NJ Catholic Diocese Writes of Multiculturalism as a New Sort of Normal

The Beacon, which is a newsletter of the Catholic Paterson Diocese of New Jersey, seems to have jumped on the multicultural bandwagon. In a recent front-page photo of parishioners at a recent event, the faithful were carrying flags of multiple nations. As most of New Jersey's Catholic immigrants are from Latin America, it was not surprising that the bulk of the flags shown reflected that fact.

This is of course not a problem; the Church in the United States has been a community of immigrants from various countries since the first Catholics arrived from England, Germany, and then Ireland.

The part that I found disturbing was that the description of the photo mentioned the multiculturalism as an established fact for the United States, the Diocese and the Church as a whole. I confess (No pun intended) that I came across this while attending church. Are there to be no places of refuge from the tide of Leftist propaganda?

The United States is a nation which is unified by integration and assimilation. Entire State and Supreme Court decisions  have been based on that very principle. Multiculturalism as an idea is not used to refer to immigrants communities that stay together for communal and economic purposes and slowly diminish in size as second and third-generation Americans move away and often marry other Americans. An example provided by Wikipedia defines Multiculturalism as "the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations."

The manner in which this principle is normally applied is not for immigrant neighborhoods (That are largely temporary like New York’s Little Italy - almost no people of Italian descent live there anymore) but actual separate groups that are expected to remain separate and that any expectation of integration or assimilation is an example of the high crime of today-intolerance. Note that the definition mentions not just acceptance but "promotion" of new cultures. Promoting a culture is not a normal means to encourage new Americans to assimilate like 18th and 19th-century immigrants were expected to do. What was required of previous immigrants resulted in a tremendously successful period of assimilation.

Those familiar with the demographic makeup of New Jersey are well aware of Latin American immigrants who have lived in the US for many years but have made little to no effort to learn English. I'm not talking about broken English, I mean people who will not even make an attempt to communicate in English and immediately ask if anyone present can "Speak Spanish?" I happen to speak Spanish quite well for a kid that grew up in a town with virtually no Spanish speakers but I make a point of encouraging the person to speak English. I will usuallly not switch to Spanish unless it is clear that the individual is unable to do so. Many of the same (and their children) have the carelessness to speak Spanish to a third-generation child in order that he/she will have that as a primary/first language. I already know the response to that; "Well I think that it is good for a child to have a second language". This of course dodges the point completely and ignores the fact that In American culture/society it is not unreasonable to expect that such children be brought up primarily speaking English in preparation to, at least do well in school, which is an blink of an eye away for a young child. It also ignores the fact that such carelessness does not help to establish a sense of identity for the child as an American. Many third-generation children can be taught the basics of one's ancestral language in private schools or in lessons in moderately priced teaching materials. Anything learned can of course be practiced in the home, as my High School-age son likes to do with me with his Spanish.

This hardly applies only to Latin Americans. I personally knew a gentleman from Romania who insisted that his son, who had been raised in the US almost from birth, refrain from playing in the local youth baseball league because baseball is an "American sport". Hey pal, are you telling me that your kid is not American?
Note that the family had no plans to return to live in Romania either.

I can offer an anecdote on how much things have changed to what we see today. My father's parents were both from Italy (my mother's from Ireland). My grandfather owned a food market in Brooklyn in the 20's and 30's. He had an employee who had lived in the US for probably thirty years and knew virtually no English. One day, a city health inspector arrived when that employee was running the shop and took a good long look at the horses that drew the carts. At one point the inspector handed a form to the employee and indicated that he should sign it. The employee complied, whereupon the inspector promptly drew a revolver and shot one of the horses. You can imagine the screaming and yelling that my father, returning from wherever he had been, heard as the terrified employee shouted in his operatic-style Neapolitan that he gave his approval for the horse to be shot and that he no doubt expected the same treatment to be meted out on him by his boss.

I of course do not call for a return to shooting people's animals without first providing an explanation that can be understood. I do though hold that we have swung so far to the other side that we bend over backwards to expect no effort whatsoever from today's immigrants.

The Catholic Church seems to be so overwhelmed by guilt from the past (Not nearly enough concerning pedophile priests, though) that it too has swung to a direction where those of the leadership cannot bring themselves to stand up for what is right. The Vatican recently called for a Central Banking body to keep a sure grip on the world's finances, it has referred to East Jerusalem as being illegally occupied, and now (in NJ) it takes yet another page out of the Leftist playbook and promotes a non-unifying idea of multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism is an idea sponsored by the Left and is often used as a weapon to chip away at any sense of identity of a nation’s people. The US has not experienced this phenomenon to the extent or with the severity that we see in Western European countries. One terrible example is the reaction to the horrific wave of rapes that has swept through those countries. I provide a link below this paragraph for statistics but hope that this will result in others seeking out statistics independently. The overwhelming majority of rapes in Western European countries are committed by Muslim immigrants on ethnic or indigenous Europeans. The liberal will be quick to point out that the West was not so nice in its colonial days, thus implying that "Who are you to judge others?". Even if this convoluted sense of logic could be taken into consideration for a nanosecond, it cannot be applied when we speak of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which have virtually no colonial history. (Norway has none at all)

http://www.truthandgrace.com/muslimrape.htm

I offer here a Leftist Feminist's response to this situation.
The response is from Unni Wikan, a Social Anthropology professor at the University of Oslo.

"Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes" because Muslim men found their manner of dress provocative. The professor's conclusion was not that Muslim men living in the West needed to adjust to Western norms, but the exact opposite: "Norwegian women must realize that we live in a multicultural society and adapt themselves to it."

Credit to Michael Winter of USA Today Feb. 15, 2011

I can only say that this has to be the most filthy remark that I have ever heard in my life, and it came from Leftist feminist (Yes, Unni Wikan is a woman)

I have noted in previous posts that the close of the 20th century saw the end of much of the stigma attached to being dishonest about one's opinion. A similar remark made in the period prior to this would have resulted in a response such as "Sir or Ma'am, that is clearly not true." The speaker would then be known from that point on as a person utterly lacking in credibility.Today we somehow are supposed to feel obligated to give one the benefit of the doubt and accept that a person believes what he/she says no matter how patently false, impossible. or purely filthy it is. An apologist with such a mindset would state. "Well, it's her opinion."

Well, no it's not - she's spewing garbage and she knows it.

It is no secret that Swedish men are marginalized to the point that they can hardly conduct themselves in a masculine manner in their our country, but Muslim men get a pass from Unni Wikan for raping her countrywomen because the targets happen to look attractive in what they wear. Unni would would never let a Swedish man assume any sort of manly role in her life, but she will allow that Muslim men can act like savages and blame the victims for their acts.

I do not accuse the Catholic Church of going this far, but my point is that embracing multiculturalism leaves those who have lived in a nation for generations (In Sweden’s case hundreds of generations) unable to stand up for the right to be what they are. Multiculturalism is a euphemism for the step-by-step dismantling of the identity of a people. The United States is American, not Latin American. Sweden is Swedish, and includes the Sami culture. Contrary to what the Leftists proclaim, neither is multicultural, at least in the manner that Leftist would want them to be. American Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans are all Americans and those who follow will become Americans in turn. The mere fact that there is a sizeable Muslim minority in Sweden does not make it a multicultural nation. It means that these immigrants have a responsibility to try to assimilate into Swedish culture and society. That is the idea of being allowed to have a new home. If these people refuse to assimilate then the host nation has the obligation to reconsider whether or not they may remain there.