Editorial: Only by helping to heal the wounds of racial injustice can the Body of Christ truly breathe

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RELIGIOUS LEADERS SPEAK RACISM BRUTALITY
Members of Maryland Lutheran churches hold up banners calling for action against racism during an interfaith prayer vigil in Baltimore June 3, 2020, to pray for justice and peace following the death of George Floyd. (CNS photo/Tim Swift, Catholic Review)

Darnella Frazier was 17 years old when she took her younger cousin to Cup Foods in south Minneapolis last Memorial Day. As they walked toward the neighborhood convenience store, she saw police officers holding a man down on the asphalt. He was “terrified, scared, begging for his life,” she later said. Frazier sent her cousin into the store and began recording the scene on her cellphone.

Frazier’s video showed former police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of George Floyd, whose death became the spark that ignited a powder keg of anger and frustration over the brutal and unequal treatment by law enforcement that so many in Black communities have suffered for generations. 

The protests that followed — some lasting weeks or longer — forced every sector of America to confront the plague of racial injustice in our country. Both the Catholic Church as a whole and individual dioceses and parishes were not spared from having to examine the role they have played in fostering a system of inequality.

While acknowledging that “nothing is gained by violence,” Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released shortly after Floyd’s death that “we should be doing a lot of listening right now. This time, we should not fail to hear what people are saying through their pain.”

It is in this spirit of listening to the pain of others that we invite the faithful to read the testimonies of three Black Catholics — Dr. Ansel Augustine, Chenele Shaw and Gloria Purvis — who share how the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed have shaped their experiences inside and outside of the Church over the past year.  

Augustine, the executive director of the Office of Cultural Outreach and Diversity for the Archdiocese of Washington, echoes Floyd’s dying words — “I can’t breathe” — as he asks, “Is our Church … a safe and sacred place for people of color, specifically Black Catholics, to ‘breathe’? Can we express ourselves authentically and freely without being scrutinized, judged or criticized by other Catholics? Can the issues many of our communities face — such as economic injustice, racism, gentrification, mass incarceration, unequal resources, improper education, police brutality and many others — be deemed relevant pro-life issues in this country since they threaten the quality of life from the womb to the tomb for those in these communities?”

In her testimony at Derek Chauvin’s trial, Darnella Frazier said she’ll never forget seeing George Floyd lying in the street. “It wasn’t right,” she said. “He was suffering, he was in pain.”

So, too, are our Black Catholic brothers and sisters. It is time that the Church recognizes fully the value they bring to the Faith and encourages them to be their authentic selves, because only when that happens can the entire Body of Christ truly breathe. 

Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board: Gretchen R. Crowe, Scott P. Richert, Scott Warden, York Young

Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board

The Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board consists of Father Patrick Briscoe, O.P., Gretchen R. Crowe, Matthew Kirby, Scott P. Richert and York Young.