Guidelines for Receiving Pastoral Ministers in the USA

• Because of the unique circumstances of leaving one’s homeland and serving in a foreign land, international pastoral ministers can experience a special growth in their spiritual journey. They can grow especially in detachment from the familiar, thereby developing greater reliance on God’s providential care.

0 The acquisition and use of money, including easy access credit with bank cards and widely available possibilities for gaming 0 The litigious nature of American society 0 Ecumenism and interfaith relationships in a pluralistic society 0 The place of devotions in the life of the Church 0 Patterns of collaboration in ministry between clergy and laity 0 Taking pastoral initiative • Because of the disruption of moving, international pastoral ministers will find maintaining continu ity in their spiritual lives a special challenge. • For those returning to their native lands, it may be very challenging to transition back to a for mer set of circumstances after their experience in the United States. IV. Purpose, Scope, and Overview The purpose of the Guidelines is to be a practical tool for dioceses, eparchies, seminaries, and institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life as they work to formulate their own policies and procedures concerning international pastoral ministers, whether they are invited here to serve the Church at large or to more specifically serve immigrants from their native land. The Guidelines are meant to encourage the development of these policies. In this context, the Guidelines are designed for general information only. Each diocese, eparchy, seminary, institute, and society is unique, as is each international pastoral minister. In developing their own particular policies, these entities need to utilize their own competent consultants especially in the areas of canon law, civil law, psychological screening, and financial concerns. Because the international pastoral ministers who are among us now and who will come to us in the future reflect a wide and varied background, the scope of the Guidelines includes those who are: international clergy, seminarians, and non-ordained men and women in institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life for the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris . The Guidelines are divided into two main parts entitled “Assessment and Acceptance” and

Challenges for International Pastoral Ministers

The graces and benefits that international pastoral ministers experience are genuine and real and so too are the challenges that accompany their arrival in the United States. These challenges, which may affect them both personally and ecclesially, can become incentives for their human and pastoral development. International pastoral ministers face the following challenges: • One very significant challenge is the experience of uprooting oneself from one’s native culture and the familiar patterns of ordinary life. • A related challenge is maintaining the founda tional relationships of one’s life, especially with family, friends, and colleagues in one’s native place. The challenge is to find ways of appro priately maintaining and even cultivating those relationships, despite the physical distance that can be a formidable barrier. • International ministers must also establish new networks of relationship and connection in their new circumstances. Not to do so would invite an unhealthy experience of isolation and loneliness. • There are specific issues of “novelty” in local concepts, practices, and customs that interna tional pastoral ministers will often encounter in the United States. They pose a challenge first of understanding and then of adaptation. Among these novel concepts, practices, and customs, are the following: 0 The style of exercising pastoral authority in a parish setting 0 Social/interpersonal boundaries and styles of communication 0 The role and place of women in society, cul ture, and in the Church in the United States 0 The use of and approach to time

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