Living the Gospel with Love and Courage
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The title of this page is inspired by the initial statement of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops following the murder of George Floyd on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. In that statement, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and president of the Bishops' Conference, said, "We should be doing a lot of listening right now. ... We should not fail to hear what people are saying in their pain."
The essays, presentations and other means of communication that will be presented here, added and revised as frequently as possible, are meant to help us listen and learn so as to prepare ourselves, as Archbishop Gomez states, "to finally root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society."
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Taking Our Listening & Learning to Prayer
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The first three presentations of Know Justice. Know Peace. A Jesuit Anti-Racism Retreat can be found at this link. Additional presentations can be found at The Jesuit Post on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
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Sister Thea Bowman Speaks to the U.S. Bishops
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Here is the complete text of Sister Thea Bowman's remarks to the U.S. Catholic Bishops in June 1989.
Part 1: Sister Thea & Wisconsin
Part 2: Sister Thea & the Bishops
Part 3: Sister Thea & Mike Wallace -
I'm a Bit Racist. And So Are You.
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An Essay and Interview with Fr. Bryan Massingale
“It has never been easy to be black in America.” So begins a stunningly powerful and disconcerting essay by Fr. Bryan Massingale, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a theology professor at Fordham University in New York. Here are links to that essay and a follow-up interview with America Media. Fr. Massingale's essay will be the startng point for a parish conversation on Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 14. A link to the Zoom meeting will be included in upcoming Quick Things and Lord's Day Mass emails.
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A Selection of Writing to Get Us Thinking
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY FELLOW WHITE AMERICANS: ""I write this letter to you, my friends, because I love this country," writes Fr. Matt Malone, SJ. "I believe in Dr. King’s dream. I want America to make his dream come true. Our fellow Americans are asking us to change, to make his dream a reality."
YOU WANT A CONFEDERATE MONUMENT? This intense commentary reveals a hard truth about controversial "monuments."
JESUS WAS NOT WHITE: And we should stop pretending he was, writes Fr. James Martin, SJ.
A PRIEST FOR A TIME LIKE THIS: Fr. Josh Johnson is black, the son of a police officer and, by nature of his vocation, a proponent of reconciliation and justice. -
Just Mercy: A Presentation by Bryan Stevenson
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Open Wide Our Hearts: U.S. Bishops on Racism
In 2018 the U.S. Catholic Bishops, guided by Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., issued a pastoral letter on Racism. Here is a link to that document.