We Are Called!
In contrast to their blathering around the sex abuse crisis, the USCCB did approve “open wide our hearts: the enduring call to love. a pastoral letter against racism,” oddly titled in lower case. It’s pretty good.
As a young person, I was deeply inspired by the bishops’ 1958 pastoral on the same subject. I took every opportunity to hear Martin Luther King. I read his letters and speeches as they came out. With others in the National Federation of Catholic College Students, I marched on Minneapolis on the day of the March on Washington. In 1964, Jane Duffin, then of the Grail and now of the Philadelphia Irish Edition, organized a project in Lafayette, Louisiana, to register voters and teach catechism in a black parish. It changed my life and my understanding of the South and of Southern Catholicism. I’ve learned a lot more about structural racism since, but I can’t forget the dirt roads in the black section of town and the white folks’ brick church, among many other examples of Jim Crow. And I came back telling my parents that the North was just as bad.
I’m not going to review that 1958 document, but what I remember is a lot like this: “Racism is a moral problem that requires a moral remedy—a transformation of the human heart—that impels us to act.” The focus of the current document is on changing hearts – with intellectual inspiration as well as emotional. The following paragraph about the ways racism is a life issue will give you a feel for the specificity of some of the analysis and the consistent reliance on biblical quotes. You’d think we were Protestants! There are no references to theologians except two to Augustine, though recent popes and church documents get the most citations. Secular and historical sources bolster some arguments
Our Commitment to Life
The injustice and harm racism causes are an attack on human life. TheChurch in the United States has spoken out consistently and forcefully against abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, the death penalty, and other forms of violence that threaten human life. It is not a secret that these attacks on human life have severely affected people of color, who are disproportionally affected by poverty, targeted for abortion, have less access to healthcare, have the greatest numbers on death row, and are most likely to feel pressure to end their lives when facing serious illness. As bishops, we unequivocally state that racism is a life issue. Accordingly, we will not cease to speak forcefully against and work toward ending racism. Racism directly places brother and sister against each other, violating the dignity inherent in each person. TheApostle James commands the Christian: “show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (Jas 2:1).
Will they make these arguments against racism as effectively as they did the pro-life push for the Supreme Court? I am waiting to see, especially whether these resources are used in parishes. The only person in my Commonweal discussion group whose church studied Laudato Si, the environmental encyclical, is an Episcopalian. Just sayin.’
There’s no excuse for not studying this document. There are 22 different educational resources from kindergarten to adult. I reviewed the one for college and university level, and it’s good. As part of a session, they suggest that groups of students use their phones to “look up a news article that exemplifies the issues at play in their backgrounder,” documents from the USCCB that address:
Racism and Economic Inequality
Racism and the Criminal Justice System
Racism and the Native American Experience
While the backgrounders are uneven, relating teaching to the real world is good. There are similar resources for parishes – OK, also 22 – from bulletin inserts to a pastoral aid for the first Sunday in Advent, 2018. That’s very good, with many recommendations for action as well as scriptural interpretations. So preachers, get going!
I know too much to be completely satisfied with the bishops’ treatment of three groups in the text itself: Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics; but they write with passion that may reflect their composition as a committee. It’s not like the women’s pastoral in the 1990s: there are actually bishops who have experienced racism themselves. They write about heroes like Augustus Tolton and St. Katharine Drexel, as well as bad historical actors like Nicholas V and many unnamed churchmen. I am ecstatic when they suggest people go to museums to learn this history! While they end with sappy prayer to Mary, not nearly as radical as the Magnificat, they frame the document with Micah:
You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
and what your God requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God. (Mi 6:8)
Sing it out and sing it loud!
We are called!
4 Responses
What a great message – thank you!!
Original sin corrupted gender relations more deeply and more universally than any other kind of human relations (cf. Genesis 3:16) so sexism will be even more difficult to overcome than racism. However, the original unity of man and woman has been fully restored in Christ by the redemption, so overcoming sexism (including religious sexism!) is a certainty of the Christian faith.
Thank you, Fr Luis Gutierrez for your great support. I used your 36 points for meditation during a talk about the case for women’s ordination here in Sydney. Thanks for this great insight into certainty in Christ for overcoming religious sexism.
Thanks Regina for giving this the attention it deserves. There is so much yet for us to learn about how insidious racism is, how we perpetuate, and how we can be a force for change. I welcome your invitation to read the full document.