MARIANIST USE OF THE CULTURAL AUDIT

Ted Cassidy, SM

The Cultural Audit is a tool to help understand the power of culture and how to appreciate one’s own and other cultures. Marianists are using the Cultural Audit tool in two ways.  The first is the development of Cultural Audit workshops being planned for Marianists by a team of Marianist Laity and members of Marianist Sisters and the Society of Mary. The Marianist Cultural Team members are: Ted Cassidy, SM; Debbie Durand; Laola Hironaka, FMI; Joanne Mc Cracken; Judy McKloskey; Franklin Pao, SM; Kevin Fitzpatrick; Jerry Sullivan, SM; Rudy Vela, SM; and A.J. Wagner.

Eight members of the team participated in a basic Cultural Audit workshop sponsored by The Center for the Study of Religious Life either in June 2004 or in January of 2005. In February 2005 the team met in St. Louis with Sister Carejean Willie, SC, PhD, a Cultural Diversity Consultant, to plan how to present the Cultural Audit to fellow Marianists. Three members of the team got together for a further planning session in Cincinnati in May 2005 to prepare the details of the workshop to be offered. At this gathering two programs scenarios of workshops for teaching the Audit, one for two hours and the other daylong, were developed.  Workshop materials including prayer, icebreaker, power point presentations, a tool kit of materials, Marianist documents and stories as well as basics of the Cultural Audit process are being prepared for the workshops.

Plans are being made to present a pilot workshop to the staff of the North American Center for Marianist Studies in the fall of 2005. After this initial workshop members of the team will offer the workshops in various parts of the country.

The Marianist Cultural Audit Team is part of the Anti-Racism Team of the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative (MSJC).          

The second way aspects of the Cultural Audit are being offered is through retreats for the Marianist Brothers in the summer of 2005. Frances Cunningham, OSF; Paul Michalenko, ST; Rudy Vela, SM, and Caroljean Willie, SC; along with others, are leading six retreats entitled Prophetic Function of Marianist Identity and Culture in various locations around the country.