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Stephen Staten, part of the leadership team of Bay Area Catholics for Racial Justice. (Courtesy photo)
Oct. 29, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
In the wake of the high-profile deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd that prompted national outrage and discussion about Black lives and dignity, local Catholics started discussing what role the church could have in bringing about racial justice.
“Where’s Christ’s body when his members are being killed or facing injustice -- where is the church in this?” Stephen Staten said.
Staten, a parishioner at St. Dominic, began talking to other Catholics in the Bay Area to answer that question. Out of those conversations eventually grew a new group that hopes to model for the church what it means to work against racism and pursue racial justice.
Bay Area Catholics for Racial Justice, founded in July, is focused on educational activities, sharing stories of encountering and responding to racism, and building collaborative relationships with other activists and Catholics in the Bay Area and beyond, according to its co-president Rosalie Chan. About 15-30 people are associated with the group right now.
The organization has hosted two events so far. In September, they hosted a virtual gathering to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet for Black people who have suffered under systemic racism and died from its effects. In October, they hosted a “ballot party” where people gathered to discuss voting on ballot propositions and their effect on racial justice.
A planned November event focuses on sharing stories and praying for the dead, especially those whose names are unknown, like many of the victims of slavery.
One of the convictions of the group is that as Catholics their concern for establishing racial justice grows out of the Gospel and the church. Group leaders have a vision that they can be effective in mobilizing Catholics for racial justice by organizing around their common Catholic faith. That can be especially urgent as conversations about racial justice often become a part of political battles.
“The point I want this group to really push is our mission is greater than any political expression. It’s a higher thing, it’s not about what side you’re on but a deeper, higher calling of compassion for others and love of Christ,” Staten said. “Christ is the answer, he’s the healing everybody needs. We have a sickness, we have an injustice, and Christ is here to heal us,” he added.
Racial injustice is an issue within the Catholic Church and is rarely discussed, according to organizers. At least one of the reasons for forming the group, members said, was because they did not see any other forum dedicated to racial justice.
Chan and other members emphasized the importance of the Catholic Church engaging racial justice as a means of coming to terms with its historical participation in slavery, segregation and other forms of racism, and to improve its witness to the Gospel.
“It means a lot when parishes address this issue instead of ignoring it, and I would like to see ways to take action around it: how to be more welcoming to parishioners of color, or in ministry thinking more critically about systemic racism and the impacts on poverty and things like that,” Chan said.
Parishes can sometimes be unwelcoming toward different cultural expressions of Catholicism and make European Catholicism the norm for depictions of faith, parish life and celebrations, organizers said.
“Not that the Eurocentric depiction of faith is bad,” Eddie Espinoza, another member of the leadership team said. “We want to make sure that since Catholicism is multi-rite and multi-cultural, there is no one true lens to express the Catholic faith — that’s part of the beauty of the church.”
Espinoza said he hoped to see bishops and other people with authority in the church place a sustained focus on racial justice rather than having “the piecemeal response we have today.” He added lay people also should examine how they have directly or indirectly acted in racially prejudiced ways.
“Racism isn’t just in the past. As long as sin is in the world there will be racism, and so we should spend as much energy stamping that out as other gravely sinful acts,” he said.
Espinoza praised the racism listening sessions currently being held by the Archdiocese of San Francisco as part of the California bishops’ yearlong anti-racism initiative.
“The first step is going to be a ton of listening. That’s what we need to do, experience the faith through other people’s lenses. If we can’t listen to one another and articulate each other’s views and understand them then we’re going to be lost,” he said.
Staten agreed about the urgency of churches getting together to listen to others experiences and learn more about racial justice.
“Black people have experienced (racism in the church) and white people have been part of it and it’s not discussed. Unless we go into our Black Catholic community and amplify Black Catholic voices and talk about these particular historical things, until we do that, we won’t ever really have recognition of the church’s role in bringing about racial justice,” he said.
The church has experience in preaching about uncomfortable and unpopular issues like abortion, euthanasia and marriage, Staten said. “We should also bring up racial justice: There’s healing that’s needed, and that can’t be done unless we bring up the actual sickness there is and how to address it,” he said.
To contact Bay Area Catholics for Racial Justice, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Religious-Organization/Bay-Area-Catholics-for-Racial-Justice-101390238392126/