Loving All Our Neighbors: Four Challenges to Ministry in Multicultural (Multilingual) Parishes

In a parish with three or more cultural groups, everything looks different. From faith formation, to stewardship, to liturgy planning, to space usage - they all face the same challenges: Language barriers, culture clashes, creeping inequality, and the grief that comes from past losses. A pastoral theologian and a liturgical musician offer insights and practical resources in approaching intercultural cooperation and seeking unity in the midst of difference.


Nurtured in Franciscan spirituality, Brother Rufino Zaragoza explores the richness of multicultural communities and Asian liturgical inculturation, while lecturing on the joys and complexities of intercultural worship. He’s led workshops at NPM, SWLC, numerous dioceses in the US, plus Hong Kong, Hanoi, and Saigon. A pioneer of multilingual song collections (English, Spanish and Vietnamese), he contributed to the FDLC’s revised guide on multicultural liturgies. Rufino is currently in residence at Mission San Luis Rey, CA; serving as a liturgical music consultant.


Brett C. Hoover, Ph.D., teaches pastoral and practical theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he also directs the Master of Arts programs in Theology and Pastoral Theology. He is the author of The Shared Parish: Latinos, Anglos, and the Future of US Catholicism (NYU Press, 2014), and the forthcoming Immigration and Faith: Cultural, Biblical, and Theological Narratives (Paulist, 2021). He serves as planning team coordinator for the upcoming National Conversation on Shared Parish Life (NCSPL).