Welcome to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. An NCR commentator writes about growing up in an all-white neighborhood, then moving to New Orleans, where he was confronted with the racial injustice that King was fighting against. Many U.S. bishops and cardinals have yet to speak out publicly about the global uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, according to research by Call to Action.
When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, Edward T. Brett, professor emeritus at La Roche University in Pittsburgh, was a 10-year-old boy living in an all-white Brooklyn neighborhood. In a commentary for NCR, Brett writes even though he had heard of him, King wasn't part of his world. But that all changed suddenly when in 1958, Brett's father was transferred to New Orleans.
"It was the first time I had been outside the New York/New Jersey area, and 'White' and 'Colored' signs on restrooms and water fountains, along with picketers calling for desegregated lunch counters, made me feel uncomfortable," Brett writes.
Brett and his father went to the Mardi Gras parade where Brett saw a white man and a Black boy simultaneously grab a strand of beads and begin tussling over it.
"Suddenly a policeman smashed his billy club on the boy's head," Brett writes. "I could see the pupils of his still-opened eyes rise into his forehead, a memory that still haunts me. After the policeman dragged his victim away, the crowd — including the white adult involved in the scuffle — returned to catching trinkets as if nothing had happened. On that day, I got my first inkling of what Dr. King was fighting for."
You can read more the commentary here.
Despite global uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, many U.S. bishops and cardinals have not spoken publicly about these issues, while others have yet to turn talk into action, according to the Catholic social justice organization Call to Action.
In December 2020, the organization's lobbying working group, led by John Noble, released a set of anti-racism scorecards for a "core group" of church leaders the group deemed important to the fight for racial justice both within and outside the Catholic Church.
Call to Action sees many bishops and cardinals as potential partners in a fight for racial justice.
Some U.S. bishops and cardinals "have spoken and acted prophetically about the need to dismantle white supremacy and racism," Noble said in a statement Dec. 19. "Others have work to do and have fallen silent when they should have spoken out."
The scorecards track bishops' statements on racism, police brutality and immigration, highlighting important quotes and including steps parishioners can take to encourage their bishops to do more.
You can read more the story here.
This week, we continue our series, Building a Common Future, in which we asked Catholic politicians, activists and scholars to offer advice to President-elect Joe Biden.
"Building our common future: It's what the United States, indeed, the entire world needs right now," we wrote in an editorial introducing the series.
Today's commentary comes from José Luis Vilson, an educator, activist and author, and focuses on a fair and equitable education system. "Our country and its more than 13,000 school districts continue to run up against a wall that suggests we shouldn't educate every child equitably and humanely," Vilson writes. "If we believe that education is a function of society as a way of passing down knowledge to the next generation of doers and thinkers, we have failed in giving these opportunities to our citizenry writ large."
Read the rest of Vilson's commentary here.
More headlines
- The day of Biden's inauguration will also be the 60th anniversary of the first time a Catholic became president, writes NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters. It is almost impossible to imagine how much has changed in both church and state during the intervening years.
- Ahead of the inauguration Wednesday, sisters interviewed by GSR want policies more in line with Catholic social teaching; yet all of them came back to the issue of character.
- ICYMI: A statement sent to the priests of the diocese last week said controversial right-wing priest, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, will relocate from the Madison Diocese to "pursue other opportunities" and noted it was a mutual decision reached between Zuhlsdorf and Bishop Donald Hying.
Final thoughts
In preparation for the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking, Global Sisters Report is hosting a conversation at 2 p.m. Central tomorrow with Srs. Gabriella Bottani and Jean Schafer, both leaders among Catholic sisters working against human trafficking. You can register to attend this virtual event here. A second session on the hidden world of human trafficking happening locally and how ordinary citizens can make a difference will be held at 2 p.m. Central Thursday. That event is hosted by Jennifer Reyes Lay and Felician Sr. Maryann Agnes Mueller. You can register for the second session here.
Until Tuesday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
