Ethnic Heritage

Started by Ancilla Domini, January 10, 2014, 07:30:37 PM

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Ancilla Domini

January 10, 2014, 07:30:37 PM Last Edit: January 10, 2014, 07:32:30 PM by Ancilla Domini
What is your ethnic heritage, and to what extent do you identify with it? Is it a heritage that is historically Catholic? If so, does it contribute to the way that you practice Catholicism? If not, do you find yourself conflicted with regards to certain customs or worldviews?

My ancestry is almost entirely English and German, but I've lived most of my life in Latin cultures - in Southern Europe, Latin America, and parts of the US settled by the French and Spanish - so those are the cultures that I actually identify with. I do think that their long history of Catholicism contributes to my practice of it, in obvious ways such as holiday customs, but also in terms of general values that have been informed by Catholic morality for a very long time. However I do think one could also claim that cultures that have been historically so overwhelmingly Catholic can in some ways be lax compared to those where the faith was in the minority or even persecuted.

Anyway, I'm just curious to hear others' thoughts and experiences.  :) 
   

The Harlequin King

#1
January 10, 2014, 08:04:33 PM
I'm all over the place. But I enjoy having English and Indonesian heritage, even if one hasn't been Catholic in a while and the other hasn't been Catholic at all. I want to try living in Indonesia for two years at some point in my life, then England, and build a home at whichever country I end up liking best.

james03

#2
January 10, 2014, 08:29:37 PM
Mutt.  Italian, Irish, English, and Polish.  Don't really identify with anything other than American, though I lean Italian.
"But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God (Jn 3:18)."

"All sorrow leads to the foot of the Cross.  Weep for your sins."

"Although He should kill me, I will trust in Him"

Heinrich

#3
January 10, 2014, 08:53:06 PM
Polish first and foremost. Then maybe Irish, Scandinavian, and possibly Cherokee. But I am a Coloradan.
Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

maryslittlegarden

#4
January 10, 2014, 09:21:22 PM
Norwegian, Swedish, and German.  First two haven't been Catholic for a loooooong time.  I identify mostly with the Scandinavian side of things.

For a Child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace

totiusque

#5
January 10, 2014, 09:46:45 PM
Korean-Norwegian.  Neither nation very Catholic, but neither was I until the mid-1990s.  Since I mainly grew up in the midwest in a Protestant family, I can't say that I gained too much Catholic heritage from either side.
"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent."
—St John of the Cross

ts aquinas

#6
January 10, 2014, 09:48:15 PM
Germanic, Norman, Saxon blood here with a slight amount of Cherokee. I principally identify with my greater heritage and bloodline, Germanic. I enjoy and try to practice the spirituality that developed out of this once great country, personally I try and focus on the spirituality Meister Eckhart and Bl. Hildegard von Bingen developed (though they being separate but not conflicting I try and synthesize.)

MilesChristi

#7
January 10, 2014, 10:01:54 PM
Latin with a tinge of Latin. As in Latin, with a tinge of Italian from the male line.

From what I know of my country (Colombia), it is strict novus ordo land (except for Medellin and Bogota) with unfortunate protestant heresies floating around, with their "churches" and relgious ministers becoming popular in some area. (Don't get me started on the queers). The morning show that is very popular has a section with a very liberal (doctrinally) Protestant speaking about things, he used to be a priest and now... But one cannot avoid the Catholicism in the culture, even among those that don't practice, even from someone on my facebook that shares pages from an Atheist group, the greetings, the dismissals are all the same, Catholic. There is still an air there that never was here in the North, and in a way, you are still defined in reaction to the Church. Spiritually, I've gained a few prayers for my family, a Christmas novena (that we do every year without fail). In fact, my culture was the vessel through which God's grace got me to start practicing again, after a while of being incredibly lukewarm. I defined myself as Catholic, because how could one be anything else? It would be a betrayal to your heritage to be anything else.

Especially when I began to swing to the right and I held to Spain, it eventually told me that I could not be truly spanish without being Catholic, and that brought me back, in a way, it seems like the prayers of my ancestors from way back helped me (God willing they be in heaven). and that led me to traddom as well... 

Also, Colombia has Carnaval :)
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Penelope

#8
January 10, 2014, 10:16:09 PM
Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Scottish, English, and possibly Welsh, so definitely some Catholic heritage in there. My family identifies mostly with the Italian and then with the Irish lineage, which is typical for people from the greater Philadelphia area. Mostly, this impacts the foods we eat more than anything else, but in regard to practicing the Faith, it also impacts the saints who we tend to have devotions to. This cultural impact on the Faith all dissipates with each new generation, so really, my family has devolved into "generic American suburban with a hint of Catholic." It's really sad.

Ancilla Domini

#9
January 10, 2014, 10:23:57 PM
Quote from: MilesChristi on January 10, 2014, 10:01:54 PM
Latin with a tinge of Latin. As in Latin, with a tinge of Italian from the male line.

From what I know of my country (Colombia), it is strict novus ordo land (except for Medellin and Bogota) with unfortunate protestant heresies floating around, with their "churches" and relgious ministers becoming popular in some area. (Don't get me started on the queers). The morning show that is very popular has a section with a very liberal (doctrinally) Protestant speaking about things, he used to be a priest and now... But one cannot avoid the Catholicism in the culture, even among those that don't practice, even from someone on my facebook that shares pages from an Atheist group, the greetings, the dismissals are all the same, Catholic. There is still an air there that never was here in the North, and in a way, you are still defined in reaction to the Church. Spiritually, I've gained a few prayers for my family, a Christmas novena (that we do every year without fail). In fact, my culture was the vessel through which God's grace got me to start practicing again, after a while of being incredibly lukewarm. I defined myself as Catholic, because how could one be anything else? It would be a betrayal to your heritage to be anything else.

Especially when I began to swing to the right and I held to Spain, it eventually told me that I could not be truly spanish without being Catholic, and that brought me back, in a way, it seems like the prayers of my ancestors from way back helped me (God willing they be in heaven). and that led me to traddom as well... 

Also, Colombia has Carnaval :)

Miles, your experience is very similar to mine.

And Carnaval goes a long way!  :)

Roland Deschain

#10
January 10, 2014, 10:24:22 PM
Irish with a sprinkle of German on my father's side. English with a tiny bit of Dutch on my Mother's.

I've always identified with my Irishness being Catholic. I try to forget I'm anything but Irish  ;)
'Since Moses was alone, by having been stripped as it were of the people's fear, he boldly approached the very darkness itself and entered the invisible things where he was no longer seen by those watching. After he entered the inner sanctuary of the divine mystical doctrine, there, while not being seen, he was in company with the Invisible. He teaches, I think, by the things he did that the one who is going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and—lifting up his own mind, as to a mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible—believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach.'

—St Gregory of Nyssa

ImperialGuardsman

#11
January 10, 2014, 10:33:43 PM
Welsh on my dad's side, German and Norwegian on my mom's side.  It's more of a fun fact to me than a "real" identifier.  I would like to visit Wales, though I imagine it will never happen.  It would be cool to learn Welsh too.  Even less likely to occur.
"One would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive tableform; were he to want black excluded as a color for the liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Churches...and lastly were he to disdain and reject polyphonic music or singing in parts, even where it conforms to regulations issued by the Holy See." - Ven. Pope Pius XII

"You've thought about eternity for twenty-five minutes and think you've come to some interesting conclusions."--  (Stolen from EcceQuamBonum's signature)

America, that great bastion of the Enlightenment, is the destroyer of all religions.--LouisIX

Lynne

#12
January 10, 2014, 10:33:44 PM
I'm 50% French Canadian, 25% Italian and 25% Polish... I identify most strongly with the French Canadian (my mother).

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St Michael's Church in Atlantic City in the 1950s:

    "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you're supposed to do it, The best way you can do it,   For the Love of God. Amen"

Ancilla Domini

#13
January 10, 2014, 10:34:55 PM
Do you speak French, Lynne?

OzarkCatholic

#14
January 10, 2014, 11:01:36 PM
50% Hispanic, 50% "White".

My mother was one of eight kids, Catholic family, all but one still weekly and holy day mass-goers. All stuck in NO land though. My grandparents were married in the TLM, and have gone to daily mass NO as long as I have been alive. They are the holiest couple I know.

My father's parents are a mixture of English, Welsh, Irish, French, and German. He was raised Southern Baptist, but converted to the faith in the mid 80's before marrying. However, he is going through a crisis of faith  (:pray2:).

As far as cultures go, most of mine are generic in nature. Since we did not really develop or maintain many traditions in my household, I've begun to create new ones for myself and my future family. My fiancee is italian (though her dad converted to Buddhism and her mother is methodist-kind people, but odd mix) and she's also been seeking an identity so we're building our own together-staunchly catholic, peppered with our ancestral heritage, but firmly rooted in ethics, values, and class. We're having the lasso & arras at our wedding, as well as tejano music during the reception. We picked up on a number of Italian food trends when we vacationed in Rome, and brought those home-along with a newfound love for both english and Chinese tea. Finally, my time working at a local winery allowed me to re-assess my roots (pun intended) in the Show Me state and I developed an affinity for Norton wine, quickly purchasing up stock from my birth year, each of my siblings' birth years, and such. I intend to gift them on their 21st birthdays. Again, with the new traditions.

So my ethnic heritage is dang-near indescribable. On Government form's I'm hispanic, and Corpus Christi has the best Mexican sweet breads and breakfast tacos this side of the border. Tamales are a comfort food. But growing up with spanglish in my extended family made spanish impossible to learn, and I hate salsa (the dip and the dance). My dad grew up on a farm, fixed cars, and baled hay, but left that world to get a PHD in math. He passed along his disdain for anything rural, especially country music-long live hardcore punk. But his father was an engineer, and is one of the sharpest men I know. And my grandmother on that side makes the best ham I've ever had.

So we're a mix, my fiancee and I. But it's alright. We know how to have a good time, no matter the culture.
Feels like Groundhog Day again.
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