In recent years, the Catholic Church worked to establish a multicultural community to reinforce a value of solidarity. A unity within the faith emphasizes the need for “human family” regardless of differences of background. While the religion’s history may sometimes contradict this necessity, their present mission for acceptance and its presentation in media overshadows any dark past that may juxtapose their core values.
Catholicism has a long running history of culture washing. The missionaries of American colonization are a prime example of the intolerance that the Church held for cultures expressing attitudes other than those expressed by Roman Catholicism, spending their riches and time establishing church communities, converting natives, and assimilating the Native American populations to the colonizers’ way of life. Throughout the last few centuries, the Church has learned to accept and even celebrate a myriad of cultures to incorporate and welcome everyone. Dr. Kathleen Garces-Foley writes in her 2008 article that Catholic churches of the United States began “defending the right of all people to their cultural traditions as long as they are congruent with the faith” in the 1980s (Garces-Foley 2008). Today, crowds gather in droves to learn about one of the world’s largest religions and worship in the faith’s holiest spot—St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The image shows a crowd of individuals, from all corners of the Earth, meeting together beneath the painted dome and showing the diversity of the faith. Catholicism’s appeal reaches throughout the world and across social boundaries.
The Church uses media to demonstrate the harmony sought out by Catholicism, especially within its own walls. In Sienna, a city divided into competitive neighborhoods with intense rivalries that span generations, a church celebrates the community’s differences and unites the districts in a ceramic seal on its floor. This use of media represents the “fruitful cooperation in creative work” that the Church’s Communio et Progresso cites as one of the “marvelous benefits that should come from social communication,” (Communio et Progesso 1971). The Church recognizes the importance of multiculturalism and solidarity within its faith and uses its artistic platform to promote these ideas to achieve social harmony and effective communication.
Solidarity is one of the seven core values of the Catholic faith—a value that is consciously worked towards every day. This value is a difficult achievement when faced with this era that highlights polarization, but the Church’s determination and use of media encourage a religion that celebrates the differences that bring its communities together.
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