Call to Action Metro NY supports
USCCB Pastoral Letter on Racism and applies it to the Chapter
Call to Action on Mass incarceration
The November 2018 meeting of the USCCB approved publication of Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism
RACISM DEFINEDThe letter defines racism as people “… either consciously or unconsciously…holding that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior and therefore judges person of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard.” The letter notes that when this conviction or attitude leads “individuals or groups to exclude, ridicule, mistreat or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity, it is sinful. Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice. They reveal a failure to … recognize them as the neighbors Christ calls us to love (Mt 22:39).”
SILENCE, THE CHURCH AND MASS INCARCERATION
One of the many forms of racism noted by the letter is silence. The sin of omission occurs “when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial injustice when it is encountered. The letter quotes the Pew Research Center that the “number of inmates of color (in prison), notably those who are brown and black, is grossly disproportionate.” The letter considers the role of the Catholic Church in racism including the Papal Bull of 1452, Dum Diversas, Nicholas V which “granted apostolic permission for the kings of Spain and Portugal to buy and sell Africans, setting the stage for the slave trade.” Despite subsequent Popes rejection of slavery “many American Catholic leaders, including Catholic bishops, failed to formally oppose slavery; some even owned slaves.”
CALL TO ACTION
The USCCB has mandated the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism to work for justice and implement the vision of this letter. The letter instructs “priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, lay leaders, parish staff and all the faithful to endeavor to be missionary disciples carrying forth the message of fraternal charity and human dignity… (and to work on) developing and supporting programs that help repair the damages caused by racial discrimination.”
THE CHALLENGE OF THE CALL TO ACTION
The letter remind us that this work (as missionary disciples) is not easy. The letter encourages us to “invite into dialogue those we ordinarily would not seek out. We must work to form relationships with those we might regularly try to avoid. This demands that we go beyond ourselves, opening our minds and hearts to value and respect the experience of those who have been harmed by the evil of racism. Love also requires us to invite a change of heart in those who may be dismissive of other’s experiences or whose hearts may be hardened by prejudice or racism.”
CTA Metro NY has accepted the invitation of the of “Open Wide Our Hearts..” Clearly mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow structures supporting it were caused by racism and now is the time to help repair the damage caused by the structures that created mass incarceration.
Call to Action Metro NY, Inc