One cannot preach, teach or form persons in the Catholic faith adequately without attending to the ways in which Catholic faith and identity become embodied in culture. The Building Intercultural Competence for Ministers manual is designed to help ministry leaders achieve a basic level of awareness and proficiency in the area of intercultural competency through the five guidelines recommended by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. The manual provides five modules to assist those leading workshops on building intercultural competence for ministers. The background and proficiency offered by this program is for people of every cultural, ethnic or racial group in the Church.

The priests and pastoral ministers of our day increasingly reflects the multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual nature of the church in the United States. For a variety of reasons, they come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and countries of origin. Seminaries and religious communities are welcoming international candidates with the vision that diversity strengthens the character and mission of the church. Yet this ecclesial diversity also comes with unique challenges. To Be One in Christ is a groundbreaking resource that delves into the questions raised by these complexities and provides an in-depth analysis from theological, sociological, psychological, cultural, and Protestant perspectives. Gerard McGlone and Fernando Ortiz are both nationally recognized experts on the integration of psychology and spirituality in priestly life. The book they have edited investigates issues, answer questions, and provide insights on the increasingly multicultural settings and programs affecting seminary and religious formation. The comprehensive resource will be welcome by vocation directors, seminary formators, clergy, religious, and seminarians.

Education which helps citizens live together in our diverse societies is a matter of urgency. We all need to develop the ability to understand each other across all types of cultural barriers; this is a fundamental prerequisite for making our diverse democratic societies work. This publication looks at the development of intercultural competence as a key element of mainstream education. It stresses the need firstly for an appropriate education policy which puts intercultural competence at the heart of all education and, above all, for the development, on an everyday basis, of the necessary attitudes, skills and knowledge needed for mutual understanding. Without these, no sustainable societal change is possible.

As faith communities in the United States grow increasingly more diverse, many churches are turning to the shared parish, a single church facility shared by distinct cultural groups who retain their own worship and ministries. The fastest growing and most common of these are Catholic parishes shared by Latinos and white Catholics. Shared parishes remain one of the few institutions in American society that allows cultural groups to maintain their own language and customs while still engaging in regular intercultural negotiations over the shared space. This book explores the shared parish through an in-depth ethnographic study of a Roman Catholic parish in a small Midwestern city demographically transformed by Mexican immigration in recent decades. Through its depiction of shared parish life, the book argues for new ways of imagining the U.S. Catholic parish as an organization. The parish, argues Brett C. Hoover, must be conceived as both a congregation and part of a centralized system, and as one piece in a complex social ecology. The Shared Parish also posits that the search for identity and adequate intercultural practice in such parishes might call for new approaches to cultural diversity in U.S. society, beyond assimilation or multiculturalism. We must imagine a religious organization that accommodates both the need for safe space within distinct groups and for social networks that connect these groups as they struggle to respectfully co-exist.

Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord offers pastoral and theological reflections on the reality of lay ecclesial ministry, affirmation of those who serve in this way, and a synthesis of best thinking and practice.

With the development of instantaneous global communication, it is vital to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries. This addition to the acclaimed Encountering Mission series is designed to offer contemporary intercultural communication insights to mission students and practitioners. Authored by leading missionary scholars with significant intercultural experience, the book explores the cultural values that show up in intercultural communication and examines how we can communicate effectively in a new cultural setting. Features such as case studies, tables, figures, and sidebars are included, making the book useful for classrooms.