The National Association of Catholic Chaplains

Menu
  • Membership
      • Apply for Membership
      • Frequently-Asked Questions about Membership
      • Request Retired Membership
      • State Liaisons
      • Newest Members
      • Membership Directory
      • Member map
      • Celebrating Our Members’ 25-year Membership and Certification
      • In Memoriam: deceased NACC members
    • Close
  • Certification
    • Initial Certification
      • Board Certified Chaplain (BCC)
      • Certified Associate Chaplain
      • Palliative Care and Hospice Advanced Certification (PCHAC)
      • VA Initial Board Certification
      • Recognition of Strategic Partners Certification
      • Newly Certified Chaplains
      • Close
    • Renewal of Certification
    • Certification Competencies & Procedures
      • Certification Competencies & Procedures
      • Important Background on NACC Certification Competencies
      • Professional Code of Ethics for Spiritual Care Professionals
      • Certification Commission
      • Certification Appeals Panel
      • Ethics Appeals Panel
      • Close
    • Mentors
    • Recognition of Strategic Partners Certification
    • Verifying Certification
    • Maintaining Certification in Retirement
    • Graduate Theological Programs
    • Close
  • Education Resources
      • 2023 Retreat
      • 2023 Webinar Series
      • Recorded webinars (2009-2022)
      • Calendar of Events
      • Graduate Theological Programs
      • CPE Programs
      • NACC Professional Networking Calls
      • Continuing Education Hour Requests – Guidelines and Forms
      • Ongoing Educational Opportunities
      • Local/Regional Gatherings & Events
      • Past Conferences (2004 – 2022)
      • Vision
    • Close
  • Resources
    • Antiracism Resources
    • Administrator Resources
    • Awareness Resources
    • Chaplaincy Care Resources
    • Coronavirus Resources & Updates
    • Job Listings
    • The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling
    • Partners in Pastoral Care
    • Research
    • Specialty Care Resources
    • Spirituality and Prayer Resources
    • Spiritual Care Department Resources
    • Vision
    • Close
  • About NACC
    • About the NACC
      • Mission/Vision/Values
      • Constitution and ByLaws
      • Strategic Plan
      • History
      • Close
    • Annual Awards
    • Association Leadership
      • NACC Board of Directors
      • Committees, Commissions, and Panels
      • National Office Staff
      • Episcopal Advisory Council
      • Close
    • Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition (CPMC)
    • Choose Chaplaincy
    • Health Care Collaborators
    • NACC Merchandise
    • NACC Publications and Documents
      • Vision
      • NACC Now
      • Annual Reports & Financial Reviews
      • Documents and publications
      • NACC Blog
      • Close
    • Partners in Pastoral Care
    • Partners for Professional Excellence in Spiritual Care
    • Vision
    • Close
  • Choose Chaplaincy
  • Contact Us
      • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    • Close
  • Donate Now
  • Member Login
Home » Vision » September-October 2016 » Culture must be studied and learned, Gittins says

Culture must be studied and learned, Gittins says

By David Lewellen
Vision editor

A different culture must be studied and learned just like a different language, according to Fr. Anthony Gittins.

“Good will is simply not enough,” said Fr. Gittins, CSSp, a professor of theology and culture at Chicago Theological Union. “You need serious skills and habits. … Take lessons. Be willing. It’s scary, but believe that it’s possible.”
vision logo sept-oct 2016
Fr. Gittins began to form those conclusions as a young missionary in Sierra Leone while he was also working on his doctorate in anthropology. As a white cleric from Great Britain he brought a particular faith, which he initially assumed that the African laypeople he worked among would assimilate. But he quickly realized that not only couldn’t they do so, but he didn’t want them to.

In his new book, Living Mission Interculturally, Fr. Gittins distinguishes between “multicultural,” in which cultures live side by side with little interaction, and the more difficult but rewarding idea of “intercultural,” in which two people or cultures are changed by their encounters.

Theology has lagged behind anthropology in this idea, Fr. Gittins said, but faith can only be lived through culture — meaning that people of a different culture will experience faith differently.

That leads to the possibility of syncretism, which “get a bad rap in Catholic theology,” Fr. Gittins said. But one must be careful to assess and discriminate between good and bad syncretism; if others “live out their Christianity in a different way, it becomes enriching to both of us. We need to be enriched reciprocally.”

Understanding another culture does not just mean a nation or an ethnic group; it can also extend down to the level of a particular parish. And not all encounters with other cultures are positive, of course; Westerners may well feel confused or disgusted by the practice of female genital mutilation, and Gittins pointed out that as a Catholic priest, if he encounters a patient with a sexually transmitted disease, “there’s going to be a degree of disgust. I’ve got to deal with that and go beyond that to empathize with this person. We come up against our prejudices, our likes and dislikes. We have to note our personal response and disavow our own tendency to offload our response, legitimate or illegitimate.”

In interreligious interactions generally, and for chaplains in particular, he said, “Be very careful not to try to convert or coerce.” Gittins himself spent many summers working as a hospital chaplain, “assimilating my own authentic way of operating into the way I related to doctors and families and patients.” From the experience, he learned that “hospital chaplains need to be very careful listeners, and very slow to judgment, and very willing to take advice from people who know better.”

The National Association of Catholic Chaplains
Become a Member Would you like to get Certified?

Free Publications

Don’t miss the latest news, subscribe to our newsletter today! You don’t have to be a member to subscribe.

National Association of Catholic Chaplains
4915 S. Howell Avenue, Suite 501
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Get Directions

Phone: (414) 483-4898
Fax: (414) 483-6712
Email: info@nacc.org

Our office hours
Mon-Thur 8:00am – 5:00pm Central Time
Friday 8:00am – 12 Noon
Sat-Sun closed

Job Listings

Current job opportunities for chaplains, priests, CPE residents, supervisors, directors of pastoral care, managers, mission directors, and more.

Job Listings

Free Publications

Don’t miss the latest news, subscribe to our newsletter today! You don’t have to be a member to subscribe.

Donate Now

Learn more about making a tax-deductible donation to NACC.

Donate Now

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
© 1997 - 2023 National Association of Catholic Chaplains - Sitemap

Built by Westwords