Recently I attended a workshop in Italy (Nemi) on “Interculturality”. That is a big word, but basically it comes down to the way we appreciate cultural sameness and difference. Our final mass was a fitting exemplar of our two weeks together. We were SVDs and SSpS from all corners of the world and we had hymns with verses in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, German and Swahili. It was not that one group sang in “their” language while the others listened. Rather, we had different verses of the same song in various languages and all joined in. Having practiced beforehand and having had the words explained we could all sing together while being led by those fluent in the language. The different languages did not divide us, and there was a real sense of worshiping the one God together, women and men from diverse nations, peoples and languages sharing intercultural life and mission.

It seems to me that often we do not appreciate difference and fall into some form of “lowest common denominator”, stripped of cultural distinctiveness when it comes to the way we live and pray. The Nemi experience was different. We were celebrating sameness and difference together.

It is good to recognise our common humanity based on the equal dignity of being made “in God’s image”. But the downside of this view may be seen in the way we look for common cultural traits at the expense of the other’s uniqueness. We follow much the same schedule, eat the same food, share the same facilities, and pray in common. In other words by sharing the life in community it is fairly easy to “fit in”. But how about the fact that some community members were raised in a society that prizes individuality, and another that is more sociocentric? Personally, coming from a culture that promotes individuality I found the attitude that fostered freedom and initiative when I joined the SVD in Australia to be a breath of fresh air after the uniformity of a the subculture of a diocesan seminary in New Zealand. How about those who come from a society the values “power distance”, for example preferring to wait for choices by “superiors” and to defer to their decisions? That is surely an issue for confreres coming from Asia into liberal “Western” environments, and visa versa. Do women and men have their own special contribution to the way we relate? These were some of the issues we reflected on in the recent workshop in Nemi.

I think that sometimes we succumb to what is called “minimisation” whereby it is assumed that deep down everyone is the same and that this commonality can serve as the basis for our communication. It assumes that one’s ideas and behaviour are easily understandable by others with a different worldview and allows one to maintain a fairly comfortable state of ethnocentrism. There can be a sense of “let’s go along to get along.” In this way, minimisation through the use of strategies of commonality is a way to focus attention away from deeper cultural and personal differences in an effort to maintain cordial relations in the community.

Mere tolerance of diversity fails to appreciate what every person has to offer. I think that ways of sharing between different backgrounds, personalities and cultures is precisely where the SVD and SSpS can contribute to overcoming attitudes of defensiveness, fear, indifference and marginalisation that are common in our world today.

We SVD often refer to the Word in the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel. It begins with the unity of the Logos at the beginning of life, but by verse 14 we read how the Word became flesh — in our world, living amongst us. Thus the Divine Word has become incarnate not in a uniform globalised world, but in every nation, people and language. The appreciation of what we share in common and the recognition and acceptance of our differences can be the basis of our unity as international communities as we seek to contribute to a better, more just world.

PHOTO: Fr Philip is pictured back row, centre, in Nemi, Italy at the Interculturality workshop. Those with an eagle eye will also spot former AUS Provincial Fr Tim Norton peeking through near Fr Philip in the back row.