Catholic Sisters Embrace Interculturality at the UISG
From 21 January through 1 February, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) conducted a two-week workshop in Rome on interculturality for Catholic sisters and congregations from across the globe. There were 180 Sisters from 60 countries and 45 congregations who participated in the two-week workshop, which was truly international and multilingual. The event utilized interactive technologies to live stream and converse in real-time between two separate auditoriums at the UISG. The entire two-week workshop was simultaneously translated into four languages, enhancing the experience for sisters towards building an intercultural community.
The workshop included a numbers of leading Catholic academics and theologians on interculturality focused on the context of sisters’ congregations. These insights empowered sisters to develop concrete and practical action plans on interculturality for their local community of sisters as well as their congregation worldwide. During the workshop, sister participants were provided with resources, tools and strategies to develop congregational interculturality action plans. The UISG will actively be accompanying and receiving reports from congregations over a two-year period. This process aims to measure and evaluate learning, target goals, impact, outcomes and results achieved by congregations on interculturality.
Messages of thanks given to the UISG by participants emphasize the gratitude shown by sisters for this opportunity. Participants shared: “I am very grateful to UISG for organizing such a timely workshop, and to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for their financial support. The speakers were well chosen and gave very good material. The technology used to accommodate the 180 of us was amazing! The core organizing team was excellent. Thank you all and God bless you abundantly…It gave me great insight into cultural diversity and difference and the major work I, my community, and all of us need to do as a strong witness in today’s world. It was transforming. Thank you!…The world is now a different place for me.”
By Angelo Spadavecchia – UISG Grant Manager