A Roman Catholic Approach To Liturgical Inculturation

Roman Catholic liturgical inculturation begins with the texts that are approved for use in Catholic parishes around the world. Liturgists are charged with discerning how those texts and related ritual practices may be appropriately expressed in various cultural settings. Key issues include the translation of liturgical texts and the development of indigenous arts, music, vestments, and gestures.

Our concern is not with inculturation and the liturgy but inculturation of the liturgy. The focus will be on the processes, methods, attitudes, and persons involved in assuring that the liturgy truly reflects the culture of those who celebrate it. While many aspects of the church's liturgy deserve attention, we will reflect for the most part on the eucharistic liturgy. The larger context, however, for a discussion of the inculturation of the liturgy must be the question of authentic living, giving witness to and celebrating the Christian faith. The liturgy is surely a privileged area of inculturation, one most tangible. But liturgy is the public celebration of the faith of a particular people. Unless that lived faith is inculturated into the customs and culture of that people, the liturgy will remain foreign or even imposed, rather than flowing from the lives of the people. The goal desired in inculturation of the liturgy is a eucharistic celebration that is vital, challenging, and liberating. The worshiping community is confronted and comforted by the Word of God, which is explored in a homily that relates the Word to the community's particular context. Then, the community members are sacramentally linked with the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ and strengthened to go forth and live that mystery in their situation. The Eucharist, if truly inculturated, is indeed the source and summit of Christian life and impels those who actively participate to go forward to witness to that life in the marketplace. The problem of inculturation of the liturgy arises precisely because, in at least the most recent history of the liturgy, there has been in the Latin Catholic church an emphasis on preserving the unity of the church's liturgy, often at the expense of its catholicity. The Tridentine rite had been the predominant form of worship in Latin Roman Catholicism from Trent until the breakthrough of the Second Vatican Council. This meant that even as the church expanded from Europe to North and South America, to India, to the Far East, and more recently to Africa, it was this same Roman rite that was uniformly celebrated. In the movement towards full inculturation, authors speak of degrees or stages of inculturation. A first stage, which is really the absence of inculturation, is imposition, where the theology and liturgy of Europe, for example, is exported to the Americas or to Africa with no input from the receiving culture. A second stage or degree is translation, where at least the local languages are employed in catechesis and liturgy. A third stage would be adaptation or accommodation. Here minor changes are allowed, and at least some attention and respect is given to the local culture. This is explored by the Second Vatican Council in S.C. 37–39. Finally, true inculturation can occur where the local culture is seriously studied and supplies new creative impetus and input for liturgical celebrations. S.C. 40 speaks of this deeper or more radical adaptation. Yet in reality, one must admit that there are only a few examples of such true inculturation, e.g., in the liturgy of Zaire and in certain Indian churches. Vatican II was clearly part of the recent trend to appreciate cultural diversity and richness. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, with its fostering of the vernacular language in the liturgy, is simply one small beginning in the more difficult and unexplored moves to inculturation in the liturgy. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World presents a new appreciation of culture and impels the church to dialogue with the modern world, rather than withdraw from it. So too, the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church indicates that mission flowing from the Incarnation must take place in every culture on this earth. The seeds of the Word (semina Verbi ) are present in all cultures, and thus the missionary treads on holy ground when he or she encounters another culture. All of these provide a foundation and impetus for inculturation in all areas of Christian life, including in a special way the liturgy. How does this inculturation take place? What are the attitudes that must be present in church leadership and in the people of God for it to occur? Who actually carries out the challenging task of inculturation of the liturgy? We will attempt to address these key questions through the employment of the pastoral circle. Imagine a circle with three points on its circumference and with arrows pointing back and forth between the points on the circumference. The first point of the circle represents the rich liturgical traditions of the church, going back to the New Testament. This would also include contemporary official church teaching on the liturgy, as in Vatican II, as well as the rich diversity of liturgical expression found throughout the Catholic church today. The second point of the circle represents the local community in its particular cultural situation or context. This might be in New York, Nairobi, or a small village in India or in Africa. The third point refers to the pastoral or liturgical leadership of that local community—those in charge of planning and celebrating the liturgy. To assure that a liturgy is truly local and hence inculturated and yet to assure that it is truly Christian and Catholic, the liturgical leaders need a familiarity with the various possibilities of liturgical expression and symbolism offered by the Christian tradition (the first point on the circle). They also need to be immersed in their local culture, so that they know how that particular community gathers, prays, sings, and expresses its faith most in accord with their cultural heritage (the second point on the circle). The leadership must of course not act on its own, but always in dialogue with the larger church and with the authorities of the church. And the leadership (the third point on the circle) must realize that it will succeed only to the extent that it calls forth and involves the gifts, talents, and sensibilities of the community for which it is responsible. Liturgy is indeed the public prayer of the people of the local community, and it must be an expression of their faith and their struggle for a life of justice, their living the kingdom vision. Thus, in the moving to a truly inculturated liturgy, it is the entire community that must eventually take responsibility for the liturgy; even if in its formative stages, this will depend heavily upon the liturgical leaders and their collaborators. Inculturation of the liturgy thus must occur in every local church and not simply be thought of as applying to Africa or Asia. As a matter of fact, the need for inculturation can be seen most clearly in non-Western cultures. But the need for it can also be seen in a black or Hispanic parish in the United States. So too, a liturgy for children or youth should have a different tone than one for adults; and a liturgy in the heart of New York City must be somewhat different from one in a rural area of Montana. Thus, every Christian community has the challenging task of celebrating the liturgy in a manner that is faithful to the Christian tradition (represented by the first point on the circle) and appropriate to its particular context (the second point on the circle). There are several areas of inculturation of the liturgy, just as there are degrees of inculturation. One might begin with the language of the celebration or with liturgical vestments that better reflect local culture and clothing. The music might be adapted to employ local instruments. Yet these are only small beginnings. Every aspect of liturgy must be creatively examined, including the time and space for the celebration, the gestures and postures (sitting rather than kneeling), the forms of prayer (more use of litany/responses), the art and architecture (local or imported stations of the cross), the images and symbols that grow from the religious and cultural sensibilities of the people, and the mode of leadership (individual or communal, male and/or female). Even the basic elements of the celebration, the food and drink, become part of the search of the local community for ways in which to liturgically live and celebrate its Christian faith. If this community, led by the Spirit, with the help of liturgical expertise and in union with the universal church, creatively and faithfully expresses its faith, then it will in turn be contributing to the growth of the catholicity of the church. One sees this already occurring through the church in Zaire and through the possibilities it offers both to African Catholics and to the universal church. How did this creative new liturgical expression originate? One must first recall that the Roman rite, even at the time of Vatican II, was only one, although a very important, rite of the church. One must see that the form of liturgy as brought to Africa by the missionaries is indeed one form and one that can be developed in accord with liturgical principles and guidelines from church authorities. And even within the present rite, there is space for and a call for adaptation and limited flexibility. Celebrants should take advantage of the various options now possible for the entrance rite and for the introduction to the Lord's Prayer, to cite two examples. Then through catechesis and discussion, one begins to encourage the local community to explore its own religious heritage and move to an authentic inculturation of the liturgy for that local community. The local community must keep in dialogue with the larger church. The fact that progress can be made is attested to in the evolution and approval of the Zairian liturgy for certain parts of Zaire. But one must immediately admit that the liturgy of Zaire is the exception rather than the rule and that, for 99 percent of Africa, the process of inculturation of the liturgy has scarcely begun. Inculturation of the liturgy must be seen therefore as a key part of the ongoing process of any local Christian community in its attempts to truly live and witness to its Christian faith. It is universal and ongoing, that is, called for in every local church and in every time. Cultures are changing. The forces of technology and modernization are offering new possibilities and challenges to Christian communities. Unless the Christian remains in dialogue with these new developments, his or her faith life and subsequent liturgical life will be out of touch and will have no creative impact on these developing cultures. The mission of the church will suffer. Finally, and this flows from all we have said, inculturation should become something natural, not added on. It simply is the creative living and celebrating of Christian faith in particular contexts. The fact that at present we must single out and focus on inculturation is an indication that we have failed to be engaged in the ongoing inculturation of the liturgy. Our efforts now are corrective. We look for the time when these corrective efforts are no longer necessary, when every local Christian community takes seriously its charge and challenge to be truly Christian and be truly local, faithful to and yet not uncritical of its particular culture.