From Jan 2 until Jan 11 2017, I will be away giving an “Interculturality Workshop” to the leadership team and the formators of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (CSSP) at one of their formation houses in Benin West Africa. Religious Orders—especially missionary orders—are today becoming extremely multi-cultural. Because we are from very different cultures, our preferences, the kinds of foods we like, our customs, our behaviors and the ways we look at things can be very different. Since we are required to live together in small communities our differences make this very challenging. We need to be open and more sensitive to other ways of doing things, and not judgmental. We need to be more adaptable, and learn how to take on new and unfamiliar behaviors. Developing these new skills requires goodwill, persistence and some initial training. This training is done through interculturality workshops like the ones I’ve been giving to members of religious orders. But of course here in the USA, and especially in S. California, we are also becoming very multicultural and it is becoming quite clear that we are also in need of these new skills. Having them is becoming a requirement for our situation of extreme diversity. This is something that is also becoming important for our Catholic parishes and, as time goes on, I hope to be offering some of this training right here at BSP.