August 18, 2019 - "USCCB Bishop's Statements of August 8, 2019"

I received a text message from my sister recently.  Her younger daughter (my niece) was visiting some of the great old cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.  When my niece was in Prague, she went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter.  She was amazed that the Jewish Quarter was so well preserved.  The tour guide told that this was owing to a very morbid reason.  The Nazis left it preserved because they planned to keep it as a museum to an extinct race once they had successfully killed all Jewish men, women, and children.  It was a horrible reminder to me of what awful things could happen owing to racial hatred. 
 
On August 8, 2019, Bishops from three committees at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) expressed deep concern about racism and xenophobia has apparently motivated the massacre in El Paso and that have motivated numerous other mass shootings in the United States.  The Chairmen called on our elected officials to exert leadership in seeking to heal the wounds that these shootings have caused and to deal with the scourges of racism, xenophobia, and religious bigotry, including refraining from hurtful, painful, and divisive rhetoric that dehumanizes and polarizes people on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.
 
Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the Committee on Migration, Bishop Frank J. Dewane, Bishop of Venice, FL, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Social Development, and Bishop Sheldon J. Fabre, Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism made the following remarks:
“The tragic loss of life of 22 people this weekend in El Paso demonstrates that hate-filled rhetoric and ideas can become the motivation for some to commit acts of violence.  The anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic sentiments that have been publicly proclaimed in our society in recent years have incited hatred in our communities.  Hatred and harsh rhetoric were echoed in the El Paso shooter’s explanation about why he had committed the shooting that weekend, as well as being evident in the motivation of the shooters who attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last year and the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, in 2015.  We, therefore, renew our call to all to act swiftly to stop using hate-filled language that demeans and divides us and motivates some to such horrific violence. Instead, we ask our leaders and all Americans to work to unite us as a great, diverse, and welcoming people.”
Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle was our first residential Archbishop of Washington.  From his long experience in working in Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of New York before being named Archbishop of Washington in 1947, he became a staunch opponent of racism.  Once he arrived in Washington he totally integrated the Catholic schools of Washington six years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional.
In 1964, in the midst of Congressional debate on the Civil Rights Bill, Archbishop O’Boyle chaired the Interreligious Convocation on Civil Rights at Georgetown University.  I want to close my column today by quoting three excerpts from his invocation at that event as his words then are still very relevant today:
 
Lord Almighty, Creator and Ruler of the universe, infinite in power and majesty, Supreme Arbiter of history, you are nonetheless a God of love and mercy.  We call you Father and we are your children.  Yes, all are your children; every people in every nation—those who revere your Name and those who in the blindness of their hearts refuse to hear your voice.
 
You have made man in your image.  You have made him sacred, because the soul of man is as a spark enkindled by your Holy Spirit.  There is in every man a priceless dignity which is your heritage.  From this dignity flows the rights of man, and the duty in justice that all must respect and honor these rights…
 
Guide also the people of this Nation to be responsive to your will.  May they face the moral crisis of these days with high principle, seeking to heal, not to wound; to unite, not to divide; to build, not to destroy.  Make us one people in spirit, as we are one under your Fatherhood.  May we be worthy to be called your children.  Forgive us the wrongs we have inflicted on our brothers.  Unworthy as we are, we ask that in your mercy you will bless this Nation and its elected leaders and give us your peace, peace within our borders and in our cities, and peace in our dealings with all nations of the world, to the honor of your Holy Name.  Amen.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John