Issuing a call for intergenerational dialog, Patricia Wittberg, Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, and sociology professor at Indiana Univeristy-Perdue University in Indianapolis delivered the keynote address for the Canadian Council of Religious Annual Meeting.
Patricia Wittberg, SC, began her presentation by describing the diverse generations that coexist today in North America, what sets them apart and their differences. Each generation may have different spiritual hungers and different secular preoccupations, which those older or younger may not understand. Taking this into account, Sister Patricia then explored the implications of these cultural differrences for both religious life and the Church as a whole. The more religious are able to truly see and know what time it is, the more they will be called on to imagine and create new forms of religious life that will speak the Word of Life to it.
Download Patricia Wittberg’s presentation:
Recognizing the Time We Inhabit; Bibliography; Questions for discussion
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To get a flavor of the presentation listen to her questions
Question for discussion
Doing an Inventory of Catholic Generational Cultures
The Material Dimension of Culture:
Were there any holy objects, pictures, etc. in your home while you were growing up?
Describe them.
Describe what your parish church looked like.
Describe one of your grade-school classrooms: what pictures, textbooks, other objects did it
contain? Were there any priests and sisters in the school? How many? How did the
priests and religious dress?
The Behavioral Dimension of Culture:
Describe any family religious rituals you participated in while growing up.
How often did you attend Mass? Confession? Benediction? Eucharistic Adoration? Parish recitation of the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, or other devotions?
Describe how these rituals were conducted (who attended, material objects used, the order of the ritual, etc.)
What rules – written and unwritten – did Catholics have to follow when you were growing up?
The Value Dimension of Culture:
How would you/your parents have defined what it meant to be “a good Catholic” when you were a child?
What feelings/emotions did priests and religious inspire in you when you were a child?
Who were famous Catholics that you looked up to as a child?
What was your first reaction to the English Mass?
The Cognitive Dimension of Culture:
Describe a typical religion class when you were a child. What books or instructional materials did you use? What did you learn? How did you learn it?
What were you taught about God? About Jesus? About the Holy Spirit? About saints? About the Church?
What were you taught was the best way to please God?
How many priests and sisters did you know as a child?
What did you know about what priests and sisters did?
Spend a few minutes thinking about how each of these cultural dimensions applied to your own religious upbringing childhood. Share and compare your reflections.
ALTERNATE QUESTIONS
The Gift of Generational Cultures:
Each generation’s cultural perspective is a unique gift from God – a unique way of looking at the world, the Church, and the charism of a religious community.
In groups of 5-8 persons (if possible, from different generations), list the gifts your generation has
brought or could bring to religious life.
Each generation’s cultural perspective also has blind spots.
Write what things you would like to learn from the generations preceding and following your own.
An Inventory of Generational Attitudes and Behaviors
Discuss and share your answers to the following questions.
1. What is the generational culture of the community and its members?
– Percent born in the 1930s, 1940s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
– Generational experiences of Church
– How does this fact in our history support our existing values and attitudes?
2. Has the community has become a generational “island”? Are there common stories/jokes
about the novitiate, mission life, individuals?
– Are any of these stories inaccessible to members of a different generation?
– In which circumstances?
– What leads you (or others) to make these jokes?
– What could be the underlying reasons?
– Which generations might feel left out?
3. Are there any stereotypes operative in community life or ministry?
– Of the young
– Of the old
– Of 50- and 60-somethings
4. How do we help one another:
– to distinguish between fact and interpretation in dealing with generational diversity?
– to call attention to the use of stereotypes?
– to critique and accept criticism about behaviors that are exclusive?
– to recognize the need for better information and better skills in dealing with others?
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