Fratelli Tutti 135: The Latino Witness

135. Here I would mention some examples that I have used in the past. Latino culture is “a ferment of values and possibilities that can greatly enrich the United States”, for “intense immigration always ends up influencing and transforming the culture of a place…

Some will complain they don’t want change; everything is fine the way it is. However, Christians are pilgrims in this world. Stasis is not the true way. Our impulse is evangelical: the effort to influence and transform others by introducing them to Jesus and welcoming the possibilities that result from that encounter. 

Christians are also a penitential people. We cannot expect to influence others if we are not prepared to be transformed ourselves from godless to godly. Again, some might complain that secular or physical values need not change with true conversion of heart. But that Christian transformation is always a work in progress. If we are faulty and always in need of reform, likely our cultures too have points at which change and progress is likely a good thing.

In Argentina, intense immigration from Italy has left a mark on the culture of the society, and the presence of some 200,000 Jews has a great effect on the cultural ‘style’ of Buenos Aires. Immigrants, if they are helped to integrate, are a blessing, a source of enrichment and new gift that encourages a society to grow”.[Latinoamérica. Conversaciones con Hernán Reyes Alcaide, ed. Planeta, Buenos Aires, 2017, 105]

All citations of Fratelli Tutti (which can be found on this link) are © Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in Minnesota, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.
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