We need more from Catholic bishops than a mixed response to racism

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Damarra Atkins pays homage to George Floyd with a mural in George Floyd Square on April 23 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo / Julio Cortez)

American Catholic bishops are frequently criticized by left and right for what they say in the political arena. The Conservatives want them to speak out more on abortion and gender issues and less on immigration and the poor. Progressives, on the other hand, want them to do the exact opposite.

But it’s what the bishops didn’t say, especially on racial justice, that kept them from being a more prophetic voice in American life. Few or no bishops, for example, participated in the Black Lives Matter movement or said anything about voter suppression laws. African Methodist episcopal clergy, on the other hand, rallied around and threatened to boycott voter suppression bills in state legislatures across the country. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said nothing.

The reluctance of Catholic bishops to deal with racial issues has deep roots in Catholic history. The Catholic bishops did not lead the abolitionist movement. Catholic immigrants, many of whom were poor, did not want to die to free black slaves. Instead, during the Civil War, Catholics who could not afford to buy their way out of military conscription, like the wealthiest Americans, revolted in northern cities.

Catholics themselves suffered from discrimination and prejudice. “Irish does not need to apply” signs were widespread in the North East. The Ku Klux Klan was not only against blacks, but also against Jews and Catholics.

As Catholics gained power in the cities through the political machines of the Democratic Party, this affiliation meant that nationally they were aligned with the Southern Dixiecrats, an alliance that prevented them from helping black Americans. Meanwhile, employers have done their part by pitting Catholic immigrants against blacks in the competition for low-skilled jobs.

In all of this, Catholic bishops reflected the political and social environment from which they came. Diocesan seminaries were not very welcoming to black vocations.

When the civil rights movement began, nuns, not Catholic bishops, marched with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Today almost all bishops quote King, but their predecessors did not approach him.

The bishops issued declarations in 1958 (against segregation and the Jim Crow laws) and 1968 (against racism and the policies that led to urban unrest), and more comprehensive declarations in 1979 (“Brothers and Sisters to Us “) and 2018 (” Open Wide Nos coeurs “). The black bishops had a strong voice in the drafting of the last two documents, but many saw the declarations as “too little too late” rather than revolutionary.

Despite these documents, bishops still struggled over the past year to answer racial questions that were, along with COVID-19 and the economy, at the top of people’s minds.

In May 2020, following the death of George Floyd, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a firm declaration by the chairmen of seven of its committees.

“We are heartbroken, sickened and outraged to watch yet another video of an African American being killed before our very eyes,” the mostly progressive bishops said. “What is more astonishing is that this occurs just a few weeks after several other events of this type. It is the last warning signal to which each of us must respond in a spirit of determined conversion.

“Racism is not a thing of the past or just a throwaway political issue that can be talked about when it is appropriate,” they wrote. “It is a real and present danger that must be faced head-on.”

“While we are expected to advocate for peaceful non-violent protests, and we certainly do,” they continued, “we also passionately support communities which are understandably outraged.”

Subsequent statements from the bishops’ conference tended to emphasize the need for protests to be peaceful rather than passionately supporting black communities.

For example, on Martin Luther King’s Day this year, Archbishop José Gomez, president of the bishops’ conference, issued a declaration which spoke less of justice than of the need to avoid violence. Likewise, last August, the conference urged prayer and fasting following violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

What progressives and black Catholics would have preferred was a loud cry for racial justice and an end to police violence. They wanted to see the bishops support Black Lives Matter.

Bishops find it difficult to join a group unless it agrees with the bishops on all other matters. This, of course, is politically unrealistic, but that’s why you rarely see bishops signing with other groups.

Additionally, bishops know their flocks are politically divided, and with the exception of a few issues like abortion, they don’t want to appear to be taking sides. It is also not insignificant that the police, like the clergy, has always been a strongly Irish Catholic profession. Almost every bishop would have a family member or friend who is a cop.

In June of last year, three episcopal conference presidents sent a letter to Congress on accountability and police reform. As the bishops’ conference press release explained, “The bishops note that while law enforcement officers provide” a formidable and necessary service, “the” terrible and unjust murder of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and many others “demonstrate that there are must be” better practices for police training and accountability, certainly in the use of lethal force, but also in patterns of discrimination and prejudice. , so that real accountability can take place before more lives are lost. “

The letter’s specific policy recommendations are not cited in the press release. These include “collection of data on use of force, de-escalation training, work to end racial profiling, removal of strangles, use of body cameras, greater accountability and remedies relating to those exercising public authority; and a commission to further study the matter and make further recommendations. “

Nothing is said in the letter about taking money from police budgets for use in alternative responses to 911 calls. They do, however, quote Pope Paul VI’s famous saying: “If you want peace. , work for justice. They go on to say, “When protesters cry, ‘No justice, no peace,’ perhaps without realizing it, they are paraphrasing an axiom of the Church.”

The record of American Catholic bishops on the race is mixed. Just counting the number of press releases indicates that abortion and immigration are more important to them. To say they don’t care about racism is defamatory, but neither can it be said that they are leaders on this issue except for black bishops like Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington.

Other bishops, like most of white America, will generally say the right thing when the issue of racism arises, but it does not haunt them on a daily basis like black Americans.

Catholics deserve better leadership from bishops in the fight against racism. We have to see them in the streets with Black Lives Matter and we have to hear them speak out against voter suppression. Our church needs it; Our country needs it.

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