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Changing demographics In 1994, when Father Tracy O’Sullivan, O.Carm., was assigned to the South-Central Los Angeles parish, he brought with him the south-side-of-Chicago experience as a community organizer, elementary school principal and pastor of an inner-city African American parish, plus a master’s degree in urban studies. He would need all of these skills to run Saint Raphael’s, which was founded by whites, became a predominantly black urban parish in the 1960s (before and after the Watts Riots), and then underwent an amazing Hispanic demographic transformation during the ’70s and ’80s. Today the area is more diverse than ever, with some 60 percent of parishioners with roots in Mexico, another large block from El Salvador, and churchgoers from Guatemala and Nicaragua. Most of the younger blacks have moved away, with the remaining once-dominant African American group getting older and dying off. Immigrants from Belize are now more prominent than African Americans, who moved to L.A. mainly from Louisiana after World War II and settled in its south-central neighborhoods. Taken together, blacks barely make up 10 percent of parishioners today. “I came here with a deep commitment to address the divide between the African American and Hispanic communities,” says Father O’Sullivan, walking through the prayer garden. “And I was very surprised. When I went to the deanery meetings of pastors and listened, I was very surprised they didn’t have a single program. It wasn’t solved, and it still is not.” So the Chicago Carmelite rolled up his clerical sleeves and went to work. “I think the most fundamental thing is that the leadership in multicultural parishes like Saint Raphael has to be committed to really working to listen to all sides,” he points out. “That’s number one. We have to be committed to listening to people’s concerns. “Number two, I think organizationally you have to have voices on the parish staff who speak honestly of their concerns. You need someone at the table to speak for the concerns of the black community and the concerns of the brown community. That’s where a sensitivity to these issues can develop.” What has developed over the years has been six annual bilingual Masses, along with greater cultural sensitivity to the “popular religiosity” of different racial and ethnic groups in the parish. Not only is the traditional feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrated with much fanfare, but so is Dia del Señor de Esquipulas, the major Guatemalan feast day. Black Heritage Month is honored along with Hispanic Awareness Month. With a United Nations-like translation system using earphones, parish meetings and gatherings are instantaneously translated from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. Parish bulletins are printed bilingually. “Another really critical point is the scheduling of space,” Father O’Sullivan notes. “Because when you don’t have a schedule, and both groups are going at the same time, you get: ‘They take everything!’ So you want to schedule space to reduce the friction at the parish hall, the kitchen, the meeting rooms.” On a larger scale, the pastor has spearheaded a special deanery-wide pastoral council with eleven other inner-city churches to tackle the black/brown divide along with other issues. The council acts as a sounding board, where parishes share what works and what doesn’t in monthly meetings. “We’re all struggling with this divide; it’s a question of who’s doing something about it,” the pastor reports. But then he catches himself, stressing that bringing Hispanics and blacks together isn’t Father Tracy O’Sullivan stands before the Guatemalan crucifix “El Cristo Negro de Esquipulas” (The Black Christ) inside Saint Raphael Church. really a struggle but an opportunity for growth. “It’s the juice in the life of the parish,” he muses. “We’re not so much struggling with it as discerning where we can begin to be more profound in our unity. The Gospel is always about building bridges, embracing differences between people and reconciling.” Seeking inclusivity “Since coming here, Father Tracy has worked overtime to be extremely sensitive to the black and brown situation,” says Harry Wiley, parish staff member, director of African American ministry and also representative to the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization. “He’s attempted to ensure bilingual discussions, establish multicultural and multilingual liturgies. He’s made sure that the parish council, finance council and all committees have representatives from both cultures. He’s attempted to get us to do everything biculturally. If I can say nothing else about the man, the man seeks inclusivity.” But Wiley, 69, and a longtime Saint Raphael parishioner, also believes that in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles—as well as
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