As one of the most culturally diverse regions in the nation, it only made sense that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops would call on the Diocese of San Bernardino ten years ago to help pilot its new Building Intercultural Competencies for Ministers (BICM) program.
The effort began in April 2011 with a three-day retreat at El Carmelo Retreat House in Redlands, where nearly 40 diocesan and parish leaders received the five-module training. Months later, four people from the Diocese traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to be trained in how to teach the program.
Soon after, Bishop Barnes made the decision that the training would be mandatory for all full-time parish and diocesan employees. Auxiliary Bishop Rutilio del Riego oversaw the launching of BICM in the Diocese. A core team to teach the five modules was assembled, consisting of Vice Chancellors Deacon Michael Jelley and Maria Echeverria, Pastoral Planning Director Laura Lopez, Ministry of Educational Services Director +Joyce Drake, Communications Director John Andrews, Filipino Ministry leader Naida Castro and David Okonkwo, Director of the Diocesan Ministry to Catholics of African Descent.
Bishop Barnes said he felt the BICM program was a top priority because while there are many different cultures present in the Diocese, there is a need for greater integration and shared leadership and decision making among the different groups in parish life.
“When we have this meeting of cultures, that’s an opportunity for us to evangelize one another,” Bishop Barnes said during a 2020 interview with Wordnet Television. “And the Church has always done that; it’s one of the great successes of the Catholic Church is that everybody belongs.”
The training’s first module celebrates and articulates the Church’s multicultural nature and theology, the second seeks to define the elements of culture, the third looks at the significantly different perspectives that cultures bring to the table in working together in ministry, the fourth calls participants to confront prejudice and racism in church life, and the fifth presents a series of movements to better integrate all cultures into parish life and leadership.
“He realized the benefits that can be gained from it,” Echeverria said of Bishop Barnes’ promotion of the BICM program. “The self-discovery and learning are what makes us who we are.
“We all have our own perspective on things. We don’t have think alike and act alike in order to work together.”
On the issue of racism, Bishop Barnes has provided powerful messages during moments of intense racial division in the nation. In a moment of stunning humility, the Bishop identified himself during his keynote talk at the 2015 Combined Vicariate meeting as a “recovering racist.” During a virtual Mass in June 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, Bishop Barnes called racism the “original sin” of the nation.
“It’s not only in our heart but it’s imbedded in the structures of our society, and it needs to be confronted,” he said during his homily. “Who’s going to do that if not the Spirit that resides in us?”
To date, 2,061 people have received BICM training. It has been offered annually or bi-annually at the Diocesan Pastoral Center every year as a three-day training. Beginning in 2018, a condensed version of the training has been offered for parish volunteer ministers in seven different parishes.
“It was thought-provoking and heavy because it was filled with truths,” said Diocesan Information Technology Services Director Ed Jabo, who attended the most recent BICM this fall, “truths that we don’t want to acknowledge.”
In his retirement Bishop Barnes remains active on committees at both the diocesan and state level to address racism in Church life.