Los Angeles

• The diocese is incorporating service and outreach to newcomers into its ongoing synod process.
• An implementation committee, “which is expressive of the collaboration effort of different diocesan departments/offices,” will provide formation opportunities for parish ‘diversity teams’ and ‘mentoring teams’ which will be central to the parish’s efforts to build multicultural awareness.
• The diocese will pursue efforts to evaluate “ministry programs and outreach” throughout the diocese “in collaboration with [the] Center of Religion and Civic Culture of University of S. California, LMU [Loyola Marymount University], Pepperdine, or Clairmont.” Rev. John J. Coleman, S.J., of Loyola Marymount, and the Episcopalian multicultural ministries expert Rev. Eric Law will provide training “to welcome and walk with each community in respectful dialogue, supporting the unique gifts shared with all.”

• The Diocese of Monterey is heading up a program called “Getting to Know your Neighbor” which specifically targets the parishes. The program will begin with a special training program for pastors and priests on ethnic and cultural awareness.
• The second-phase of this training program will be for parish leaders and volunteers, as well as general parishioners. After this program, parishes will develop and implement a plan to augment what they are currently doing to welcome the stranger.

• The diocese will continue to work with members of various ethnic groups who are already part of a collaborative process within the diocese to identify the needs of those groups and to provide "a ministry of hospitality…that reaches out to newcomers."
• The diocese will continue to sponsor language training for priests and candidates to the priesthood and to encourage lay workers to learn a second language.
• The diocese will conduct a yearly study of population statistics to plan for the building of new parishes and to provide appropriate levels of support for ethnic groups.
• The diocese will work to overcome "prejudice and mistrust among cultures” fostering multicultural celebrations and creating ordinary structures of church life that are ethnically diverse and foster interaction among different ethnic groups.

• As the central part of their Diocesan Action Plan, the Diocese of Phoenix will establish an Office for Ethnic Ministries at the diocesan level. The newly appointed Vicar to head this department will coordinate diocesan and parish efforts and advise the Ordinary on all immigrant migrant, refugee, and people on the move issues. He will also assist local pastors in identifying populations of newcomers present within their parish boundaries and find, train and coordinate priests and pastoral ministers who are skilled in the newcomers’ languages, customs, traditions, etc. so that appropriate care may be provided.
• The new Vicar for Ethnic Ministry along with the Office for Peace and Justice will provide diversity and racism sensitivity training to parishes and work with them to establish “social justice commissions,” similar to what has been done with “Communities of Salt and Light.”
• The Kino Institute of Lay Pastoral Formation will offer GED classes and English as a Second Language training for Spanish-speaking lay ministers in the parishes, including deacons, coordinators of religious education, liturgy coordinators, etc.

• With the support of the bishop, the Director of Ethnic Ministries and the Director of Hispanic Ministry will collaborate to train “Welcoming Committees” in parishes, particularly those with the highest populations of immigrants/ refugees.
• The diocese will continue “to recruit and train lay….ethnic leaders to outreach to new immigrants/refugees and provide necessary pastoral and human services.”
• The diocese will host an annual celebration of welcome, perhaps to coincide with National Migration Week.
• The diocese will provide parish organizations, Catholic Schools, or Religious Education Programs with educational resources highlighting the need for welcoming, conversion, communion, and solidarity.
• Catholic Community Services will prepare a welcoming brochure targeted at new arrivals to the diocese and community. The brochure will provide pertinent pastoral and social information in multiple languages (like the names and addresses of Catholic Churches, mass times, etc.).

• The Auxiliary Bishop of San Bernardino (who heads the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs) together with the assistance of a Steering Committee headed by a paid coordinator for the “Unity in Diversity Project”, will conduct a comprehensive study of immigrants and migrants in the parishes (including extensive interviews with the immigrants themselves). This information will be provided to the parishes through a training and technical assistance program which will help the parishes to devise their own “Unity in Diversity Action Plans.” This will be piloted in 6 parishes, one from each vicariate.
• After the pilot program, there will be a symposium to hear stories, study data, and exchange successes and challenges of the 6 pilot parishes.
• The Unity in Diversity Action plan for the diocese will be integrated into the five-year pastoral plan for the diocese which will make implementation of the document central to the work of the Church in San Bernardino. As part of this five year plan, the parishes will be encouraged to continue their work in implementing the Encuentro process. Lay ministers will be encouraged to participate in “the Ministry Formation Institute and the specialization courses that educate the faithful in an understanding of cultural diversity.”
• Catholic Charities and the Office of Social Concerns will continue to build up their services, including collaboration with the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights on advocacy efforts for migrants and refugees.

• Offices that support the pastoral needs of the diocese will "include the teaching of the document [Welcoming the Stranger Among Us] within in-services and workshops to educate their constituencies." Seminarians and permanent deacon candidates will receive copies of the document. The diocese will offer special cultural sensitivity training sessions for its priests and the pastoral center staff as part of ongoing formation efforts.
• The Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Office will proactively work to enhance information-sharing and coordination with parish cultural groups, so as to encourage parish outreach to ethnic groups, promote successful integration and cultural collaboration.
• The Office for Multicultural Affairs will work with existing ethnic communities to provide formation for “Cultural Leaders” to serve the dioceses and the ethnic/cultural groups. They will also work with the African Communities Core Group to begin a program of special outreach to recently arrived Catholic African immigrants.
• The Southern Cross diocesan newspaper will highlight successful efforts at integration and collaboration. Parish information pamphlets, street signs, and web addresses will all be used to increase visibility of Catholic resources for cultural and ethnic groups within the diocese.

• The diocese will improve its social and pastoral services with awareness of the challenge to welcome the stranger. Planning for the Diocesan Synod in the fall of 2004 will include special emphasis on the processes of “welcome and evangelization
• The diocese will work to create “Committees of Welcome” in each parish. They will be encouraged to study Welcoming the Stranger Among Us and trained to provide social services and a ministry of welcome.
• The diocese will work to develop a sense of communion between those in ministries of welcome and those that are the beneficiaries of those ministries through a common understanding "that they are Church and that we each have something to offer" and that we can all be open to various ideas and suggestions.

• To kick-off the Action Planning process for Unity in Diversity, the Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco hosted a clergy convocation day in which the regional training delegation presented what they learned at the conference as well as solicited feedback from the clergy.
• The Dept. of Pastoral Ministry (which encompasses many pastoral offices such as Ethnic Ministries, Religious Education, etc.) will head-up a multi-faceted project which aims to first identify the make-up of the parishes and the newly arrived, and then to provide training to clergy and lay leaders on the message of “Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity.” Each parish will then develop an action plan to infuse the message of the statement into their parish life.
• To assist in this effort, the Department of Pastoral Ministry will develop a Handbook on Culture and Ethnicity which highlights the many different ethnic and cultural communities that reside in the diocese. The Handbook will be distributed to members of the clergy, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, parish councils, school administrators, DRE’s, youth ministry / young adult ministry directors, and directors of archdiocesan offices. It will include demographic information on the concentration of ethnic groups in parishes/deaneries. It will also include historical and cultural information on each major cultural and ethnic group residing in the archdiocese.

• A Bishop-Appointed Steering Committee, comprised of Directors from many different offices, is developing an in-service training session for priests, diocesan and parish staff members, leaders and volunteers. Multicultural expert Fr. Eric Law will be the key-note speaker. The aim of the training is to engender the participants with increased sensitivity and improved skills needed to help make the diocese and parishes more welcoming and inclusive.
• Following the initial training session, the diocese plans to hire a part-time coordinator to provide technical assistance to parishes in implementing the Unity in Diversity pastoral statement at the local level and to aid them in the multicultural ministry efforts.
• The Bishop of Stockton has requested that all diocesan directors, pastors and parish leaders incorporate the vision of “Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity” into the fabric of their five-year preparation process for the upcoming Diocesan Synod.
• The new Migrant Pastoral Ministry will identify and seek “ways to meet the religious, social, economic, and human needs of the migrant worker community.”
• With “the second most prisoners of any diocese in the world,” the diocese will seek ways to fulfill its “special responsibility to provide pastoral care and appropriate spiritual and liturgical opportunities for these men and women.”
• Parishes now working toward the diocesan goal of establishing Social Ministry Teams will be encouraged to make sure their membership is ethnically diverse. The diocese hopes the efforts of those groups will be “to build networks, advocate for immigrants programs, create community organizations, share ethnic celebrations, and volunteer at the migrant camps.”

• The Diocese of Tucson will develop a “Diocesan Pastoral Ministry Center” for immigrants based out of a parish with direct proximity to the border. The Center is designed to address the physical, legal and pastoral needs of migrants.
• The Center will be staffed by a full-time coordinator who will develop the support of a regular volunteer base that will assist in providing services. The Center is also partnering with a number of agencies to provide services, including Catholic Social Services to provide free immigration and citizenship consultations; the University of Arizona to provide free medical care to migrants; the Pima county Interfaith Council in advocacy efforts; local service social service agencies to provide immediate emergency needs; and parishes to help migrant families become acquainted and integrated into the community and parish life.
• This Center will develop a model for identification and training of committed clergy and laity, permitting the creation of strategies for expanding such a program to other parishes throughout the diocese.