Our diocese has always been historically diverse and even thought the issue of racial injustice is national in scope we have a special responsibility to uphold our historical legacy by responding to this issue at a time when our nation can no longer afford to stay silent and accept the systemic nature of racism in our society. Bishop Neil Tiedemann and Fr. Alonzo Cox offered their response to what the Church has to say about racism at the special Mass this past weekend. We at Catholic Charities in Brooklyn and Queens would like to add to this response by promoting a process for our parishes. This would be a process of solidarity where fellow parishioners would engage one another in dialogue to break the culture of divisiveness and racial injustice by allowing the diverse members of our community to come to know and respect one another.
To this end we would like to share with you’re the following resources from Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA): The full name of the document is “Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good” The first resource is a position paper on the research that CCUSA did with regards to social connection between poverty and racism. This research employs the See, Judge, Act model in analyzing the relationship and root causes of the poverty and racial discrimination on issues like affordable housing, criminal justice, wealth disparity and immigration. The second document is a facilitator’s guide with tools for engaging with the community in a process of prayer, analysis, reflection and commitment on this issue.
Catholic social teaching reminds us that "racism is a sin: a sin that divides the human family, blots out the image of God among specific members of that family, and violates the fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same Father." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops teach us that racism is a social sin that stains our corporate human dignity, they taught that is their 1979 document "Brothers and Sisters To Us" and in 2018 they reaffirmed and updated their teaching with the pastoral document "Open Wide Our Hearts". In less than a month the Catholic world we be introduced to the latest social encyclical by Pope Francis which is being titled Fratelli Tutti or "All Brothers,” This Encyclical will be on fraternity and social friendship. In anticipation of this document we hope to be a visible sign of solidarity and unity in the spirit of Pope Francis’ latest social teaching. In the coming days we hope to also promote a parish sharing process so that parishioners from different communities can also enter into a fraternal relationship with one another and become more aware of who we are as the Body of Christ, a body which the sin of racism can no longer stain.
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