Autumn 2006 Mission Update Newsletter - Catholic Mission Association
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sharing the respective strengths
of both types of programs before,
realistically, we can begin to“integrate our mission perspec-
tives.”
Rev. Bob Schreiter’s openingkeynote asked the question: Whatare the theological implicationsof long and short term programs?
He documented the fact that inthe U.S., short term programshave been growing and long termmission programs have been
declining in number. Both devel-opments, he noted, were rooted
in certain social and culturalfactors such as how people todayrelate to their own life cycle, therelative ease of travel, the disap-
pearance of life-long loyalty toemployers, and society becomingmore complex. He then high-lighted certain theological factors
that impinge on lay mission
Reflections on the 2006 USCMA AnnualConference
MISSION UPDATE
By Andrew Thompson, Ph.D., National Director of the St. Vin-cent Pallotti Center and USCMA
board member.
“This was one of the best
USCMA conferences I’ve at-tended in recent years,” said
presenter Rev. Robert Schreiter.Speakers and participants were
like the wise stewards who brought forth from their treas-ures, things both new and old
(Matt 13:52). This was mostappropriate given the title of thisyear’s 25th Anniversary Confer-
ence: “Celebrating and Integrat-ing Our Mission Perspectives:
Short Term, Long Term, OnWhose Terms?”
Keynote presentations and smallgroup discussions focused thethemes developed during theConference. One of the most
central concerns addressed was
that in today’s Church, we havean urgent need for long term
missionaries to share their wis-dom with those engaged in short
term missionary efforts. Simi-larly, the newer forms of short
term immersion or mission pro-grams have pastoral insights toshare with the long term pro-grams. This year’s conference,
held at the University of NotreDame, October 1-3, 2006, wasthe first time in USCMA’s his-tory that conference participants
so explicitly reflected on bothforms of mission and challengedattendees to “Integrate Our Mis-
sion Perspectives.”
As a conference participant, Ithink many of us came away with
a clearer understanding of someof the issues. In my opinion,however, we, the Catholic mis-sion community, have much
work ahead of us. We need toidentify strategies for meeting
this challenge. Iwonder if, for
example, wecould pair upeach short termwith a long term
program and,through a dia-
logue partner-ship, clarify our vision of missionand how we
recruit and formnew members. Itseems we mightneed some type
of ongoing dia-logue process for
In This Issue
Reflections on the 2006
Mission Conference
1
From the Director 2
25th Anniversary Message
from the President of the
Board
2
Annual Meeting and Resolu-
tions
4
Short Term, Long Term, OnWhose terms?
Center
The Photovoltaic Project 13
Celebrating a Response to
God’s Call
14
Mission Appeals Report 14
Orbis Books 15
Resources & Upcoming
Events15
We Praythat
through the effort
of believers,
together withliving forces of
society,
the new and old
chains which
prevent the
development of the
African continent
may be broken.
Un i t ed S t a t e sCa tho l i c M iss ion Assoc ia t ion Fall 2006
Volume 15, Issue 3
cont’d on p. 3
US Catholic Mission Association
Themes from past Conferences
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USCMA 25th AnniversaryMessage from the President of the Board
USCMA StaffRev. Michael Montoya, MJ, Executive Director
Ms. Charlotte Cook, Associate Director
Sr. Anne Louise Von Hoene, MMS, Accountant
Sr. Michael Theresa Brauer, SND de N, Administrative Assistant
Questions/Comments re: Meetings & Conferences meetings@uscatholicmission.org
Questions/Comments re: Mission Update / Current Topics news@uscatholicmission.org
E-Mail: uscma@catholicmission.org Web Site: www.uscatholicmission.org
Page 2
MISSION UPDATE
From the Director:
Rev. Michael Montoya, MJ
What a way to start our 25 th year! If the re-
cently concluded Conference at Notre Dameis any indication, then the years ahead prom-ise to be very exciting. The Conference was
indeed a mirror to what can happen – partici- pants creating space and engaging in honest,critical, yet respectful dialogue. The sharingand celebration of the many diverse perspec-
tives of mission that our own experiencesallow us to see enriches and challenges our own stories of mission. In our world where
polarization seems to dominate the current
thinking, it is hopeful to see that there isroom for deliberate and intentional dialoguethat welcomes everyone at the table. It is withthis same hope, that our dialogue becomes
transformative. Thanks to all of you who
made the Conference a big success!
To paraphrase a dictum in community orga-nizing, “Good conferences regenerate to
actions!” The Conference has opened manynew possibilities for creative networking andcollaborations for USCMA. We ask you to
partner with us. As we have repeatedly said
during the Conference, USCMA is not just anoffice in Washington DC. USCMA is us!
Together we are USCMA!
We call on your expertise and your positiveexperiences to share with us “best practices”in the different areas of mission, be it on ashort-term or long-term basis. That way, we
can create a hub for “best practices” on our website. The Dialogue Sessions have openedthe conversations. But we need those conver-sations to translate into useful information!
We also call on your expertise in the differentlanguages spoken here in the US so that wecan make our website truly multi-lingual andhave a wider reach of audience in our promo-
tion of mission.
Also this year, we have launched“Transformative Dialogue Project” (TDP).
TDP hopes to help promote mission aware-ness locally through the collaboration and
dialogue of mission-sending groups and indi-viduals who have had mission experiences. It
envisions a strong network of mission-oriented groups and individuals in a particu-lar locality that promotes an integration of thecomponents of mission (proclamation, justice
and peace, witness, dialogue, and spiritual-ity). It provides a space and time to sharestories of mission and learn from each othersexperiences. With TDP, we hope to put mis-
sion on the agenda of the local church. The best advertisements to mission promotion are
Dear Friends in USCMA,
With our wonderful 2006 Conference behindus, we’re already looking forward to nextyear’s gathering with you. The Board spent a
day after the conference looking at what weexpect to be our most important priorities in
the coming year.
First among those is building up our member-ship and participation. As we noted during theconference, new styles of mission are fast
growing among us, and the people involved inthem have a great deal to offer to and gainfrom USCMA – if only we could find the wayto let them know that. So, we’ll be strategiz-
ing around that question and asking you to do
the same with us.
Aiding us in the strategizing will be our twonewest Board Members. We welcome Sister Flotilda Lape, ICM and Sister Mayon Sylvain,RSM, both of whom were elected at our last
meeting. We are grateful for their generosityin allowing their names to be on the ballot.We extend that same gratitude to Sister Joanna
Okereke, HHCJ who also accepted nomina-
tion at the convention.
As we welcome the new Board Members, wealso thank the out-going ones, Sr. Mary Paul
Asoegwu, DDL and Rev. Mr. MickeyFriesen, for their service to USCMA as mem-
bers of the Board.
Those of you who were with us in SouthBend know first-hand that the USCMA officeis under the able and energetic new leader-
ship of Rev. Michael Montoya, MJ. You willfind his message in this issue of MissionUpdate, and see how the publication reflectshis contributions to our organization. Please
give his requests for support your serious
consideration!
God Bless you all in this season of autumnwhere we see the splendor of the old prepar-ing space for the quiet of winter and the new
growth that is to come.
Mary M. McGlone, CSJ
the concrete stories of people that have goneto mission! We need to harness the beautyand power of these stories to reveal the rich
potentials they hold for transformation.
By now, you must have received our 25th
Anniversary Annual Giving Campaign. We
ask you to please be generous in your gift toour Association. We are able to do the work entrusted to us and create new and relevant
programs with your financial partnership. Weneed you to help us achieve the goals wehave set. Your gift does not only affirm our work, but it also promotes a sense of owner-
ship to the association. Thank you for your
continued commitment and partnership.
We also ask the Mission Offices in the Dio-
Fall 2006
ceses to remember USCMA as you assign parishes for your Mission Cooperative Plans.We want to share the good things that to-
gether, we as US catholic missioners,whether working here and abroad, do as we
participate in God’s mission.
Lastly, as you read through this Mission Up-date, we want you to join us in prayer ofthanksgiving for everything that God has
blessed us with at USCMA. And as we lookinto the future, Robert Schreiter in our Peri-odic Paper reminds us: “… it is important toremember that mission is ultimately on God’s
terms. This is not our mission; it is God’smission, in which we are called to participate.If indeed God is calling people into shorter and long-term mission, then it is up to us to
find ways to make that happen.”
US Catholic Mission Association
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women in Church leadership roles, BishopCarmody affirmed the importance of laity and
women and indicated certain ministerial ques-
tions were beyond his domain of influence.
The prayerful
character of theconference alsoreceived high
praise. Prand music ser-vices flowedthrough the three
days which inte-grated and gaveadditional defini-tion to the pro-
ceedings. Manyfound the liturgical highpoint to be the Eucha-ristic liturgy in the Basilica of the SacredHeart, with Bishop Carmody as the main cele-
brant and with the accompaniment of the awe
inspiring fifty-member strong student Notre
Dame Folk Choir.
Eucharist was followed by the traditional din-
ner banquet which this year celebrated theAssociation’s 25 years of service to theChurch and society. “Together, we are
USCMA” was the refrain which Father Mi-chael Montoya, MJ, sounded throughout theimpressive festivities. Twenty-five large post-ers identified the theme of each of the
USCMA’s 25 annual conferences. Takentogether, this display illustrated the emphasesgiven to missionary efforts and how they de-veloped over the past quarter of a century.
This colorful and professional review of thethemes of USCMA’s conferences, most ofwhich I attended, underscores the importanceof the work of the USCMA. Father Michaelalso focused a spotlight on those individuals
and mission communities who were givenawards at each of the prior 24 conferences.This year’s award recipient was the University
of Notre Dame Center for Social Concerns.
The University’s facilities more than met theneeds of the conference. The large presenta-
tions and small breakout sessions were all heldin the University’s Center for Continuing Edu-cation building. The two conference facilita-tors, Dr. Rudy Vela, SM and Sr. Caroljean
Willie, Ph.D., moved the attendees throughtheir paces with skill and gentility. But theysurprised and delighted the attendees in theirListeners’ Report by taking each of the home
communities’ short summary phrases, combin-
work. Today the Church affirms the universalcall to holiness (and mission) and no longer
sees laity as peripheral to the life of theChurch. Similarly, today, mission and its
Trinitarian character, is seen as central to theChurch and not a specialized department.Further, the Catholic community emphasizessocial justice (Lk 4:18-19), the Church’s social
teachings and no longer simply defines mis-sion exclusively in terms of making disciples
(Matt 28:19-20).
The question of whether or not short term
programs are “mission” depends on one’stheology of mission, Schre-iter noted. A member of the Society of the Precious
Blood (C.PP.S) and theauthor of Mission in theThird Millennium, he thenreferred to the four ele-ments of mission as de-
scribed by SEDOS, namely proclamation, dialogue,inculturation and, for the
poor, freedom from oppres-
sion (see www.sedos.org).He concluded that God is calling all of us to
mission and we need to find out how to make
our short term and long term programs work.
On the second day, conference attendees weretreated to a panel presentation on four different
types short term programs, described respec-tively by Ms. Rosanne Fischer (St. Cloud, MNDiocesan Mission Office), Sr. Mary Medved(Jesuit Volunteers International), Ms. Teresita
Gonzalez de la Maza (Amor en Acción), andMs. Rachel Tomas Morgan (Univ. of the NotreDame International Service Learning Pro-gram). In their descriptions, the presenters
affirmed their programs were:
• various forms of immersion experiences in
God’s one mission,
• short term missions which build commu-
nity at home and between countries,
• often a partnership of laity sharing in areligious order’s charism,
• a discipleship training program for laity
who experience intimacy with God
• and intimacy with the affairs of the world,
• and sometimes based on service-learningcomponents which include theological reflec-
tion.
This panel presentation was well received. Insubsequent conference sessions, many partici-
pants repeatedly expressed their appreciationfor the pastoral wisdom and professionalism
evident in the panelists’ presentations and inthe design of their programs. No one ques-
tioned to whatextent these programs em- b o d i e d
“mission.”
After eachkeynote presen-tation and the
panel, confer-ence partici-
pants used oneof two forms of
small groupdiscussion to dig deeper into the implicationsof the speakers’ thoughts: home communitiesor dialogue sessions (content-specific breakoutsessions). The home communities’ facilitators
made sure each participant was listened torespectfully and without interruption. Thecontent-specific dialogue sessions began witha brief presentation which participants had
time to question and apply to their own pas-toral situation. Each of the home community
sessions ended with the group coming up witha “headline” - a phrase which captured the
flavor of the prior hour’s discussion.
A second keynote was delivered by Bishop
Edmond Carmody, DD, Ordinary of the Dio-cese of Corpus Christi,Texas. Based on hisown missionary ex-
perience serving in theU.S. and Ecuador, headdressed the questionof how to prepare andorient missionaries
who are coming into anew culture. “Tell themissionary priests theyneed to be loving and
need to know the Mas-ter” was one recom-
mendation. That way,even if the priest does not know the local lan-guage, he said, the people will recognize andrespond to his love for them. Carmody illus-
trated his points with charming Irish storiesand such light humor that a few of the younger conference attendees said they appreciated thatBishop Carmody was down to earth and con-
sidered him the “coolest bishop ever.” “Don’twalk away from negative people,” Carmodyadvised, “run!” When a few of the more sea-soned attendees asked pastoral questions about
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Fall 2006 MISSION UPDATE
US Catholic Mission Association
Reflections on the 2006 USCMA Annual Conference
Teresita Gonzalez de
la Maza, Panelist
Most Rev. Edmond Carmody
Dialogue Session with Robert Schreiter, CPPS
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MISSION UPDATE
shortest service opportunities are aimed at summer
and school break time. A quarter of all volunteersare between the ages of 21-25; this no doubt repre-
sents many of the post-college programs that are
conducted by religious orders. Indeed young people
between the ages of 21 and 25 make up more thanhalf of all long-term (defined as 9 months or more)
service. Interesting too is the fact that more than
90% of all long-term missioners complete their termof service. In 2004, more than 40% of long-term
missioners renewed their term of service.
Seventy percent of all long-term missioners haveat least four years of college. For shorter periods of
service, slightly over half have a high school educa-
tion—again, showing the fact that the short-term
missioners tend to be under 20.
What kind of service do these missioners provide?For the short-term missioners, over
half provide social services. For
long-term missioners, the largest sin-gle block, provide education (i.e.,
general, not religious, education).
So what emerges from this pic-
ture? Let me sketch out what seem tome to be salient points. I begin with
the larger context. According to the
2005-2006 figures from the U.S.Catholic Mission Association, there is
a little over 6,500 U.S. missioners
working internationally. Of these,
just over 1400—or not quite 20%--are lay missioners. The women-to-
men ratio—roughly 6 to 4—is about
the same for both religious and lay
missioners.
There has been extraordinary growth in short-term
missioners, with half of these under the age of 20.
For long-term missioners, the age group 20-25makes up half of those serving a year or more. Sev-
enty percent of these have had at least four years of
college. So in terms of sheer numbers, both short-
term and long-term missioners are substantially un-der the age of 25. In one way, this is not surprising:
once these missioners begin families long-term ser-
vice becomes more complex as decisions have to bemade regarding the well-being of children. One
hundred sixty-two missioners working in the short
On the Protestant side, the number of international
missioners coming from the mainline churches hascontinued to drop. The overwhelming majority of
international Protestant missioners today coming
from the conservative end of the spectrum—
evangelicals, Pentecostals, and fundamentalists.Most of these are supported by independent mission
agencies with no denominational affiliation or are
sent by individual congregations.
Just what does the scene look like today? For this
I am relying on the most recent survey done by the
Catholic Network of Volunteer Service, and pre-sented at their national conference in November of
2005. To be sure this is a survey of those programs
that are members of the CNVS, but that organization provides by far, to my knowledge, the most compre-
hensive picture that is available to us. Moreover,86% of the member organizations responded to thesurvey—a surprisingly large num-
ber—so it offers us the best snap-shot of the current scene available
to us.
Let me give some highlightsfrom that report. In 1983 there
were 65 volunteer programs affili-
ated with the CNVS; in 2005, therewere 212. That is nearly quadru-
ple the number involved. In 1992,there were about 5,000 lay mis-sioners/volunteers; by 2004 there
were over 10,000. The bulk of
these lay missioners (about 90%)
are involved in domestic programs.The CNVS survey reports that the
number of international volunteers reported has been
dropping since 1999 from a high of a little over 1100
to a little under 900, a drop of nearly 20%.
Regarding term of service, about 75% of these
overseas missioners serve for 12 months or less. Of
that 75%, about half of these volunteers served three
weeks or less, and about 40% served 9-12 months. Alittle over 60% of all volunteers are female, with
slightly under 40% male. They are overwhelmingly
(nearly 85%) Caucasian.
Given that the term of service may run from aweek to a year for 75% of the missioners, it is not
surprising that over half are under the age of 20. The
Fall 2006
US Catholic Mission Association
So in terms of
sheer numbers,
both short-term
and long-term
missioners are
substantially
under the age of 25.
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starts to look at one’s life in segments of time, some
period can be allotted to work like mission. For the preponderance of young people who participate both
in short-term and longer-term service, it can be seen
as part of a larger preparation for one’s working life.
For those in high school, having such service onone’s résumé is helpful in seeking admission to elite
colleges.
I do not of course want to reduce the motivation of
young people to these factors. Their desire to serve is
certainly much more complex than that. But these
factors cannot be overlooked. That in both of thesegroups (the short-term missioners under 20, and the
21-25 age group serving long-term) more than eighty
percent of the participants are Caucasian points to thefact that a certain level of privilege gives them the
option of thinking in these terms.A second cultural and social factor that deserves
attention is the distinctive feature of the age cohort
under 25. These young people have self-designatedthemselves as “millennials,” inasmuch as they began
coming of age at the turn of the millennium. The re-
search that has been done on this age group findsthem more altruistic, more intellectually curious, and
more at home in cross-cultural and interracial settings
than the two previous age cohorts (usually known asGeneration X and the Baby Boomers). This openness
can be partially accounted for by the fact that at leastthe older members of this age cohort came of age in atime of economic prosperity and relative stability (the
years of Bill Clinton’s presidency). Annual surveys
of college freshmen support this general finding
about altruism and ability to live with difference, withthe added note that Catholics in this group tend to be
especially well represented in these statistics. To be
sure altruism, curiosity, and ease with difference donot characterize all Catholic young people, but it cer-
tainly is a salient factor. A supporting factor from the
CNVS survey shows that among those who go on tograduate school after completing their service, the
great majority choose the “helping professions”—education, social work, theology and medical care.
Across the country, those involved in graduate theo-
logical education have noted in recent years a newgroup coming to study theology: they typically have
spent one or two years in some social service after
college, and now want to study theology, at least
term reported being married, while 154 married mis-
sioners were working in the long term. Sixty-four
short-term missioners reported have dependent chil-dren, while just 18 long-term missioners reported
having dependent children. Thus only about 7% of
lay missioners serving in both short-term and long-term are married.
Cultural and Social Factors Affecting the Term of
Service
As we begin to reflect on what are the implica-
tions for mission, it could be useful to begin by pro-
viding a cultural and social frame for these reflec-tions. Are there things in the cultural and social en-
vironment of the United States that help us under-
stand better what is going on in mission? I would
like to reflect on three of these.
The first of these is changes in our understanding
of the life cycle. At the height of the industrial age
in the United States—running roughly from 1880-1970—those who entered the job market outside the
home were likely to engage in the same kind of work
for most of the rest of their lives. This was partially
explained by the level of education; most people hadrelatively limited education until the end of that pe-
riod and so could not move around easily in the jobmarket. There was in some trades and professions aswell a sense of loyalty to one’s employer who in turn
would be loyal to the employees. Henry Ford was
one of the pioneers in this, raising working classwages in his factory and being repaid by lifelong
fidelity of the workforce. This even stretched across
generations. In its heyday IBM (“Big Blue”) tried to
do much of the same.
The volatility of the employment scene that hasresulted from globalization and technological ad-
vances has changed all that. There are now somewho say that those entering the workforce must be prepared to change their professions—not just jobs
within professions—three or more times over their
working life. As the median age of the populationhas risen, people no longer think in terms only of
work and retirement. The work possibilities become
more variegated.
What does this mean for mission service? If one
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MISSION UPDATE
Theological and Missiological Factors in Mis-
sionary Service
I turn now to the third part—theological and
missiological factors that are evidenced or may bein play among those engaging in short-term and
long-term missionary service. By theological fac-tors I mean changes in ideas in our Tradition that
might impinge upon mission service in some way.
I believe that there are at least three key theologi-
cal factors that deserve our attention here.
Theological Factors
The first is the universal call to holiness that
came out of the Second Vatican Council. In thisvision of the Church, there is no longer a clericalcenter with a lay periphery. The most important
sacrament vis-à-vis our membership in the Church
is not Holy Orders, but Baptism (cf. Lumen gen-
tium, 30-31). Laity and clergy are all part of the
People of God.
This insight has had far-reaching implications.
To some extent, it has erased the boundary be-
tween the laity in general and those who join reli-gious institutes. But it has also served to make the
spiritual life of lay people more expansive. The
associations that have been set up by religious in-stitutes to share their charism and spirituality with
others have led more than 50,000 people to enter
these associations. Some lay mission programs
have been inspired by the same desire to share notonly charism and spirituality, but also mission.
Engaging in these mission programs becomes part
of that quest for holiness, for a deeper participationin the life of Christ and of the Church. Such asso-
ciations have led to a significant revitalization of
religious life, as their membership declines andages.
A second theological factor that has shaped
these developments in mission has been the
Church coming to see itself as essentially mission-
ary, and that the whole people of God share in themission of the Church and in the world. Mission
is no longer to be seen as a separate department
within the Church. The Church is in its very na-
through the master’s level.
I think that volunteer mission service—both short
term and longer term—is providing a wonderful outlet
for these aspirations among young people. It provides a
forum that not only expands their spiritual horizons, but
gives them invaluable experience that will help themshape their adult lives.
The third factor worth considering is the strong tra-
dition of volunteerism in the United States. De Toc-queville noted it already in his travels through the coun-
try in the 1830s. The idea that volunteerism may be on
the decline was signaled in 2000 by Robert Putnam inhis book, Bowling Alone, where he detected a significant
drop in the amount of participation in shared activities,
due to the aggressive individualism of U.S. society. The
debate that the book ignited ended up presenting a more
nuanced picture. Participation in bowling leagues, cardclubs and the like has indeed declined. But the principal
reason for that decline is the growing complexity of or-dinary life. People still do volunteer, but for shorter pe-
riods of time and under carefully specified conditions.
A postmodern, globalized society puts a great deal of strain on volunteering, but it has by no means disap-
peared. A somewhat parallel phenomenon can be found
in wider circles in the growth of new social movements
and non-governmental organizations.
In the United States, the Church is very much seen to
be a voluntary agency, in contrast with the statechurches still found in Europe. There the Church is of-
ten viewed as a department or agency of the state,whereas here one joins a church out of choice. It is pre-
cisely that U.S. view that many people see as the reason
why secularization is not felt more strongly here as it isnow being experienced in Europe. Put another way, the
culture and tradition of volunteerism helps create a
friendly environment for short-term and long-term mis-
sion service, especially when such volunteer opportuni-
ties is nested in a voluntary agency itself.
All in all, then, one can identify at least these three
factors that contribute to creating a cultural and social
environment within which mission service is bound toflourish. Other countries outside the United States send
term missioners as well. It is my guess that these are
most likely to catch people’s imaginations when at least
the first of the two cultural factors—a longer lifecyclewith changing employment patterns and a large cohort
of millennials—are in place.
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MISSION UPDATE
mission experience. The object of evangelization may
not be “them”—those whom “we” visit. Perhaps oneof the most significant feature of short-term mission—
even mission lasting up to two years—is how it can
change the lives of those who experience it. Espe-cially when these experiences come in the late teens
and into the twenties, it can mark out a course for anentire life. For those who come as missioners, it may
be the first exposure to poverty, or what our govern-mental policies are doing to others. For the people in
those settings themselves, they can find a number of
important, if unexpected, benefits. In Latin America,for example, I have seen people there who accept
short-term missioners because it is an opportunity to
show them the oppressive results of U.S. foreign pol-icy. Their hope is that the missioners will indeed un-
dergo conversion—and go back to con-
vert the United States. For others, whohad never had a personal encounter
with people from the United States, it
led to revising some of the stereotypes
they had about yanquis. In still other ways, those who have been oppressed
(I am thinking especially of indigenous
peoples here), they come to realize thattheir own culture is valuable and valued
and that they have something very spe-
cial to share with people who may have
many possessions but lack spiritualdepth.
What of course becomes important
here is how short-term mission is struc-
tured and supervised so as not to inflictmore suffering on people who have al-
ready suffered far too much. But there
is also a theological point to be made here. If we areindeed a missionary Church, and are all called to mis-
sion, then the lines between sender and recipient are
going to become reciprocal. Long-term missionersoften say how mission has changed them, and how
returning to the United States becomes increasingly
difficult. Evangelization runs in many directions. In a
world Church today, it is not simply a matter of send-ing churches and receiving churches. It needs to run
in many different ways.
A second missiological concern related to the first
goes something like this: Can there be real mission if any term or time limit is put on engagement in mission
at all? Is anything but a lifelong commitment what
mission truly requires?
This kind of idea arises out of how mission has
been perceived over the last two centuries. Until
fairly recently, the expense and duration of travel
was such that missioners going out from their homecountry were making a commitment for lifetime ser-
vice. It meant life commitment in another way aswell: many lost their lives, especially in equatorial
climes, as they fell to diseases against which they
had no immunity. The rise of missionary religious
institutes, especially in the nineteenth and twentiethcentury, where profession to the religious institute
constituted a commitment to lifelong mission, only
strengthened this feeling about the length of term of
service.
Such feeling that lifelong missionwas the only mission was supported
also by the missionary spiritualities that
served to foster and sustain the missionvocation. As Angelyn Dries has sug-
gested in her study of U.S. Catholic
missioners, to be a missioner—at leastup to the time of the Second Vatican
Council--was to live a spirituality of
heroism and/or of martyrdom. If viewed from that perspective, no mis-
sioner can be a sometime martyr or short-term heroic figure. But what thisstill pervasive sentiment regarding the
missioner calls us to do is to investigate
more carefully what underlies the spiri-
tuality of missioners today, who makeLuke 4:18-19 or some other biblical
passage the basis of their motivation. Are there dis-
tinctive features to a missionary spirituality today?
Let me make but one suggestion.
Certainly for the short-term missioner, “bridge
builder” might be appropriate. The short-term ex-
perience leads to opening up new horizons which the
missioner can carry back to his or her home commu-nity. The experience may serve as the basis of a call
to a deeper kind of vocation. The fact that so many
of the young term missioners choose the helping professions as their life’s work, rather than simply
finding a job which leads to acquiring wealth, is in-
dicative that something like this is going on.
Fall 2006
US Catholic Mission Association
If we are indeed amissionary
Church, and are
all called to
mission, then the
lines between
sender and
recipient are
going to become
reciprocal.
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Page 7 US Catholic Mission Association
Fall 2006MISSION UPDATE
Put perhaps another way, we should look at howterm missioners and their experience may be point-
ing us to thinking through our missiology in another
way rather than trying to fit the short- and longer-
term experience into pre-existing categories.
Where Do We Go from Here?
What is the future of short-term and longer-term
mission? In this concluding section, let me try to
situate our examination of this question within the
wider context and in light of what has been pre-sented here. It falls into three sections. The first has
to do with sustaining forms of term mission into the
future. The second revisits the theological and mis-siological issues just discussed. And the third and
final part addresses the question: on whose terms?
Sustaining Term Mission into the Future
What issues surround sustaining term mission—of
the shorter or the longer variety—into the future?Here we have some things to learn from our Protes-
tant counterparts, who have been working with term
systems for many years. They have experience withhow the issue of terms can change within the lives of
the missioners themselves. When children reach acertain age—especially in secondary school—family
issues may come to predominate over the ministry
issues.
If we look at the current state of Catholic mis-
sion, it is largely (although by no means completely
any more) sustained through religious institutes. Asnumbers decline and members age in those insti-
tutes, they themselves are being faced with the ques-
tion of sustainability. We have seen this happeningalready with healthcare institutions, with schools,
and with parishes. While mission service organiza-tions are already being entrusted to lay people to
manage them, the question will be what happens asthe religious institute may be no longer able to pro-
vide the needed financial support. We can already
look to what some institutes have decided to do.The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers have set up
their lay missioners as a separate, canonically recog-
nized body that could be able, in principle, to con-
tinue should the Maryknoll Society reach a pointwhere they can send no more priests and brother
missioners. The Bethlehem Fathers (the national
missionary institute of Switzerland) are workingwith a structure whereby their lay missioners consti-
tute the overarching institution within which the priests have a separate place. As we look t
women’s congregations, even more creative models
are likely to emerge.
The likely trajectory of the huge spiritual associate
movement among religious institutes might serve as
a cautionary tale here. Most of these associates aremiddle-aged or older—the same age as the members
of the institutes. When those institutes are gone, will
this movement continue? We do not know, but it
would seem unlikely. This may be the same fate for
those term mission programs that depend on reli-gious institutes, some of which (the institutes) may
not survive.
Although the number of U.S. and European mis-sioners who are religious will continue to decline,
the number of life-term missioners from the Global
South continues to grow, both within already exist-ing international religious institutes and in new mis-
sionary institutes emerging in Africa and Asia. It is
with these people that short- and longer-term mis-
sioners from the United States will have to interact.
Will young people especially, and people of all
ages continue to show an interest in mission? Thatis certainly to be hoped for, even though we have no
way of predicting the future in that regard. Certainly
in countries where the birthrate is below the level of
replacement of the population, more and moreyoung people will find themselves having to enter
the workforce sooner. That will have a negative ef-fect on all but the shortest-term mission experience.
The United States is not yet to that point, thanks to
immigration. But all of Europe already is.Another feature that may figure into the immedi-
ate future is the intense animosity against the UnitedStates and the impact this may have on U.S. mis-
sioners operating outside the United States. Skills
for dealing with trauma and conflict are increasingly
important in the missioner’s repertory. The Pew In-stitute keeps reporting a steadily dropping rate of
favor for U.S. citizens, even among our allies.
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Periodic Papers are published by USCMA.
USCMA
3029 Fourth Street, NE
Washington, DC 20017-1102
Phone: 202-884-9764 Fax: 202-884-9776
E-Mail: uscma@uscatholicmission.org Web site: www.uscatholicmission.org
Page 8
MISSION UPDATE
US Catholic Mission Association
Fall 2006
Given that the percentage of long-term interna-tional missioners is already fairly small, this may
come to shrink even further.
The Ongoing Impact of Term Mission on Theol-
ogy and Missiology
As was already seen above, there have beenchanges in mission throughout especially the latter
part of the twentieth century into these first years
of the twenty-first. The context in which mission
is done, and the theology of mission that came outof the Second Vatican Council has changed how
we imagine mission and how we engage in it. A
stronger sense of the Church as essentially mis-sionary, and the universal call to holiness and par-
ticipation in the mission of the Church haschanged the face of mission today. Consequently,
we should be careful not to try to squeeze contem-
porary experiences of mission too quickly into our pre-arranged boxes. That the numbers of short-
term missioners have continued to grow so rapidly
may be one of those “signs of the times” to whichwe should be attending. Our missiological strate-
gies should be informed by a praxis that feeds
back into our theology the experiences we are en-
countering.
Whose Terms?
I wish to conclude with the final part of the titleof this conference and this presentation; namely,
on whose terms do we engage in mission?
To a great extent, the terms have been set by theHoly See and by the religious institutes. The latter
have carried the major part of what had been con-
sidered mission work. As their numbers decline
here and in other wealthy countries, they may have nochoice but to cede whatever terms they had been able to
set forth. To say simply that the terms will be ceded to
others engaged in short- or longer-term mission has totake into account that term mission depends upon an in-
frastructure that sustains it. To the extent that infrastruc-ture is in place, to that extent that handing on of the di-
rection of mission will be able to happen. We will needto do two things at once. If, on the one hand, we say all
Christians are to be engaged in mission, then we should
try to bring that about. But on the other hand, this willnot happen if a wider body is not given the resources
and the capacity to make decisions about mission.
In trying to think through these future dimensions, itis important to remember that mission is ultimately on
God’s terms. This is not our mission; it is God’s mis-
sion, in which we are called to participate. If indeedGod is calling people into shorter and long-term mis-sion, then it is up to us to find ways to make that hap-
pen.
____________________________________
1 “2004-2005 Membership Survey Results.” I am grateful to Mi-
chael Montoya, MJ, for making this available to me.2 Statistics may be found in the executive summary at:uscatholicmission.org/go/missionersurveystatistics/
missionhandbook .3
Representative of this literature is Neil Howe and William
Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (NewYork: Vintage Books, 2000). 4
These are published annually in The Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion.5
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of
Human Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000).6 The proceedings of this conference may be found in Joseph
Lang and Mary Motte (eds.), Mission and Dialogue (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books, 1982).7
Angelyn Dries, The Missionary Movement in American Catholic
History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998).
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Page 14
MISSION UPDATE
USCMA is grateful to have been invited by five diocesan Mission Offices to participate in the 2006 Mission
Coop Plan. We thank each of these offices and the 12 parishes that welcomed us. The generosity of the pa-
rishioners to whom we spoke has been most gratifying. We give special thanks to each of you who spoke on
our behalf.
Diocese Parish Speaker
Bridgeport Christ the King, Trumbull Charlotte Cook, staff
Cincinnati Holy Angels, Dayton Nancy Bramlage, SC
St. Joseph, Springfield Joan Patrice, S.C.
St. Raphael, Springfield Nancy Bramlage, S.C.
Philadelphia Mother of Divine Grace, Philadelphia Michael Montoya, staff
Our Lady Help of Christians, Philadelphia Charlotte Cook, staff
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Jamison William Christy, C.S.Sp.
San Angelo Sacred Heart, Abilene Jack Whitley, C.S.B.
St. Joachim, Clyde Jack Whitley, C.S.B.
Youngstown Our Lady of Perpetual Help, McDonald Anthony Anomah, C.S.Sp.
St. Joseph, Masillon Anthony Anomah, C.S.Sp.
St. Pius X, Warren Anthony Anomah, C.S. Sp.
Fall 2006
US Catholic Mission Association
Celebrating the Response to Christ’s Call
2006 MISSION APPEALS
“The saint is precisely that man or woman who, responding with joy and generosity to Christ ʹs call,
leaves everything to follow him,” the Holy Father said at the canonization of four new saints on Oc-
tober 15, 2006. One of these new saints is St. Teodora Guérin (1798-1856). Born Anne-Thérèse inFrance, she was sent by the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence to Indiana in 1839. The reli-
gious founded St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana in the United States. USCMA congratu-
lates the Sisters on the canonization of their foundress.
USCMA also celebrates the life of and mourns the death of Sr. Leonella Sgorbati, a Consolata Mis-
sionary Sister killed in Mogadishu in September 2006. Her life was also a response “with joy and
generosity to Christ’s call.” Our prayers go out to Sr. Leonella’s family and the Consolata Mission-
ary Sisters.
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ORBIS BOOKS RECEIVED AT USCMA
Cuban-American Family Photo Exhibit National Tour
The Latin America Working Group Education Fund and the Washington
Office on Latin America
Different locations and dates now through April 2007
Check schedule at www.lawg.org/countries/cuba/exhibit--calendar.htm
22nd National Catholic China Conference
November 3-5, 2006
Simpsonwood Conference Center
Norwood, GA
Telephone: 973-763-1131
Email: chinabur@shu.edu
Training in Trauma Healing
November 6-11, 2006
International Linguistic Center
Dallas, TX
Telephone: 972-283-1927
Email: Pat_Miersma@sil.org
2006 CNVS National Conference
November 9-12, 2006
San Antonio, TX
Telephone: 301-270-0900 ext 10
Email: cnvsinfo@cnvs.org
Overseas Ministries Study Center
Week-long study programs
November 2006 - May 2007 including
“Challenges Facing Roman Catholic Mission Theology: From the Eve of
Vatican II to the Twenty-first Century”
March 19-23, 2007
Presented by Dr. Lawrence Nemer, SVD
New Haven, CT
Telephone: 203-624-6672, x315
Email: study@OMSC.org
Preparing for Cross-Cultural Ministry
January 9 – February 7, 2007
Intercultural Consultation Services
Kathryn Pierce, IHM
San Antonio, TX
Telephone: 313-341-4841
Email: kpierce1@juno.com
Orientation Days to the United Nations
February 7-9, 2007
777 UN Plaza
New York City
Telephone: 212-682-6481
Email: Lsiers6720@aol.com
Workshop for Returned Missioners
February 6-16, 2007
From Mission to Mission
San Antonio, TX
Telephone: 720-494-7211
Email: missiontomission@quest.net
Ecumenical Advocacy Days
March 9-12, 2007
“and How are the Children?”
Washington, DC area
Resources and Up-Coming Events
Page 15
Fall 2006MISSION UPDATE
US Catholic Mission Association
Dorothy Day Portraits of Those Who Knew Her, Rosalie C. Riegle, 2003
Ecology at the Heart of Faith, The Change of Heart that Leads to a new Way of Living on Earth, Denis Edwards, 2006
Francis of Assisi, Leonardo Boff, 1982, reissue 2006
From Union Square To Rome, Dorothy Day, 2006
Jesus Today, A Spirituality of Radical Freedom, Albert Nolan, 2006
Leo Tolstoy, Spiritual Writings, Charles E. Moore, editor, 2006On the Move, The History of the Hispanic Church in the United States, Moises Sandoval, revised, 2006
Religion in Latin America, A Documentary History, Lee M. Penyak & Walter J. Petry, 2006
Remembering Henri, Gerald S. Twomey & Claude Pomerleau, editors, 2006
Signs of Peace, The Interfaith Letters of Thomas Merton, William Apel, 2006
Soulsong, Seeking Holiness, Coming Home, Thomas A. Forsthoefel, 2006
The Asian Jesus, Michael Amaladoss, SJ, 2006
The Power of Principles, Ethics for the New Corporate Culture,William J. Byron, SJ, 2006
The Ten Commandments, Laws of the Heart, Joan Chittister, 2006
Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World, R. S. Sugirtharajah, Editor, 2006
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Mission Update Fall 2006
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