Multicultural Ministries

 

In 1832, 100 years after the Congregation was founded in Naples, Italy, six Redemptorists sailed from Europe to the United States at the request of the American bishops. Their mission: to offer spiritual support and guidance to the growing numbers of immigrants while preserving and celebrating their cultural identities.

 

Their initial ministry was to the American Indians. The Redemptorists soon expanded their outreach to include other newly-arrived immigrants, namely the Irish, Germans, and Slavic immigrants. They ministered to the needs of these people by learning their languages, staffing parishes and opening schools throughout North America.

 

Today, Redemptorists minister to immigrant communities from Africa, Asia, and numerous Spanish-speaking countries. They work to adapt their ministry to the changing needs of these new peoples from foreign lands.

 

The work being done today, for example, by the Redemptorists in Houston, TX, on behalf of the growing Hispanic population there is a model for the nation. At Holy Ghost parish, a team of eight Redemptorists, headed up by
Fr. Scott Katzenberger, C.Ss.R., provides leadership training, catechetical training, and a host of other programs designed to help Hispanic families find their footing, both economically and spiritually, in a country that still struggles at times to look on these newcomers as friends and neighbors.

 

In Oakland, CA, Fr. Don MacKinnon, C.Ss.R. has been ministering to the Kmhmu people for many years now. These tribal people from Laos left their war-torn country after the communists invaded it in 1975. Many of them found sanctuary in California but struggled to fit in.

 

The Kmhmu did not have a written language. So Fr. MacKinnon enrolled in a Kmhmu language class at the University of California, Berkeley, and then partnered with a group of indigenous priests to develop a written language that would enable the Kmhmu people to read the Bible. The first set of scripture readings was published in 1992.