Healing the Racial Divide. Lincoln Rice
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to itself as the oldest African American Catholic parish in the United States and the protestors felt the archbishop had not properly consulted with the parishioners. Hughes reconsidered his decision, especially in light of the black population of the parish, and the parish remained open.52
For Hughes, racism is “both a personal sin and a social disorder.”53 He grounds his understanding of racial justice in Vatican II, other Vatican documents, and the documents of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as the heroic witness of black Catholics from the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Chief among these witnesses is Henriette Delille, a free black woman who dedicated her life to educating the enslaved.54 In addition, Hughes references Homer Plessy, who lost the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson; A. P. Tureaud, who has been called the dean of the New Orleans black civil rights attorneys; and others. Hughes notes that those who worked for racial justice, whether black or white, often suffered severe consequences.55
Hughes develops the ideas of beauty and harmony to illustrate the importance of recognizing racial diversity in the Catholic Church. He also conveys the need to address the problem of white privilege in relation to the disadvantages faced by people of color. In the end, however, he does not assign any significant role for black Catholics.56 This is surprising, since earlier in the document he raises up examples of black Catholics who performed acts of agitation, including those at one of his own churches. Ultimately, there is a disconnect in the document between the great black Catholic witnesses of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the proposed solutions to contemporary manifestations of racism.
Vatican Documents
Within the last thirty years, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has published two documents dealing with racism: The Church and Racism: Toward a More Fraternal Society and Contribution to the World Conference against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. The Church and Racism, issued in 1988, is similar to most American thought on racism, as it grounds its teaching against racism in the belief that every person is created in God’s image and every person is offered redemption through the Paschal Mystery.57 The document conveys the strong institutional aspect of racism and the complicity of Church members at certain times. It also introduces an image that is not present in American documents—Pentecost. Unexpectedly, instead of employing the Pentecost event as an opportunity to express the gift that diversity could bring to the Church, the document cites this event as a call to regard all “ethnic, cultural, national, social, and other divisions . . . [as] obsolete.”58 Later on, the document does point out “the diversity and complementarity of one another’s cultural riches and moral qualities,” but this is not grounded doctrinally.59 The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace describes racism as a type of blasphemy that must be addressed by educational and structural changes on all levels of society that will promote equality for all minority groups and respect for one another’s “cultural and religious characteristics.”60 The document stresses that racism exists in every society and lists two specific instances of racism on the globe: (1) the American situation with African Americans, and (2) South African apartheid, which still existed in 1988. As a document written for a global context that encompasses countless situations of racism, it cannot be critiqued in the same manner as the American documents. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the statement does not emphasize the importance of a theology from the oppressed or recognize that the oppressed have any sustained role in confronting racism. The recognized agents in society to confront racism are seen primarily as the Church and the state.61
The Contribution to the World Conference against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance was issued for the United Nations conference of the same name in Durban, South Africa, in late summer 2001. The document begins by citing the rise in ethnic violence since 1988, as well as the increasing gap between rich and poor. It asks for a “purification of memory,” in which the oppressed are to be “guided by the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation,” while at the same time making sure that the past is not covered up, but revealed.62 In other words, this is not a case of “forgive and forget,” but rather a case of being keenly aware of what actions and responsible parties are being forgiven so that deficient structural realities can be repaired. Following this line of thought, the document supports the options of reparations and affirmative action as tools to correct past injustices to the greatest extent possible. The document also recommends the proper role for the Church, state, and media in aiding the poor and protecting basic human rights, with a stress on access to education and material needs.63 Although the document clearly denounces the evil of racism, it does not address the gifts that the oppressed can bring to a discussion of racism or the rich diversity that their cultural backgrounds can bring to the world. In addition, it does not allot any significant role to the oppressed in working toward their liberation other than forgiveness. Although a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation is an essential aspect of a society trying to heal past injustices, this spirit will not prevent current or future injustices. Regarding how the oppressed should address current injustices, the document is silent.
Summary of the First Section
If “What We Have Seen and Heard” is removed from the first section, the result is a rather monolithic response to racism. The authors in this section ground their theology of racial justice not only in traditional European Catholic doctrines, but also a traditional European understanding of these doctrines, and thus all state that the most important action that one can perform in the cause of racial justice is moral suasion. With the publication of The National Race Crisis in 1968, there was room for structural responses to racism, but these always took on a secondary role—particularly in practice. Although The National Race Crisis mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it was not informed by his thought. The inclusion of African American Catholic sources began with Brothers and Sisters to Us, but the document lacks any substantial role for African Americans and implicitly assumes white Catholics to be its primary audience. These deficiencies could be attributed to an almost exclusive use of hierarchical sources as well as Catholic social teaching’s almost exclusive reliance on moral suasion for the resolution of injustices and emphasis on substantial change proceeding from those in power instead of from those being oppressed. The limiting of sources to hierarchical statements prevents innovation when searching for a solution to an injustice that Catholic social teaching has not been able to adequately address.
On the other hand, “What We Have Seen and Heard” was informed by African American Catholic sources, with final editorial control in the hands of the African American Catholic bishops. Black Catholics were its target audience, for whom the bishops saw a meaningful role in the field of racial justice and evangelization. Additionally, it asserted that African American spirituality had significant value that could augment traditional European Catholic thought. As the letter’s primary purpose was evangelization, its analysis of racism itself was not in-depth. Nevertheless, “What We Have Seen and Heard” displayed a pronounced break with the traditional paradigm found in Catholic racial justice and is more representative of what will be found in the second section.
The Sustained Use of Black Agency and Experience
James H. Cone
Almost every current Catholic theologian who writes about racial justice is deeply influenced by the work of James H. Cone, who professes a need and urgency for African American sources and black agency. Cone is considered to be the founder of black liberation