Demand Justice

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed, and that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. While our crowds this past Sunday were small, it was so wonderful to have people in the pews. The small crowds actually helped us see how some of the social distancing practices will work and which ones might be problematic. For the most part things worked, and I am sure we will get better at some things as we get used to them. I want to especially thank those who helped us clean & sanitize the church. [note: If you are at church during the week, please leave your kneeler down when you leave so we know where people sat.]

For some people these things might seem excessive, but we should not let our guard down too easily, after all, over 100,000 have died from this virus just in the U.S., and many who have survived are struggling with severe complications. If you personally think some of this is unnecessary, please consider your fellow parishioners who may be very nervous about venturing out for the first time in months, and would prefer that people keep their distance.

While half my week was spent in joyful preparation of your return, the other half was in sadness, pain and outrage over the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And these are just two in a very, very long line. I have spent most of my priesthood living and ministering in the Black community and I have witnessed the racism in our society and our Catholic Church over and over and over again. Sometimes in more subtle ways, but more and more often in very open and blatant ways. I was once on a TV show with four African American ministers in St. Louis that discussed the state of racism in the U.S. a year into Obama’s presidency. We all agreed that his election set off a tidal wave of racism. Things that were usually only said behind closed doors were now said openly. President Obama was treated with such disrespect that if it had been done to any other president the people would have been arrested and/or removed from office. While at The Rock Church, I have talked with several women who had their purses stolen from the front seat of their cars in our church parking lot. When I asked why they left their purse on the front seat, they each replied with more or less the same answer, “I thought it would be safer there than in your church.”

I was recently involved in a listening session organized by the U.S. bishops. They asked us to find people who would be willing to share their own encounters of racism within The Catholic Church. The stories were so troubling and sad. They were stories that I have heard over and over again, but the true injustice and most troubling aspect of these stories was that these acts of racism and hatred were not only perpetrated by priests, nuns and men and women who claim to be Christian, they were done within The Church of Jesus Christ! They were done by someone, who claims to be a disciple of Christ, and they were done to a Child of God.

It is one of the more troubling aspects of George and Breonna’s deaths. Many Black people were killed in the last 6 months, and each of their lives was a great loss, just as any death is a loss. But what made these two stand out is that they were killed by the very people who had taken an oath to protect them. I was always taught to respect the police and to see them as people I could go to for protection. Young Black men and women, even teens and children, grow up fearing the police. I know middle and upper-middle class families who adopted Black children. They soon discovered that their Black child was treated very differently than their other children. Their white children could drive their car with no [problem, but as soon as their Black child drove it they were pulled over by the police.] And the stories go on and on.

When will we say enough!?! When will we demand justice for all citizens? When will we truly see God’s presence dwelling in ALL of our neighbors? I know many of you are upset by the protests, and I do not agree with the destruction of property, but put yourself in their shoes before judging them to harshly. When you live with racism each and every day of your life, when you are constantly harassed, when everyone assumes you are guilty until proven innocent, when people are allowed to hunt you down and shoot you dead in the street, there comes a day when you rise up and throw the tea into the harbor! There comes a day when you throw off the chains of tyranny! There comes a day when you have to demand justice and freedom!...I guess it’s true, it all depends on who’s writing the history books.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick