As church demographics shift, Catholics urged to address 'sin of racism'

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NEW ORLEANS A “seismic shift in demographics” in both society and the U.S. Catholic Church in the coming decades will create a church that is far less white, Fr. Bryan Massingale told a New Orleans audience Friday.

The church will be unprepared to deal with that reality, he continued, unless it addresses “the ongoing struggle for racial equality.”

Massingale made the comments in an address to priests, seminarians and other officials of the New Orleans Archdiocese.

The author of “Racial Justice and the Catholic Church” and professor of ethics and theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, the priest said the church must become “a proactive agent for racial justice” if it is to “remain viable and relevant in the 21st century.”

He said the issues of racism and racial justice are not spoken of frequently by priests because the topics are so sensitive.

ncronline.org/news/people/church-demographics-shift-catholics-urged-address-sin-racism#.VkO676JyYhM.twitter
 
In order to have an effective dialogue, terms need to be defined. Currently, the definition of racism has been expanded so that it is merely a weapon to shut down debate, or to achieve political goals.

Also needing to be defined is “racial equality”. What does that look like, and how do we get there?
 
A multi racial Church by definition is not committing the sin of racism.
 
Sounds like he’s castigating one race only and that is wrong.
 
The good father is talking about two entirely different relationships.

One is about blacks. I realize there are a lot of blacks in New Orleans, including no few Catholic blacks. In most of the U.S., however, the Church is nowhere near “turning black”. Where I live, there are virtually none, though there are two priests from Africa; much beloved. So how is racism toward blacks in New Orleans parishes relevant to the parishes I go to in which there are none at all?

It’s different with Hispanics. Some might be described as being members of a “race”; the Indios and Mestizos (who would certainly not consider themselves as being of a single “race”). The Indios and most of the Mestizos attend the Spanish language masses, though some of the “whiter” Mexicans and Salvadorans (some are very white) and Mexicans who have been in this country for generations tend to attend the English language masses. Some obvious Mestizos attend the English language masses, but not many. Some few “Anglos” attend the Spanish language masses. There is a handful of Hispanics in the K of C chapter.

What are we to do about all of that? Perhaps I’m not very bright, but I am really not seeing race as being much of an issue in the Church, around here, at least.

Now, when it comes to the view that police in large cities harass blacks, I consider that more of a political issue than a truly racial issue. Amid all the welter of statistics purporting to demonstrate this or that, I’m not yet persuaded racism in law enforcement is the issue some make it out to be.

But I’ll say this. Possibly the good father ought to write a letter to Obama asking him to stop inflaming, even inciting, racial conflict for political purposes.

I’ll add this. The only time I have ever heard any real lectures on “racism” (“ethnicism” is more to the truth of it) was one time when I attended the local Spanish language mass. A sister got up at the end of Mass, and really went on a tirade. I couldn’t understand her, of course, so I asked a Mexican next to me what she was talking about. He explained that she was bawling them out for their regional and “racial” attitudes. For example, the Mexican Mestizos look down on the Guatemalan Mayans. I could pick out place names like “Jalisco” and “Guadalajara”, and the Mexican explained that sometimes people from one region of Mexico look down on people from other regions.

So, maybe there is a racial issue due to the “browning” of the American Church. But I don’t think it’s a “white/brown” issue.
 
gilliam said:
NEW ORLEANS A “seismic shift in demographics” in both society and the U.S. Catholic Church in the coming decades will create a church that is far less white, Fr. Bryan Massingale told a New Orleans audience Friday.

The church will be unprepared to deal with that reality, he continued, unless it addresses “the ongoing struggle for racial equality.”

Massingale made the comments in an address to priests, seminarians and other officials of the New Orleans Archdiocese.

The author of “Racial Justice and the Catholic Church” and professor of ethics and theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, the priest said the church must become “a proactive agent for racial justice” if it is to “remain viable and relevant in the 21st century.”

He said the issues of racism and racial justice are not spoken of frequently by priests because the topics are so sensitive.

ncronline.org/news/people/church-demographics-shift-catholics-urged-address-sin-racism#.VkO676JyYhM.twitter
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Thank you for posting this. I met Father many years ago in Europe, when he was just beginning his academic career.

It is an issue the Church has had to poignantly confront in every age, sadly. The life stories of Mother Henriette Delille, Father Augustus Tolton and even Saint Martin de Porres speak eloquently – and heartbreakingly – to this.
 
Ridgerunner said:
One is about blacks. I realize there are a lot of blacks in New Orleans, including no few Catholic blacks. In most of the U.S., however, the Church is nowhere near “turning black”. Where I live, there are virtually none, though there are two priests from Africa; much beloved. So how is racism toward blacks in New Orleans parishes relevant to the parishes I go to in which there are none at all?
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There are relatively few black Catholics in my hometown too, but that hardly means that racism isn’t an issue for Catholics in our community. Sadly, there is an appalling amount of racism going around amongst Catholics and I do wish that we would hear the priests speaking against it because it’s wrong and it clearly goes against Scripture and the teachings of the Church.
 
The landscape of both the church and society is being significantly and dramatically altered. If we are going to be Catholic, our future can only be a brown one. The church is browning. It’s inexorable."
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This is a completely racist statement. How about just being Catholic.
 
In my experience, the Church is full of racial variety. Sometimes all this contention seems a bit passé. Maybe because my mother is interested in languages, and due to military background my parent’s travels opened their horizons. I absorbed some of it by osmosis. I can say that I’ve experienced more racial awareness in non-Catholic Christian circles. I also feel like some of it is being generated needlessly. That’s just my experience.
 
Allegra said:
There are relatively few black Catholics in my hometown too, but that hardly means that racism isn’t an issue for Catholics in our community. Sadly, there is an appalling amount of racism going around amongst Catholics and I do wish that we would hear the priests speaking against it because it’s wrong and it clearly goes against Scripture and the teachings of the Church.
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One is often put to wonder what, exactly, people mean when they say “racism” or “racist”. If priests are to speak out against it, what, precisely, are they supposed to say about it?

If we take the term in its most useful sense; to deliberately intend or do harm to someone merely because of his race, then I think most people would think a sermon on racism to be irrelevant to him or her, because very few have intentions of that sort or would dream of harboring them.

If we take the term in its more broad and vague sense as it is tossed around for political division; that majorities are guilty of some evil simply because some minorities lack certain socioeconomic advantages having nothing to do with their race, then the unfairness of such a critique would be apparent to all but ideological leftists.

If we take the term to mean a lack of a warm, fuzzy “good intention” or merely “good manners” that never translate into anything other than self-congratulation, then the sermon would be worse than useless.

If we take the term to be equivalent to “discriminatory” in its broadest sense; that is, having certain expectations of others whom we don’t know, but which could be cured upon knowing the person, it would apply to nearly everyone on earth and not necessarily as an evil. Do we expect Asians to be good students? Do we expect trouble from black teenagers coming toward us dressed in “gangsta” attire? Do we expect none from lily-white Mormon youth on bicycles? All of those things are “discriminatory”. Is there any value in sermons castigating us for having different reactions to the “gangsta” youth as we do to the Mormon youth?

Personally, I’m more than a little fatigued at all the talk about “racism” when almost nobody ever says exactly what he means by it, and when it is used as a cudgel to condemn without having a good reason to use it.
 
The Catholic Church has been on the forefront of the fight for racial equality since the beginning of the civil rights movement. But in light of the response here so far, perhaps we need a reminder.
 
pnewton said:
The Catholic Church has been on the forefront of the fight for racial equality since the beginning of the civil rights movement. But in light of the response here so far, perhaps we need a reminder.
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How do you picture the remedy concretely? Sometimes one gets the impression that reminders about racism just go off into the blue because: a) Nobody considers himself a racist except a handful of skinheads that probably aren’t Catholic anyway. Everybody else stoutly denies being a racist in any way and probably believes it. b) No practical methodologies are ever given except “sensitivity training” which is useless because of a). Granted, there are demands for things like monetary compensation for past slavery and Jim Crow. But those never go anywhere.
 
I read somewhere that most churches in America are divided along racial lines. That was certainly my experience when I visited Washington recently where two catholic churches were overwhelmingly white, and the other predominantly black. In other words the inside of both churches didn’t reflect the diversity one saw outside. And all the people I spoke to said this was a common occurrence.
 
Ridgerunner said:
How do you picture the remedy concretely? Sometimes one gets the impression that reminders about racism just go off into the blue because: a) Nobody considers himself a racist except a handful of skinheads that probably aren’t Catholic anyway. Everybody else stoutly denies being a racist in any way and probably believes it. b) No practical methodologies are ever given except “sensitivity training” which is useless because of a). Granted, there are demands for things like monetary compensation for past slavery and Jim Crow. But those never go anywhere.
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I agree. High level platitudes on racism aren’t particularly helpful…details and specifics are needed. There are two major questions: 1) What are the specific problems that need to be dealt with? 2) What are the specific solutions to those problems?
 
Ridgerunner said:
How do you picture the remedy concretely?
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I do not know what you mean by “concretely”. Within the confines of this thread, which is the need to address racism as sin, and Fr. Massingale’s concern that priest shy away from the topic, the direct solution of that this sin be taught in context of the Church’s teaching on basic human dignity. Also, when tragedy hits a community with its roots in racism, or racist tensions erupt in some public way, something as simple as adding the people involved to the list of prayer intentions can soften any that have a hard time looking past learned prejudice.
 
liturgyluver said:
I read somewhere that most churches in America are divided along racial lines. That was certainly my experience when I visited Washington recently where two catholic churches were overwhelmingly white, and the other predominantly black. In other words the inside of both churches didn’t reflect the diversity one saw outside. And all the people I spoke to said this was a common occurrence.
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Yup.

It’s human nature to want to be with your own ethnic/racial kind. The true litmus test would be if a white person went to a predominantly black congregation and a black person went to a predominantly white congregation. As long as they treat visitors well, I do not see anything particularly wrong with this.

I also don’t see what a solution would be if this was a problem, other than bussing in a bunch of whites to a predominantly Asian community and so forth and force congregants to mingle. That seems a good way to spread animosity rather than brotherhood.
 
Fr Massingale is merely giving his opinion and he has a history of making rather controversial statements. Agree with him if you want but don’t be horrified if not everyone reaches the same conclusions that he does.
 
SWolf said:
Yup.

It’s human nature to want to be with your own ethnic/racial kind. The true litmus test would be if a white person went to a predominantly black congregation and a black person went to a predominantly white congregation. As long as they treat visitors well, I do not see anything particularly wrong with this.

I also don’t see what a solution would be if this was a problem, other than bussing in a bunch of whites to a predominantly Asian community and so forth and force congregants to mingle. That seems a good way to spread animosity rather than brotherhood.
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I don’t agree that it’s human nature - I certainly hadn’t seen such profound division before I visited the US. At the parishes at home and elsewhere (Rome, Paris, Madrid), in multi-racial communities Back, White, Asians, Hispanics, worship together and there is not one predominate group. Perhaps this is part of what he means when he says “We don’t have diversity in our churches” referring to the US.

One of Martin Luther King’s most famous quotes concerns race and the American church. “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning…,” King remarked in 1963. Sadly, almost 50 years later, the church remains overwhelmingly racially divided. Only between 5% to 7.5% of churches in the U.S. are considered to be racially diverse
 
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