A Problem of Exculturation

By Stephen P. White. But first a note from Robert Royal: The Catholic Church is the one truly universal institution in the world. And people who think that we need to be more "inclusive" - in the sense that the world uses that term - are deceiving themselves. As Steve White shows today, the Church can assimilate what's good in any culture, even the most remote. And it would be to her benefit, and the world's, if she could re-assimilate the wealth of her own incomparable culture. That's only one of the many things we're about here at The Catholic Thing. We're all just a small part of that universality, but together we can do something no other human group can. If that's something you value too, do your part. Don't make me beg. Click the button. Where else can you go to foster The Catholic Thing? Now for today's column... The Diocese of Broome covers the northern portion of the state of Western Australia. Massive and sparsely populated, the diocese is home to some 35,000 souls spread across an area a good bit larger than Texas. The Catholic population of the Diocese of Broome is smaller still: fewer than 14,000 Catholics arranged in nine parishes. According to the diocese, the average weekly Mass attendance for the entire diocese was 694 in 2016. In 2021 it was 592. Broome, as it happens, is also home to a significant Aboriginal population. In 1973, the local bishop approved, ad experimentum, the use of a new liturgical rite known as the Missa Terra Spiritus Sancti (Mass of the Land of the Holy Spirit). According to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC), the rite is a "distinctive Mass that beautifully amalgamates Catholic tradition with Aboriginal culture, thereby creating a unique celebration of faith that has served the diocese for over five decades." While the Broome Diocese may have relatively few Catholics, according to NATSICC, there are more than 130,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics in the whole of Australia and they represent the Australian Church's youngest and fastest-growing demographic. Earlier this month, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference unanimously approved the rite for use in the Diocese of Broome and resolved to submit the rite to the Dicastery for Divine Worship in Rome for official recognition. The Latin Church has a long tradition of what today might be called "liturgical diversity," approving various rites and usages for particular peoples, places, or communities. In recent years, these have sometimes been approved for use in mission territories (such as the Amazonian rite currently under consideration by Rome) or local churches in non-Western cultures (such as one finds in the Diocese of Broome). Sometimes, but not always. The beautiful Anglican Use is just a few decades old, though it draws deeply on English liturgical traditions that pre-date the Reformation. The Dominicans have their own rite, as do the Carthusians, Carmelites, and Cistercians. The Ambrosian Rite has been celebrated in Milan, with some modifications, since the late fourth century. All of this is to say that the Church is well accustomed to adapting her liturgy to the places and cultures in which she finds herself. When this is done well - when the Incarnate Word is the "authentic paradigm of inculturation," as Pope Benedict XVI insisted - the result is not syncretism but an embodiment of Paul's exhortation to the Thessalonians to, "Test everything; retain what is good." In the years following the Second Vatican Council, the most obvious manifestation of liturgical inculturation in the West was the widespread introduction of the vernacular. But there were other manifestations. In parts of the world where the Gospel is encountering established cultures for the first time, or where the encounter is only a few generations old, inculturation is not only inevitable, it's necessary. And it seems to be paying spiritual dividends in those parts of the world where the Church h...