Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., speaks at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Racial Healing and Recognition Service April 4. Photo by David V. Kamba

Pastoral letter on racism drew attention; Catholic leaders now must bring it to life

When Cardinal George called on Chicago-area Catholics to abandon the sin of racism in “Dwell in My Love: A Pastoral Letter on Racism,” it was noted in the daily papers and briefly mentioned on TV news.

But Catholic leaders said the most important news will come later, and may not be noticed by the media at all. The important part, they said, is following the pastoral’s action steps to help eliminate racism.

“If we do not take it and use it, it will accomplish nothing,” said Father Leonard A. Dubi, pastor of St. Anne Parish, Hazelcrest. “We have to be the leaven in the society. It will only be effective if we Catholic pastors start relating it to our coreligionists, and start challenging leaders in other denominations to write their own.”

Philip Nyden, director of Loyola University’s Center for Urban Learning and Research, said the letter provides a good start.

“There’s no question that it has an impact, given the percentage of Catholics in the Chicago area,” Nyden said. “What it does is take an issue that sometimes isn’t talked about and brings it out into the open.”

Daughters of the Heart of Mary Sister Anita Baird, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Racial Justice, said several efforts to respond to the letter are in the works.

The archdiocese held a prayer service on April 4, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Racial Healing and Recognition Service, she said. Other steps include bringing together pastors who publicly support the pastoral letter and discussing ways they can move forward.

Over the summer, the office will put out a book and set of audio tapes for all parishes to use as they decide how to follow up on the letter, Baird said.

“You also have the parishes who have gone through (racial) sensitivity workshops,” she said. “We hope they will look at community action, particularly in the area of housing, so we don’t have repeats of this whole white flight in the suburbs that we had in the inner city 30 or 40 years ago.”

Catholic parishes can begin by joining in the interfaith “Congregations Building CommUNITY” weekend May 4-6, said William Purcell, director of the archdiocese’s Office for Peace and Justice.

Parishes are asked to emphasize “the blessedness of diversity” and inclusiveness during Masses that weekend, and to attend a gathering May 6 at the Chicago Temple at Clark and Washington streets. The event will feature the Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.

Other events include “Building Communities of Love: A Conference on Racism” Sept. 13 sponsored by the Office of Catholic Schools. Cardinal George will speak.

Baird said her office will work with the Office for Peace and Justice on housing initiatives developed by the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities.

“Spatial racism,” evidenced by racial discrimination in housing, has been particularly invidious in Chicago. As neighborhoods and the parishes that served them developed as ethnic enclaves, some parish communities became “parish fortresses” rather than parish communities, Cardinal George wrote.

The separation of ethnic groups and races fostered by that pattern of development made it easier for people to avoid other races, often contributing to subtle forms of individual and institutional racism.

Dubi has seen that form of racism in the South suburbs.

“White people are moving out just because black people are moving in,” Dubi said.

People need to understand that they may be complicit in some forms of racism even if they don’t engage in overtly racist activities, said Adrian Dominican Sister Jamie T. Phelps, a professor of systematic theology at Loyola University who helped research and draft the pastoral letter. “The Ku Klux Klan we can handle,” she said, “That’s clear. That’s obvious, and everyone knows it is wrong.”

By releasing the pastoral letter, Cardinal George made it clear that the other forms of racism can cause the same kind of damage.

“What pastorals do is make clear the teachings of the church related to the social justice issues,” Phelps said. “If you look at any of the social justice teachings of the church, how does the average Catholic … keep track of what the church is teaching? That’s our personal baptismal obligation. Part of his episcopal ministry is to teach and to encourage the practice of Christian discipleship within his diocese.”

The archdiocese has acknowledged the importance of fighting racism, including creating the Office of Racial Justice and racial and ethic sensitivity workshops led by Father Thomas Swade.

But the pastoral letter helps keep the topic on the minds and in the discussions of the faithful.

“It’s just like a booster shot,” said Charles Horn, a parishioner at the predominantly African-American St. Gelasius Parish for 50 years. “We’ve been dealing with this for a long time, but we must continue to become aware of what’s going on.”



Copies of “Dwell in My Love: A Pastoral Letter on Racism” are available from the Office for Racial Justice, (312) 751-8336, and the Office for Peace and Justice, (312) 751-8390. The full text also is available on the archdiocesan Web site,