Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The document Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against

Racism was developed by the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church of the United

States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). It was approved by the full body of bishops as

a formal statement of the same at its November 2018 General Meeting and has been authorized

for publication by the undersigned.

Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield

General Secretary, USCCB

Scripture excerpts used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition,

reserved.

Holy Scripture boldly proclaims, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we

may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). This love “comes from God and

unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions

and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28).”

By the work of the Holy

Spirit, the Church is called to share with all the world this gift of love. As Pope Francis points

out, “The salvation which God has wrought, and the Church joyfully proclaims, is for everyone.

God has found a way to unite himself to every human being in every age.”

Through his Cross

and Resurrection, Christ united the one human race to the Father. However, even though Christ’s

victory over sin and death is complete, we still live in a world affected by them. As bishops of

the Catholic Church in the United States, we want to address one particularly destructive and

persistent form of evil. Despite many promising strides made in our country, racism still infects

our nation.

What Is Racism?

Racism arises when—either consciously or unconsciously—a person holds that his or her

own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as

inferior and unworthy of equal regard. 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 acknowledge the human dignity of the persons offended, to recognize them as the

neighbors Christ calls us to love (Mt 22:39).

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 18.

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 113.

Racism occurs because a person ignores the fundamental truth that, because all humans

share a common origin, they are all brothers and sisters, all equally made in the image of God.

When this truth is ignored, the consequence is prejudice and fear of the other, and—all too

often—hatred. Cain forgets this truth in his hatred of his brother. Recall the words in the First

Letter of John: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer

has eternal life remaining in him” (1 Jn 3:15). Racism shares in the same evil that moved Cain to

kill his brother. It arises from suppressing the truth that his brother Abel was also created in the

image of God, a human equal to himself. Every racist act—every such comment, every joke,

every disparaging look as a reaction to the color of skin, ethnicity, or place of origin—is a failure

to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God. In these and in

many other such acts, the sin of racism persists in our lives, in our country, and in our world.

Racism comes in many forms. It can be seen in deliberate, sinful acts. In recent times, we

have seen bold expressions of racism by groups as well as individuals. The re-appearance of

symbols of hatred, such as nooses and swastikas in public spaces, is a tragic indicator of rising

racial and ethnic animus. All too often, Hispanics and African Americans, for example, face

discrimination in hiring, housing, educational opportunities, and incarceration. Racial profiling

frequently targets Hispanics for selective immigration enforcement practices, and African

Americans, for suspected criminal activity. There is also the growing fear and harassment of

persons from majority Muslim countries. Extreme nationalist ideologies are feeding the

American public discourse with xenophobic rhetoric that instigates fear against foreigners,

immigrants, and refugees. Finally, too often racism comes in the form of the sin of omission,

when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial

injustice when it is encountered.

Racism can often be found in our hearts—in many cases placed there unwillingly or

unknowingly by our upbringing and culture. As such, it can lead to thoughts and actions that we

do not even see as racist, but nonetheless flow from the same prejudicial root. Consciously or

subconsciously, this attitude of superiority can be seen in how certain groups of people are

vilified, called criminals, or are perceived as being unable to contribute to society, even

unworthy of its benefits. Racism can also be institutional, when practices or traditions are upheld

that treat certain groups of people unjustly. The cumulative effects of personal sins of racism

have led to social structures of injustice and violence that makes us all accomplices in racism.

We read the headlines that report the killing of unarmed African Americans by law

enforcement officials. In our prisons, the number of inmates of color, notably those who are

brown and black, is grossly disproportionate.

Despite the great blessings of liberty that this

country offers, we must admit the plain truth that for many of our fellow citizens, who have done

nothing wrong, interactions with the police are often fraught with fear and even danger. At the

same time, we reject harsh rhetoric that belittles and dehumanizes law enforcement personnel

who labor to keep our communities safe. We also condemn violent attacks against police.

See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1869.

The Pew Research Center reports, “The racial and ethnic makeup of U.S. prisons continues to look

substantially different from the demographics of the country as a whole. In 2016, blacks represented

12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Whites accounted for

64% of adults but 30% of prisoners. And while Hispanics represented 16% of the adult population,

they accounted for 23% of inmates.” See John Gramlich, “The gap between the number of blacks and

whites in prison is shrinking,” January 12, 2018. www.pewresearch.org/fact-

tank/2018/01/12/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/ (accessed May 31,

2018).

We have also seen years of systemic racism working in how resources are allocated to

communities that remain de facto segregated. As an example, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan,

resulted from policy decisions that negatively affected the inhabitants, the majority of whom

were African Americans.

We could go on, for the instances of discrimination, prejudice, and

racism, sadly, are too many.

At significant times in our history, the bishops have written to express their pastoral

concern over the scourge of racism, which some have called our country’s original sin. In 1958,

the bishops wrote to condemn the blatant forms of racism found in segregation and “Jim Crow”

laws.

Ten years later, they wrote to condemn the scandal of racism and the policies and actions

that led to so much frustration that violence erupted in many cities.

In 1979, the bishops wrote

on how racism still affected so many of our brothers and sisters, highlighting the structural and

institutional forms of racial injustice evident in the economic imbalances found in our society.

With the positive changes that arose from the civil rights movement and related civil

rights legislation, some may believe that racism is no longer a major affliction of our society—

that it is only found in the hearts of individuals who can be dismissed as ignorant or

unenlightened. But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian

heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and it corrupts the souls of those who harbor

See Michigan Civil Rights Commission Report, “The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through

the Lens of Flint,” Michigan Department of Civil Rights Website, February 17, 2017.

www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcr/VFlintCrisisRep-F-Edited3-13-17_554317_7.pdf (accessed

August 10, 2018).

USCCB, Discrimination and Christian Conscience, November 14, 1958.

USCCB, National Race Crisis, April 25, 1968.

USCCB, Brothers and Sisters to Us, November 14, 1979.

racist or prejudicial thoughts. The persistence of the evil of racism is why we are writing this

letter now. People are still being harmed, so action is still needed.

What is needed, and what we are calling for, is a genuine conversion of heart, a

conversion that will compel change, and the reform of our institutions and society. Conversion is

a long road to travel for the individual. Moving our nation to a full realization of the promise of

liberty, equality, and justice for all is even more challenging. However, in Christ we can find the

strength and the grace necessary to make that journey.

In this regard, each of us should adopt the words of Pope Francis as our own: let no one

“think that this invitation is not meant for him or her.”

All of us are in need of personal, ongoing

conversion. Our churches and our civic and social institutions are in need of ongoing reform. If

racism is confronted by addressing its causes and the injustice it produces, then healing can

occur. In that transformed reality, the headlines we see all too often today will become lessons

from the past.

How do we overcome this evil of rejecting a brother or sister’s humanity, the same evil

that provoked Cain’s sin? What are the necessary steps that would lead to this conversion? We

find our inspiration in the words of the prophet Micah:

You have been told, O mortal, what is good,

and what the LORD requires of you:

Only to do justice and to love goodness,

and to walk humbly with your God. (Mi 6:8)

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 3.

To do justice requires an honest acknowledgment of our failures and the restoring of right

relationships between us. “If we acknowledge our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive

our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing” (1 Jn 1:9). To love goodness demands pursuing

“what leads to peace and to building up one another” (Rom 14:19). It requires a determined

effort, but even more so, it requires humility; it requires each of us to ask for the grace needed to

overcome this sin and get rid of this scourge. In what follows, we hope to provide a Christian call

for all of us in this country to “walk humbly with our God” so that, by his grace, racism will be

eradicated.

Do Justice

For a nation to be just, it must be a society that recognizes and respects the legitimate

rights of individuals and peoples.

These rights precede any society because they flow from the

dignity granted to each person as created by God.

We are reminded of this fundamental truth in

the earliest passages of the book of Genesis:

Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our

likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds

of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures

that crawl on the earth.

God created mankind in his image;

in the image of God he created them;

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 6.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1930.

male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27)

From revelation, we know that the one God who created the human race is Triune, a

communion of truth and love, and so by faith we recognize all the more clearly that human

beings are, by their very nature, made for communion. Pope Benedict XVI noted, “As a spiritual

being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he

or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by

isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with

God.”

We are meant to love God with our whole being, which then overflows into love for our

neighbor. “Whoever loves God must love his brother” (1 Jn 4:21).

This is the original meaning of justice, where we are in right relationship with God, with

one another, and with the rest of God's creation. Justice was a gift of grace given to all of

humanity. After sin entered the world, however, this sense of justice was overtaken by selfish

desires, and we became inclined to sin.

St. Augustine described well our lives after Eden,

saying that in the fallen world our relationships with one another have been guided by a “lust to

dominate.”

Whether recognized or not, the history of the injustices done to so many, because of

their race, flows from this “lust to dominate” the other. Even when we are freed from Original

Sin by Baptism, we continue to struggle with overcoming temptation and sin in our lives.

Although our nation has moved forward in a number of ways against racial

discrimination, we have lost ground in others. Despite significant progress in civil law with

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 53.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 405.

St. Augustine, City of God, Book I, Preface.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 978.

regard to racism, societal realities indicate a need for further catechesis to facilitate conversion of

hearts. Too many good and faithful Catholics remain unaware of the connection between

institutional racism and the continued erosion of the sanctity of life. We are not finished with the

work. The evil of racism festers in part because, as a nation, there has been very limited formal

acknowledgement of the harm done to so many, no moment of atonement, no national process of

reconciliation and, all too often a neglect of our history. Many of our institutions still harbor, and

too many of our laws still sanction, practices that deny justice and equal access to certain groups

of people. God demands more from us. We cannot, therefore, look upon the progress against

racism in recent decades and conclude that our current situation meets the standard of justice. In

fact, God demands what is right and just.

As Christians, we are called to listen and know the stories of our brothers and sisters. We

must create opportunities to hear, with open hearts, the tragic stories that are deeply imprinted on

the lives of our brothers and sisters, if we are to be moved with empathy to promote justice.

Many groups, such as the Irish, Italians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Poles, Jews, Chinese, and

Japanese, can attest to having been the target of racial and ethnic prejudice in this country. It is

also true that many groups are still experiencing prejudice, including rising anti-Semitism, the

discrimination many Hispanics face today, and anti-Muslim sentiment. Especially instructive at

this moment, however, are the historical and contemporary experiences of Native and African

Americans.

The Native American Experience

Before Europeans arrived, this land already had many diverse peoples upon it, with

varying customs, languages, and beliefs. As explorers, and then pioneers, arrived, relations with

Native Americans also varied but were mostly to the detriment of Native peoples. Native

Americans experienced deep wounds in the age of colonization and expansion, wounds that

largely remain unhealed and strongly impact the generations to this day—a fact that St. John

Paul II recognized when he met with Native peoples in 1987: “The early encounter between your

traditional cultures and the European way of life was an event of such significance and change

that it profoundly influences your collective life even today. That encounter was a harsh and

painful reality for your peoples. The cultural oppression, the injustices, the disruption of your life

and of your traditional societies must be acknowledged.”

Many European settlers were blind to the dignity of indigenous peoples. Colonial and

later U.S. policies toward Native American communities were often violent, paternalistic, and

were directed toward the theft of their land. Native Americans were killed, imprisoned, sold into

slavery, and raped. These policies decimated entire communities and brought about tragic death.

The results were massive, forced relocations of people, such as the forced removal of the

Cherokee people from the Southeast to the Western territories along the “Trail of Tears,” and of

the Navajo in the “Long Walk.” Thousands of men, women, and children died during those

forced removals. The forced relocation of peoples occurred again and again due to the idea that if

the indigenous peoples “interfered with progress they should be pushed aside.”

In many

boarding schools and orphanages, the objective was to “Americanize” Native children by forcing

St. John Paul II, Address at the Meeting with the Native Peoples of the Americas, September 14, 1987,

Phoenix, Arizona, no. 2.

U.S. Library of Congress, The Indians of Southern California in 1852; The B. D. Wilson Report and a

Selection of Contemporary Comment, Ed. John Walton Caughey (Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1952),

12. www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.051 (accessed May 31, 2018).

them to abandon all facets of their culture, including their native languages. In the words of the

superintendent of one school, the goal was to “kill the Indian, and save the man.”

During this time there were missions that stood as a barrier to the abuse of indigenous

peoples and provided a form of protection in a rapidly changing reality. Although not all

encounters with missionaries were benign, a number of missionaries heroically defended Native

Americans as they sought to bring the Good News of Christ to many who had yet to hear it. The

Jesuit Fr. Pierre-Jean de Smet and the Franciscan Anselm Weber, for example, worked tirelessly

in supporting and promoting Native American rights. Earlier, St. Junipero Serra frequently

clashed with civil authorities over the treatment of Native people. Many, but certainly not all,

Native peoples accepted the Gospel willingly. For instance, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Nicholas

William Black Elk, Sr., and the martyrs of La Florida Missions were moved by Christ’s message

of love, and by the example of Christians who honored their dignity.

Yet, in the order of natural justice, these acts done in the power of Christ’s Spirit are

overshadowed by the devastation caused by policies of expansion and manifest destiny, fueled

by racist attitudes, that led to the near eradication of Native American peoples and their cultures.

The effects of this evil remain visible in the great difficulties experienced by Native American

communities today. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate health care, poor schools, the

exploitation of natural resources, and disputes over land ownership are all factors that cannot,

and should not, be ignored.

Captain Richard H. Pratt, “On the Education of Native Americans,” Address to a Convention in 1892.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School Digital Resource Center.

http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/teach/kill-indian-and-save-man-capt-richard-h-pratt-education-

native-americans (accessed May 31, 2018).

The truth that we must face is straightforward. When one culture meets another, lack of

awareness and understanding often leads to grossly distorted value judgments and prejudice.

This prejudice fuels attitudes of superiority that are embedded in, and reinforced by, social

structures and laws. This is evident in how white European immigrants and pioneers acted in

their encounters with Native Americans; it is equally evident in the treatment of Africans who

were enslaved and brought to the shores of America.

The African American Experience

As this country was forming, Africans were bought and sold as mere property, often

beaten, raped, and literally worked to death. This form of slavery, known as chattel slavery, was

different from and far more brutal than the slavery known in ancient times. Racial categories,

which classified different ethnic communities as different races, some even as subhuman, were

used to justify this new form of slavery. The injustices of chattel slavery were horrifying and

lasted for generations. Families were separated, marriages were forbidden or dishonored, and

children were maltreated and forced to work. After slavery ended, many former slaves faced

continued servitude in the evolving economies that once relied upon their labor, and blacks

encountered new forms of resentment and violence. In freedom, millions of blacks lived in

constant fear for their lives. Most resided in extreme poverty and endured daily indignities in

their interactions with whites. Efforts to advance out of poverty by working a small farm, owning

a business, building a school, or forming a trade union generally met fierce resistance throughout

the country. For so many, the right to participate in the political process would be withheld or

severely hindered for another century.

Consistently, African Americans have been branded, by individuals, society, and even, at

times, by members of the Church, with the message that they are inferior. Likewise, this message

has been imprinted into the U.S. social subconscious. African Americans continue to struggle

against perceptions that they do not fully bear the image of God, that they embody less

intelligence, beauty, and goodness. This reality represents more than a few isolated stories; it was

the lived experience of the vast majority of African Americans for most of our national history.

We acknowledge with gratitude the religious orders whose charism embodied

evangelizing and caring for those who were marginalized and unwelcomed. We recall the bold

witness of the Divine Word Missionaries, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Sisters of the Holy

Family, the Josephites, the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary, and the Blessed Sacrament Sisters.

Likewise, countless individuals—Daniel Rudd, Thomas Wyatt Turner, Sr. Thea Bowman, and

Dr. Lena Edwards to name a few—worked tirelessly against the prevailing current of racism to

share the Catholic faith with persons of African descent.

Still, to understand how racism works today, we must recognize that generations of

African Americans were disadvantaged by slavery, wage theft, “Jim Crow” laws, and by the

systematic denial of access to numerous wealth-building opportunities reserved for others. This

has left many African Americans without hope, discouraged, disheartened, and feeling unloved.

While it is true that some individuals and families have thrived, significant numbers of African

Americans are born into economic and social disparity.

The poverty experienced by many of

these communities has its roots in racist policies that continue to impede the ability of people to

See R. Kochhar and A. Cilluffo, “How wealth inequality has changed in the U.S. since the Great

Recession, by race, ethnicity and income,” Pew Research Center, November 1, 2017.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/01/how-wealth-inequality-has-changed-in-the-u-s-since-the-

great-recession-by-race-ethnicity-and-income/ (accessed May 31, 2018).

find affordable housing, meaningful work, adequate education, and social mobility.

The

generational effects of slavery, segregation, and the systemic use of violence—including the

lynching of more than 4,000 black men, women, and children across 800 different counties

throughout the United States between 1877 and 1950

—are realities that must be fully

recognized and addressed in any process that hopes to combat racism.

The Hispanic Experience

Of course, experiencing racism is not limited to African or Native Americans. Many

different groups of people have encountered “in varying degrees the evil of discrimination, racial

prejudice, and oppression that endangers the very fabric of American society.”

Some of the

same patterns of prejudice and discrimination have been repeated. At this time, we would be

remiss not to highlight the experience of Hispanics in our country. Since the Mexican-American

War, Hispanics from various countries have experienced discrimination in housing, employment,

healthcare, and education. Hispanics have been referred to by countless derogatory names, have

encountered negative assumptions made about them because of their ethnicity, have suffered

discrimination in applying for college, for housing, and in registering to vote. Despite their

sizable share of the U.S. workforce and their numerous contributions to U.S. economy in many

See USCCB Backgrounder, “Racism: Confronting the Poison in Our Common Home,” January 2016.

www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/upload/racism-backgrounder.pdf

(accessed May 31, 2018).

Equal Justice Initiative, “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, Third

Edition,” Lynching in America–Equal Justice Initiative, https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

(accessed November 6, 2018).

USCCB, Reconciled Through Christ: On Reconciliation and Greater Collaboration Between Hispanic

American Catholics and African American Catholics (Washington, DC: USCCB, 1997), 4.

different fields and industries, the large income gap between Hispanic and European Americans

points to the persistence of certain discriminatory practices in employment and pay.

In the not

too distant past, Hispanics encountered signs in restaurants and shops that read, “No Mexicans or

Blacks Allowed.” Moreover, there have been over 550 documented cases of Hispanics being

lynched, and experts estimate that the number could actually be twice as large.

Hispanics are the major target of immigration raids and mass deportation. In the past,

U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent caught up in these raids have been deported. Today, many

Hispanics are often assumed to be in this country illegally. These attitudes of cultural superiority,

indifference, and racism need to be confronted;

they are unworthy of any follower of Christ.

After all, a large part of our nation consists of immigrants and their descendants. We must also

remember that many people of Hispanic heritage come from families that were in this land long

before the borders changed.

These examples from the experiences of Native, African, and Hispanic Americans

demonstrate how, as a nation, we have never sufficiently contended with the impact of overt

racism. Nor have we spent the necessary time to examine where the racist attitudes of yesterday

have become a permanent part of our perceptions, practices, and policies of today, or how they

have been enshrined in our social, political, and economic structures. Much can be learned in

See R. Kochhar and A. Cilluffo, “How wealth inequality has changed in the U.S. since the Great

Recession” Pew Research Center.

See Nicholas Villanueva, The Lynching of Mexicans in the Texas Borderlands (Albuquerque, NM:

University of New Mexico Press, 2017). See also William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, Forgotten

Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 2013).

Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States, Pastoral Letter Concerning Migration, Strangers

No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2003), no. 40.

hearing the stories of those who have lived through the effects of racism. In examining the

generational effects of racism on families, communities, and our Church, each of us can begin to

act in solidarity to change the prospects for future generations.

Love Goodness

Most people would not consider themselves to be racist. A person might admit to being

prejudiced but certainly not racist. As Christians, we know it is our duty to love others. St. Paul

reminds us that we live by the Spirit, and the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). We must be honest

with ourselves. Each of us should examine our conscience and ask if these fruits are really

present in our attitudes about race. Or, rather, do our attitudes reflect mistrust, impatience, anger,

distress, discomfort, or rancor?

When we begin to separate people in our thoughts for unjust reasons, when we start to

see some people as “them” and others as “us,” we fail to love. Yet love is at the heart of the

Christian life. When approached and asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus answered:

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your

mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your

neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). This command of love can never be simply “live and let

others be.” The command of love requires us to make room for others in our hearts. It means that

we are indeed our brother’s keeper (see Gn 4:9).

The sin of Cain finds its remedy in Christ, in his command to love and in the gift of his

Holy Spirit that enables us to respond to his call. When Cain struck and killed his brother, the

human family was further divided. But Christ heals all divisions, including those that are at the

core of racism. It is through his Cross that we learn the greatest lesson about love. On the Cross,

Jesus died for the human race (see 2 Cor 5:15). “He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins

only but for those of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). Here is our hope! Here is the grace given to us

to be healed of this sin of division! Here is the lesson of love.

Once “we have come to the conviction that one died for all”—and not just for

ourselves—then “the love of Christ impels us” to see others as our brothers and sisters (2 Cor

5:14). For, “if [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts

share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26). It is the love of Christ that binds together the Church, and this love

reaches out beyond the Church to all peoples. This love also requires justice. “If we love others

with charity,” as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us, “then first of all we are just toward them.”

this way, love “is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous

engagement in the field of justice and peace.”

In doing so, we are also loving goodness.

The Urgent Call of Love

Love compels each of us to resist racism courageously. It requires us to reach out

generously to the victims of this evil, to assist the conversion needed in those who still harbor

racism, and to begin to change policies and structures that allow racism to persist. Overcoming

racism is a demand of justice, but because Christian love transcends justice, the end of racism

will mean that our community will bear fruit beyond simply the fair treatment of all. After all,

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 6.

Caritas in Veritate, no. 1.

“Within [the human] family,” as St. John Paul II said, “each people preserves and expresses its

own identity and enriches others with its gifts of culture.”

Our faith gives us a treasury of inspiring holy men and women who courageously worked

toward racial reconciliation, showing us the way forward. There is, for example, the Servant of

God Augustus Tolton, who was born into slavery and escaped to the free state of Illinois. Despite

a strong calling to the priesthood supported by clergy who knew his faith, all the seminaries in

the United States rejected him. Having eventually made it to a seminary in Rome, he was

ordained, and returned to serve as the first black priest born in the United States, where, again, he

faced much discrimination and racism.

Once home and ministering to the People of God, Fr. Tolton was tormented by others,

especially by a brother priest who was white. This priest made public and ugly statements urging

the white people of the city not to go to Fr. Tolton’s parish. Through this long persecution, Fr.

Tolton exhibited the love of Christ, forgiving what was done to him and continuing to serve

others. Things got so bad, however, that Fr. Tolton accepted an invitation from Archbishop

Feehan to move north to Chicago, where he served the faithful until his death in 1897. Fr. Tolton

often spoke of how the Church had taught him to always “pray and forgive my persecutors.”

During his ministry, Fr. Tolton corresponded with Mother (now Saint) Katharine Drexel,

who helped support his parish work in Chicago. She is another example of people working for

racial reconciliation. Following a directive from Pope Leo XIII in 1887, St. Katharine dedicated

her life to working closely with Native Americans and African Americans, exhibiting genuine

St. John Paul II, Address at the Meeting with the Native Peoples of the Americas, September 14, 1987,

no. 4.

Address to the first Catholic Colored Congress, Washington, D.C., January 1-4, 1889.

respect and concern. By the time of her death in 1955, St. Katharine had more than 500 sisters

working in 63 schools and had established 50 missions for Native Americans in 16 states. She

also founded 50 schools for African American students, including Xavier University of

Louisiana, the first and only Catholic university in the United States established specifically for

African Americans. Her motivation was clear. As she said, “If we wish to serve God and love

our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us

open wide our hearts. It is joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing.”

Walk Humbly with God

To press forward without fear means “to walk humbly with God” in rebuilding our

relationships, healing our communities, and working to shape our policies and institutions

toward the good of all, as missionary disciples. Evangelization, which is the work of the

Church, “means not only preaching but witnessing; not only conversion but renewal; not only

entry into the community but the building up of the community.”

Racism is a moral

problem that requires a moral remedy—a transformation of the human heart—that impels us

to act. The power of this type of transformation will be a strong catalyst in eliminating those

injustices that impinge on human dignity. As Christians, we know this to be true, for with

“God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). It is the Lord who, by his grace, forgives and

restores us to these relationships and heals the wounds between us. After all, the aim of

“A Eucharistic Focused Mission,” Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. www.katharinedrexel.org/wp-

content/uploads/2016/11/FocusedMissionBro.pdf (accessed Aug. 23, 2018).

What We Have Seen and Heard, A Pastoral Letter on Evangelization from the Black Bishops of the

United States (St. Anthony Messenger Press: Sept. 9, 1984), 2.

salvation history is reconciliation and entering the heavenly Jerusalem, a communion of all

peoples and all nations.

To press forward without fear also means cooperating with God’s grace by taking

direct and deliberate steps for change. It means opening doorways where once only walls

stood. As bishops, we commit ourselves to the following actions with the hope that others,

especially those in our spiritual care, will do likewise in their own lives and communities.

Acknowledging Sin

Examining our sinfulness—individually, as the Christian community, and as a

society—is a humbling experience. Only from a place of humility can we look honestly at

past failures, ask for forgiveness, and move toward healing and reconciliation. This requires

us to acknowledge sinful deeds and thoughts, and to ask for forgiveness. The truth is that the

sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have been complicit in the evil of racism.

In his

Papal Bull Dum Diversas (1452), Nicholas V granted apostolic permission for the kings of

Spain and Portugal to buy and sell Africans, setting the stage for the slave trade. Even though

subsequent popes strongly renounced and rejected the international slave trade, much to our

shame, many American religious leaders, including Catholic bishops, failed to formally

oppose slavery; some even owned slaves.

We also realize the ways that racism has permeated the life of the Church and persists to

a degree even today. “For too long,” in the Church’s missions throughout the world, “the way to

St. John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, no. 33: “Although she is holy because of her

incorporation into Christ, the Church does not tire of doing penance: before God and man, she

always acknowledges as her own her sinful sons and daughters.”

a fully indigenous clergy and religious was blocked by an attitude that was paternalistic and

racist.”

Not long ago, in many Catholic parishes, people of color were relegated to segregated

seating, and required to receive the Holy Eucharist after white parishioners. All too often, leaders

of the Church have remained silent about the horrific violence and other racial injustices

perpetuated against African Americans and others.

Therefore we, the Catholic bishops in the United States, acknowledge the many times

when the Church has failed to live as Christ taught—to love our brothers and sisters.

Acts of

racism have been committed by leaders and members of the Catholic Church—by bishops,

clergy, religious, and laity—and her institutions. We express deep sorrow and regret for them.

We also acknowledge those instances when we have not done enough or stood by silently

when grave acts of injustice were committed. We ask for forgiveness from all who have been

harmed by these sins committed in the past or in the present.

Being Open to Encounter and New Relationships

“To walk humbly with God” requires even more. We know that we do not have all the

answers, but a missionary disciple is one who willingly meets every problem and every sinful

attitude with the confidence that comes from a deep love of Jesus. As Pope Benedict XVI has

What We Have Seen and Heard (Sept. 9, 1984), 21.

See International Theological Commission, Memory and Reconciliation, no. 3.3, which quotes

Augustine, Sermon 181, 5,7: “The Church as a whole says: Forgive us our trespasses! Therefore, she

has blemishes and wrinkles. But by means of confession the wrinkles are smoothed away and the

blemishes washed clean. The Church stands in prayer in order to be purified by confession and, as

long as men live on earth it will be so.”

said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter

with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

The Christian community should draw from this central, ongoing encounter with

Christ and seek to combat racism with love, recalling the insight of Pope Francis that “if we

have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love

with others?”

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this wellspring of strength and courage

must move us to act. Consequently, we all need to take responsibility for correcting the

injustices of racism and healing the harms it has caused.

To work at ending racism, we need to engage the world and encounter others—to see,

maybe for the first time, those who are on the peripheries of our own limited view. Knowing that

the Lord has taken the divine initiative by loving us first, we can boldly go forward, reaching out

to others. We must 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 experiences 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. Only by forging authentic relationships can we truly see each other as Christ sees us.

Love should then move us to take what we learn from our encounters and examine where society

continues to fail our brothers and sisters, or where it perpetuates inequity, and seek to address

those problems.

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 1.

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 8.

Resolving to Work for Justice

To foster, in part, such encounters, and to express our strong and renewed resolve to

work for justice, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops formed an Ad Hoc

Committee Against Racism. The committee has already begun its work—conducting listening

sessions; providing resources about racism; giving tools to dioceses, eparchies, and parishes

to begin important conversations about this evil; and exploring needed policy initiatives. We

charge this Ad Hoc Committee to implement the vision of this pastoral letter. Furthermore,

this committee is to develop ways to help facilitate an ongoing national dialogue, bringing

successful models and stories of hope to people at all levels. We also task the leadership of

our bishops’ conference to seek meaningful opportunities that deepen understanding, foster

reconciliation, and publicly witness to the Church’s commitment to ending racism. We

commit all the offices and committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to

be ever mindful of this imperative.

Nationally, taking concrete action should include advocating for equality in how laws

are implemented and advocating for moral budgets that reduce barriers to economic well-

being, appropriate healthcare, education, and training. We can also learn from the example of

other countries, such as South Africa, Germany, and Rwanda, and from certain institutions

that have recognized past wrongs and have come to understand the truth of their history.

Locally, including in our own parishes, practical plans should be made to provide

further opportunities for qualified candidates who historically have been excluded, such as

through hiring and contracting practices. Likewise, within our dioceses, taking concrete

action entails that struggling parishes, schools, and organizations receive resources and

training for catechesis, youth ministry, and other pastoral needs. It also means providing

necessary support to families, seniors, and ex-offenders.

In addition, “To overcome discrimination, a community must interiorize the values

that inspire just laws and live out, in day-to-day life, the conviction of the equal dignity of

all.”

Therefore, we affirm that participating in or fostering organizations that are built on

racist ideology (for instance, neo-Nazi movements and the Ku Klux Klan) is also sinful—they

corrupt individuals and corrode communities. None of these organizations have a place in a

just society.

Educating Ourselves

As bishops, we encourage our leadership to make formal visits to institutions of

culture and learning, to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the

National Museum of the American Indian, and the Holocaust Museum—all in Washington,

D.C.—and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, for example. Similar opportunities

should be encouraged in our local communities. Parishes, for instance, could use the National

Day of Prayer for Peace in Our Communities, which falls on the feast of St. Peter Claver

(September 9), to organize activities that foster community, dialogue, and reconciliation.

These encounters will help open our minds and hearts more fully and continue the healing

needed in our communities and our nation. By listening to one another’s experiences, we can

come to understand and to empathize, which leads to those right relationships that unite us as

Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace, The Church and Racism: Toward a More Fraternal

Society (1988), no. 24.

brothers and sisters. This justice finds its source and strength in the love of Christ who laid

down his life for his friends (see Jn 15:13).

“A change of heart,” the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace points out,

“cannot occur without strengthening spiritual convictions regarding respect for other races

and ethnic groups.”

We must, therefore, form the consciences of our people, especially the

young, “by clearly presenting the entire Christian doctrine on this subject. [We] particularly

[ask] pastors, preachers, teachers and catechists to explain the true teaching of Scripture and

Tradition about the origin of all people in God, their final common destiny in the Kingdom of

God, the value of the precept of fraternal love, and the total incompatibility between racist

exclusivism and the universal calling of all to the same salvation in Jesus Christ.”

Here we call on our religious education programs, Catholic schools, and Catholic

publishing companies to develop curricula relating to racism and reconciliation. Our campus

ministers should plan young adult reflections and discussions that strive to build pathways

toward racial equality and healing. We can also learn from the example of those young people

who rise above racist attitudes and model respect. We also charge our seminaries, deacon

formation programs, houses of formation, and all our educational institutions to break any

silence around the issue of racism, to find new and creative ways to raise awareness, analyze

curricula, and to teach the virtues of fraternal charity.

Our individual efforts to encounter, grow, and witness, to change our hearts about

racism, must also find their way into our families. We urge each person to consider the

dignity of others in the face of jokes, conversations, and complaints motivated by racial

The Church and Racism, no. 25.

prejudice. We can provide experiences for children that expose them to different cultures and

peoples. We can also draw upon the incredible diversity of the Church worldwide in

providing education within the family and make it clear that God dwells in the equal dignity

of each person. We ask all the faithful to consider ways in which they and their families can

encounter, grow, and witness through an understanding and commitment to these values

today. In turn, we pledge to provide tools and resources to facilitate those efforts.

Working in Our Churches

Of course, racism will not end overnight. Still, we pledge these actions and hope that

more actions will follow. We instruct our priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, lay

leaders, our parish staffs, and all the faithful to endeavor to be missionary disciples carrying

forth the message of fraternal charity and human dignity. We ask them to fight the evil of

racism by educating themselves, reflecting on their personal thoughts and actions, listening to

the experience of those who have been affected by racism, and by developing and supporting

programs that help repair the damages caused by racial discrimination. We need to continue

to educate ourselves and our people about the great cultural diversity within our Church. One

way to do this is to support actively the cause for canonization of the first African American

saint. We can also promote knowledge of the martyrs, blessed, and saints of the different

cultural groups and nationalities present in our midst, and propose them as models of faith for

the entire Church. So many of our parishes are richly diverse, composed of people from

various cultures and ethnic groups, such that they can be a model for the whole Church and

for the country. We will redouble our efforts to promote vocations to marriage, priesthood,

and religious life—especially within communities of color–—so as to better reflect all of the

People of God. We commit to preach with regularity homilies directed to the issue of racism

and its impact on our homes, families, and neighborhoods, particularly on certain feast days

and national holidays. We direct our priests and deacons to do the same. We call on

theologians to help us address these issues as well. In this task, it is essential to understand,

and to help others see, how racism diminishes everyone—society as a whole—and not just

those who are directly affected by it.

Changing Structures

The roots of racism have extended deeply into the soil of our society. Racism can only

end if we contend with the policies and institutional barriers that perpetuate and preserve the

inequality—economic and social—that we still see all around us. With renewed vigor, we call on

the members of the Body of Christ to join others in advocating and promoting policies at all

levels that will combat racism and its effects in our civic and social institutions. “Even in the

developed world,” Pope Francis told members of the U.S. Congress, “the effects of unjust

structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting

wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of

peoples.”

Certainly, we cannot accomplish this task alone. We call on everyone, especially all

Christians and those of other faith traditions, to help repair the breach caused by racism,

which damages the human family. Ecumenical and interreligious cooperation has been pivotal

at key moments in our history, for instance, in the abolition of slavery and during the civil

rights era. The leadership of the civil rights movement, especially that of Rev. Martin Luther

Pope Francis, Address to the U.S. Congress, Sept. 24, 2015.

King, Jr., invited ecumenical and interreligious cooperation, as was seen when Catholics,

Protestants, and Jews marched together. That spirit is integral to the fight today, and in some

communities, the success of this effort will very much depend on this kind of collaboration.

As religious leaders, we must continue this tradition.

Conversion of All

As St. Paul proclaimed, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I

am the foremost. But for that reason, I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost,

Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to

believe in him for everlasting life” (1 Tm 1:15-16). St. Paul’s own conversion is a powerful

reminder of how God’s grace can transform even the hardest of hearts. Prayer and working

toward conversion must be our first response in the face of evil actions. “I tell you, in just the

same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine

righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Lk 15:7). Therefore, we must never limit

our understanding of God’s power to bring about the conversion of even those whose hearts

appear completely frozen by the sin of racism. Our communities must never cease to invite

and encourage them in love to abandon these sinful thoughts and destructive ways.

Conversion is an essential aspect of evangelization, which “is a question not only of

preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but

also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria

of judgment.”

Like St. Paul, this requires us to examine our most deeply held “values, [our]

St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 19.

points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life”—all that may be

“in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation.”

Our Commitment to Life

The injustice and harm racism causes are an attack on human life. The Church 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. The Apostle James commands the Christian: “show no partiality as you adhere

to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (Jas 2:1).

Going Forward

Almost thirty years ago, St. John Paul II reminded us just what is at stake. Each

person “is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly

existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural

vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life.”

We are all called to

Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 19.

St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, no. 2.

that great life, to the communion of heaven where “a great multitude, which no one could

count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue [stand] before the throne and before the

Lamb” (Rev 7:9). That Lamb, Christ, showed us that the very life of God is love, and love

requires something of each of us. We pray that the reader will join us in striving for the end of

racism in all its forms, that we may walk together humbly with God and with all of our

brothers and sisters in a renewed unity. For there is no place for racism in the hearts of any

person; it is a perversion of the Lord’s will for men and women, all of whom were made in

God’s image and likeness. We end by adopting the words of St. Paul: Brothers and sisters,

“be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be

done with love” (1 Cor 16:13-14).

As in all things, we turn to prayer, asking Our Blessed Mother to intercede on our behalf:

Mary, friend and mother to all,

through your Son, God has found a way

to unite himself to every human being,

called to be one people,

sisters and brothers to each other.

We ask for your help in calling on your Son,

seeking forgiveness for the times when

we have failed to love and respect one another.

We ask for your help in obtaining from your Son

the grace we need to overcome the evil of racism

and to build a just society.

We ask for your help in following your Son,

so that prejudice and animosity

will no longer infect our minds or hearts

but will be replaced with a love that respects

the dignity of each person.

Mother of the Church,

the Spirit of your Son Jesus

warms our hearts:

pray for us.