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, one 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 other. 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 our 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 of diverse population with overvoice of “America the Beautiful” sung in in multiple languages. Ends with tag: “ Together is beautiful. ” Teresa asked, “What has Coke learn ed 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 over “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 A nglo‐ 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 opportunities which are afforded whites that people of color simply do not share.” 4. Classism: We are comfortably middle class. Example: We question those “ hill billies” who elected our current President. In 2010, of the 15.2% who were in poverty in the US, us ing “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 of 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.]
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