WASHINGTON (CNS) — Across the country, women religious have joined in peaceful protests against racial inequality, while others, home for health reasons amid the pandemic, are very much in spirit with the marchers. But on the streets or not, many of them see the scourge of systemic racism not just as a blight on the nation but something the church must own up to and help eradicate. Several women religious who spoke with Catholic News Service during the second week of June are no strangers to protests or justice advocacy. They said they’ve been inspired by the massive crowds gathering in towns and cities demanding action in the wake of George Floyd’s death May 25 at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. But these sisters — especially black women religious who make up less than 1% of U.S. sisters — keep their hope fueled by this current movement very much in check, acknowledging the long road ahead to achieve change or healing. Sister Leona Bruner, congregational leader of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, a historically black congregation founded in 1842, said the wave of peaceful protests in all 50 states “should be a turning point” and is something she and fellow sisters are praying will happen. Likewise, Sister Anita Baird, a member of the Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and the founding director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice, said she is “optimistic in some respects” right now but she also takes the long view. She cautions: “We have to stay focused; we can’t grow tired.”
Church leaders urged to be trailblazers in addressing systemic racism When deadly, racially motivated violence erupted in a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a Pittsburgh synagogue, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and most recently in Buffalo, New York, Catholic Church leaders have responded.
Statement of Cardinal Cupich on the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York On Saturday, May 14, a gunman used an AR-15, high-capacity assault weapon to murder 10 Black Americans at a Buffalo grocery store, wounding two bystanders. Many of his victims were near or beyond retirement age, including Pearl Young, 77, a grandmother of eight who taught Sunday school, and Katherine Massey, 72, a civil-rights advocate who had written in favor of stronger gun-safety laws.
Deacon shares memories of schoolmate Emmett Till, an 'unwilling martyr' "He wasn't special. He was just a little boy." Deacon Arthur Miller, of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, shared this memory of Emmett Till, his boyhood neighbor and schoolmate, in a recent talk hosted by the Diocese of Springfield at the Bishop Marshall Center.