OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS SEMINARY

Graduate School Department

Bernardino Street, (Seminary Road), Bagbag, Novaliches,
1116 Quezon City, Philippines

Pastoral Sociology
By Richard Michael Delfin

How to promote an inclusive parish community (in view of economic class, race, and
gender)?

In this present time the church evolves also in dealing with its members and with another

groups belonging to different beliefs. We can see in the parish level that somehow fosters

inclusivity in their programs and activities. However, we are too far from its realization of this

inclusiveness in the church. It takes humble commitment and discipline to override conscious

and unconscious biases and to learn to work more effectively and powerfully across lines of

difference. This requires consistent focus, innovative strategies, regular self-assessment, and

doing the hard work of updating our parishes’ existing policies and programs to ensure

inclusivity and equitability in today’s parish community. Let us have some definitions of

inclusion/inclusivity, equity, socio-economic class, race, and gender that would help us go

deeper in understanding the pressing condition of the parish community and the underlying

issues of inequality.

Inclusion is the act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and

feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces

differences and offers respect in words and actions for all people. (Paraphrased from UC Berkeley
Strategic Plan for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity, 2009)

Equity is the practice is giving everyone what they need to be successful. More

specifically, it is the creation of opportunities for historically underrepresented populations to

have equal access to resources and full participation in opportunities, especially those that

advance historically marginalized groups by helping to close the demographic disparities in all
spheres of institutional and communal functioning. This is based in the understanding that people

do not all have the same needs, nor the same experiences and opportunities, so they should

receive the appropriate resources to enable participation and success. (Partially quoted and

paraphrased from AACU) Equity is often mistaken as being synonymous with equality. Equality is

about giving everyone the same thing, while equity acknowledges diversity and is thus about

giving people what they need.

Socioeconomic class/status (SES) is an economic and social combined total measure of a

person’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and

occupation; however, SES is more commonly used to depict an economic difference in society as

a whole.

A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into

groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. (Race (human categorization) - Wikipedia)

Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially

constructed.  This includes norms, behaviors and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl

or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society

to society and can change over time. (Gender (who.int) )

We have now a sort of understanding of the subject matter based on the definitions given.

The church is trying its very best to achieve this goal of inclusivity in parish community,

however, the pastor has a special role to play to achieve harmony in the community. He must

have the sense of welcoming attitude towards rich and poor people, he must set a good example

to his parishioners, and he must provide formation programs for his parish core group, staff,

religious organizations, ministries, etc... Involving its members in the pastoral programs of the

parish will promote equality, equitability, and complementarity. We try to look at the Economic

Class, Race and Culture, and Gender as perceived and/or presented to us.

ECONOMIC CLASS:
 I classified them into several groups: The Rich people/ the Elite – those who are having

their own businesses (multimillionaire/billionaire) and living in a first class subdivision; the

middle class people are those who have small scale businesses and living in their own houses;

poor people are those working for their living (no work, no salary, and no food); and the below

poor people are those who have no work, no food, no house and no connection. As we can see

each category has its own ability to share something, for the rich, they can share monetary, for

the middle class they can share monetary and service, for the poor people, they can share service,

and for the below poor people, they share their sufferings. The parish cannot provide equality of

lifestyle to its members in different categories, however it can promote an atmosphere of

welcoming, sharing, listening, involving, and so on.

RACE AND CULTURE:

We all know that everyone is invited to partake in the parish activities and programs but

at times treated by the pastor, parish staff or pastoral council member/s badly. The different

indigenous groups, sick people, elderly/ adult people, youth, kids, persons with disabilities, and

they are present in our parish community. We must create and intensify our programs and

activities according to their needs in order for them to be fully alive in the life of the church from

that stand point we are giving them opportunities to participate fully, actively, and consciously.

Examples of programs and activities; values formation, catechesis, counseling, spiritual

direction, feeding program, youth program, sports program, education program, home

visitation/sick visitation, ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, etc… with all these things,

somehow, we can promote inclusivity for them.

GENDER:

Being a patriarchal church, we tend to fall into discrimination towards women and

LGBTQ+. The church has seen this and is trying to promote equality of human dignity for each
and every one of us. It opens up doors for everyone to participate in different ministries and

organizations where they can be at the service of the church and others.

ROLE OF THE PASTOR:

Here are some of the duties and roles of the pastor:

 A man of God.

 A man of prayer.

 A man of values.

From Mark Latcovich & Joyce Malyn – Smith:

 Initiating strategic planning grounded in Gospel values and diocesan mission

(congregational mission).

 Overseeing the implementation of the strategic plan.

 Leading the parish’s pastoral and finance councils.

 Animating ministries, apostolate, and volunteers of the parish.

 Overseeing the stewardship of parish finances, including budget, fundraising, and

diocesan (congregational) assessment.

COMCLUSION:

“The Kingdom of God is among you”, as church/parish our main duty is to bring, to carry one

another especially those who are left behind and neglected in order for us to achieve our goal

together.

It is now possible to remove from most of the human race the curse of ignorance. A duty

most appropriate in our times, especially for Christians, is to work untiringly to the end that

fundamental economic and political decisions are taken, nationally and internationally, which

will ensure the recognition and implementation everywhere of everyone’s right to human and
civil culture in harmony with personal dignity, without distinction of race, sex, nation, religion,

or social circumstances. (Gaudium et Spes (“The Church in the Modern World”, Vatican II, 1965, #60)

References:

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: What are They and Why Do They Matter to Us? | Reform
Judaism

Racism, Inclusion, and Diversity - Catholic Charities (cctwincities.org)

Race (human categorization) - Wikipedia

Gender (who.int)

socioeconomic status - Search (bing.com)