The Passionist Family of Holy Cross Province, counting on God’s grace, joyfully affirms, celebrates, and actively promotes cultural and racial diversity for the sake of honoring God’s intention from the very first moment of creation and for advancing the reign of God.
We understand that the work of cultural and racial diversity is not a static achievement; it is life-long work that we must commit to each and every day.
Guided by these acknowledgments and in light of the Scriptures, Catholic teaching, the witness of St. Paul of the Cross and the Passionist charism, and our discernment of the “signs of the times,” we, the Passionist Family of Holy Cross Province, in our retreat centers, parishes and ministries, commit:
- To create, from a place grounded in the reality of our Passionist, multicultural identity, a hospitable environment in which persons of diverse cultures and races feel that they and their culture are genuinely included, welcomed, respected, and appreciated.
- To actively participate in a “culture of encounter” by intentionally finding ways to meet, spend time with, listen to and learn from people of diverse races and cultures whose experiences, perspectives, and insights may be very different from our own. Because creating a culture of encounter builds bridges that give birth to friendships, we want modeling and participating in a culture of encounter to be an ongoing process, both “an aspiration and a style of life” (Fratelli Tutti, #216).
- To promote and uphold the “social covenant” that recognizes “other people’s right to be themselves and to be different,” and recognize that without this social covenant “subtle ways can be found to make others insignificant, irrelevant, of no value to society”
(Fratelli Tutti, #218). - To affirm and model the value of cultural and racial diversity in liturgies, retreat talks, homilies, and all dimensions of our ministries.
- To read, learn from and weave into our Passionist formation the Church’s teachings and educational resources relating to racism and multiculturalism.
- To protest the racism, cultural superiority, and other injustices that undermine the Beloved Community we are actively creating.
- To recognize systemic racism as shown in inequality of opportunities in all society, we commit to educating ourselves on the history and presence of systemic racism in our ministries and ministry locations.
- To examine our own fears, biases and prejudices as well as other underlying and unexamined assumptions and attitudes that obstruct the love of neighbor to which Christ calls us.
- To create safe spaces in our retreat centers, parishes, schools, local communities and other ministry sites for honest conversations about racial and cultural diversity.
- To model inclusion of the voices of persons of diverse races and cultures in shaping our organizational structures, policies, and programs, and to recruit and retain persons of diverse cultures and races on our staffs and in our leadership so as to be truly
representative of the multicultural reality of the Passionist family. - To work in partnership with community organizations that promote cultural and racial diversity and that seek to overcome the multitude of injustices that weaken communities and violate the dignity and sacredness of persons.
- To set concrete goals for each of the above commitments, understanding that each goal will move us closer toward embodying our vision of a flourishing and fully functioning multicultural Passionist family and toward being the Beloved Community. Goals will be
understood, measurable, and embodied by everyone, and each of us will know what role we play in achieving these goals. - To conduct regular review and self-assessment of our progress toward these goals.
