Trinitarian Father Domingo Rodriguez Zambrana spent a week in the Diocese of Toledo talking about how to create a welcoming church environment in a multicultural society. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens Bertke)

Fr. Rodriguez has spoken throughout the country about multiculturalism and spent eight years as superior general for his order, the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity. Presently, he is the order’s procurator genera and international spiritual guide of the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate.

During a Mass and speech to Catholic Center employees, he stressed the importance of cultural awareness and being focused on reflecting the light of our faith.

"My presence in the diocese this week is simply to remind you as you make the list of your priorities to never ignore, never be unaware that the many faces of God’s church and the many faces of God’s creation include not your choice, but God’s choice," Fr. Rodriguez said in his homily.

What’s most important, he added, is that we build the church of Jesus Christ without exclusion, but to be "welcoming, truly the body of Christ: many faces, many colors, many languages, many styles of life, many responses and different behaviors."

During a talk after Mass, Fr. Rodriguez explained that culture can be both a limiting and enriching experience.

"Culture comes from the word to cultivate, and cultivate is the way you’re planted, the way you grow, the way you develop," he explained. "So culture is the conditioning element: the way that you perceive life and the way that you perceive yourself. Mind you, because we have been born in a specific area in a specific geographical space, we are limited. We are limited to view life from the customary way of perceiving self and perceiving others."

When we have experiences with people who behave differently than we do, we may react in a negative way or be scared, he said. This is because of our own ìethnocentrismî or conditioning, he said, adding this is a natural reaction and one of which we should be aware.

"Please know your conditioning elements, know the way that you were brought up," Fr. Rodriguez urged. "Were you brought up in the country? Were you brought up in the city? Anywhere you were born and brought up is a conditioning experience. That experience molded you to perceive yourself in a specific way. And anyone who does not respond to your expectation is a threat."

As people move around the world, they have a tendency to become settled, he said. As people settle, they look around to find people who are like them, trying to survive and recreate what they left behind.

"Sociologically, this is normal and healthy," Fr. Rodriguez said. However, people slowly learn how other people live and they then become more integrated into the new culture. This integration is a positive step if the new citizens remember where they came from and adopt the positive aspects of the predominant culture, keeping in mind it may also have negative elements.

"We are facing a constantly changing, adapting experience," he said of the world today. People will continue to be on the move to find a place where they can live and survive.

"Our job as church is not to exclude anybody, but to be inclusive of individuals," Fr. Rodriguez said. "And I know we have the best of intentions of being inclusive, but there’s something ... that kind of makes it very difficult."

We must keep in mind our expectations of people who grew up in a different culture than ours are unfair and can lead to frustration, the priest said.

"No culture is better than any other culture," he said, "but the challenge, obviously, in a multicultural church is how you continue to adapt and to learn."

As people of the church, we must question how tolerant, open and understanding we can be, he said. "What are we going to do as a church to make ourselves capable of accepting, accommodating to the people of God?"