel an initial sense of disorientation. Later,
some international ministers can be co-opted by US
culture and accept it uncritically. Alternately, they
can become hypercritical of US culture and reject
it. Between those two poles lies another position of
wisely assessing and discerning the lights and shad-
ows of the new culture that they encounter and rec-
ognizing that every culture needs to be evangelized.
12
Similarly, receiving communities may immedi-
ately reject what they perceive as “foreign culture”
manifested in their international ministers. These
communities may then retreat into provincialism
or ethnocentrism or even elements of racism. This
is reinforced even by vocabulary itself, when these
ministers are called “foreign” rather than “interna-
tional.” If, in fact, receiving communities listen and
learn from the international pastoral ministers sent
among them, they can also develop a new under-
standing of their own culture and both appreciate its
positive values and critique its shadows.
Graces for International
Pastoral Ministers
There are many graces that come to those who cou-
rageously leave their homelands and generously offer
their service in a foreign land. Among these graces
are the following:
• International pastoral ministers have an
expanded experience of the catholicity of the
Catholic Church.
• Another grace is the opportunity to serve and
meet the real needs of people. For those who are
committed to their vocation, the opportunity to
serve is always a true blessing.
• Because of the new set of circumstances,
international pastoral ministers can expand and
deepen their ministerial or pastoral skills. They
can later share these enhancements with others
when they return to their own land.
12
Evangelii Nuntiandi
, no. 20;
Ecclesia in America
, no. 70.