A woman in Washington holds a placard near law enforcement officers June 6, 2020. Demonstrations continue after a white police officer in Minnesota was caught on a bystander’s video May 25 pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd, an African American, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. (CNS photo/Erin Scott, Reuters)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.” (Pope Francis, papal audience, June 3, 2020)
In his papal audience message to the U.S. people on June 3, Pope Francis supported the statement by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis and subsequent protests. “We join our brother bishops to challenge everyone to come together, particularly with those who are from different cultural backgrounds … to seek greater understanding amongst God’s people … to rid ourselves of the harm that bias and prejudice cause … Racism is a real and present danger that must be met head on.”
Catholics across the United States are calling all to address the “sin of racism” and its consequences today.
How tragically ironic that George Floyd’s dying cry: “I can’t breathe,” is not only the most lethal coronavirus symptom, but is now the rallying cry of anti-racism movements around the world. Recent protests and riots reveal more than a coincidental correlation between the coronavirus pandemic and racism’s consequences. COVID-19 has magnified deepening inequity in the world today. Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s spread in part because many of their members are also our society’s “essential workers” — doctors, nurses, first responders, cleaning and transportation workers, grocery clerks, food pickers, processors and deliverers. All are often more exposed to the deadly virus because of the demands of their work and their economic situation.
Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich calls the pandemic a “great revealer of societal cancers as deadly as the virus. As others have pointed out, health insecurity kills, and poverty is poison. … Surely a nation which could put a man in space … can create a fair legal system, equitable education and employment opportunities and ready access to health care.”
El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz knelt and prayed in a public park with fellow priests, then said “We also need to recognize that we are seeing the effects of centuries of sin and violence and rights denied playing themselves out. And frankly, civil rights are not enough. That’s the minimum and clearly, we’re not there yet. We also need to be building a society with housing, and education and health care, and just wages for all, as well as the right to migrate. Then we can begin to heal … now we need to stand with, and listen to those who have been unheard for too long.”
On Pentecost Sunday here in Hawaii, as Catholics began celebrating again in our parish churches, Bishop Larry Silva’s homily held up the hope that the Holy Spirit can help us “govern by participating in processes that make our economy an economy that puts people before profits; that assures the dignity of each person and the dignity of work; and that effectively addresses all things that dehumanize, knowing that God himself has dignified every human person forever by allowing us to share in his divine life.”
The USCCB concluded its collective statement to all our country’s Catholics with this compelling plea: “We call upon Catholics to pray to the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of Truth to touch the hearts of all in the United States and to come down upon our criminal justice and law enforcement systems. Finally, let each and every Catholic, regardless of their ethnicity, beg God to heal our deeply broken view of each other, as well as our deeply broken society.”
For more on what Pope Francis and U.S. bishops are saying and calling all Catholics in our country to do at this time about the consequences of racism on our communities, please visit the USCCB website usccb.org.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
Witnessed with great concern
Pope Francis included these remarks in his June 3, 2020, papal audience.
Dear brothers and sisters in the United States,
I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of George Floyd. My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.”
Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn.
May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world. May God bless all of you and your families.
