On the morning of Jan. 24, in the hall of St. Patrick Church in South LA — one of the oldest in Los Angeles — 13 people gathered under conditions familiar to any parish: pastries, nametags, small talk, and polite laughter, and when all sit down in the comfortable chairs arranged in a large square, the first thing they do is sing a hymn.
And when they were done with that, they got down to business.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Anti-Racism Task Force, focusing on African Americans, has been meeting once a month since last September, charged by Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez to address the “stain of racism.” Similar task forces have been formed in other California dioceses as part of a statewide initiative launched in 2020 by the state’s Catholic bishops.
Perhaps the theme sounds a bit grandiose, but it’s a fight the members of this task force know well. They’ve dealt with racism both personally and publicly for years. They are aware of the countless like-minded, well-meaning groups and commissions that have come and gone before them, agreeing that racism is a problem, drafting a document, perhaps taking a group photo, and going on their way without much actually happening.
It fell to St. Patrick’s pastor and task force coordinator Msgr. Timothy Dyer to invite prospective members to participate. Most of the responses he got had something in common.
“I told Tim that I didn’t want to be part, I can’t be part, of something that is one-and-done,” said Sister Angela Faustina of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. “This has to have a goal of producing a plan of action that is ongoing.”
Carl Cohn, former superintendent of Long Beach and San Diego school systems, agreed, saying that “unless this is rooted in the Church going forward, nothing of value will happen.”
Msgr. Dyer assured members that he “absolutely agreed this has to come with action.” Likewise, in his letter announcing the task force’s formation, Archbishop Gomez wrote that its members would engage in a “process of prayer, dialogue, and action,” that that process will lead not only to a “plan of action” but engage in the subsequent “work of implementation.”
Exactly what should be implemented, and how, dominated much of the meeting because, for the first time, Archbishop Gomez was among those gathered.
For nearly an hour, the task force’s members made their suggestions, their “Asks” of the archbishop, things they believed are necessary for real action. They talked about arranging for African American Catholics to tell their stories, and about how those stories would best be presented.
There were requests for the task force to have its own landing site on the archdiocesan website.
Sherry Hayes-Peirce, a social media strategist and parishioner at American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach, advocated for a better, stronger online presence. She believes in creating spaces for African American Catholics to tell their own personal stories, such as task force member Audrey Shaw’s heart-wrenching story of initially being denied Catholic baptism because of the color of her parents’ skin.
“Telling stories will change people’s hearts,” Hayes-Peirce said….
The above comes from a Feb. 1 story in Angelus News.
“they got down to business” — the “stain of racism.”
Wow. Great job, bishop. The Devil’s shaking in his boots now.
Completely unnecessary. There is no racism in the Catholic Church in Los Angeles. I’m so tired of the endless and baseless claims of racism by the left. The word has been overused. It’s like the boy who cried wolf now. Oh, you see or claim racism? Whatever. Click.
I feel very sorry for you and how in denial you are about the truth of racism and what many continue to suffer not just from the past; but every single day of their lives.
Is that you, Sister? You’re a little late to the message thread.
Get over yourself and your anti-white ideology
More leftwing anti-white hate.
O.K.
I’ll give my slaves Sunday off
Oh, do you run Amazon?
You can’t run on the Amazon, it’s a river. Maybe you can swim it.
I know you were trying to be sarcastic but..
Does anybody here remember traditional Catholicism where you do not work on Sundays and you do not make others work by going out to eat or shopping on Sundays?
Wait a minute. I love going out for lunch after Mass.
I do remember and try not to shop unnecessarily on Sunday, even though the best coupons might be for Sunday. I do eat out or go for fast food on Sundays since many people here are not Christians and have another day they celebrate each week or have the ability to go to mass Saturday evening or Sunday. When I worked, I had at least Sunday off, except for the time I worked in a bindery and worked too hard and ended up in a hospital.
That taught me a lesson, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” take time off.
Okay, Boomer. Why aren’t any young nuns complaining about racism in the church? I mean, look at that picture. Tells the whole story right there.
Answer: the young nuns are more concerned with getting souls to heaven, whatever their race or color.
Only 3% of the young nuns are black.
A statistic that would only concern a guilty white liberal….and it does not negate the work that the young nuns do for the salvation of souls.
My comment was to young nuns’s post. I am sorry if you felt negated.
this bureaucratic ploy will
only work if the racists are afraid
of polyester
Well, some of those ladies are wearing cotton. They really should just go out to lunch together, have a good time and skip all the meetings Problem solved.
I remember when a nun, who thought I was Spanish for some reason, asked what I was. When I told her, another dark lady said, “She’s a mutt.” We all laughed. Quite frankly, I think we are all mutts, only the purists get angry about “mixing” until they take a gene test.
Read the whole article.
I know you want me to take this seriously, so I will. It does seem awful that the lady was denied baptism at first because of the color of her parents’ skin. It is good for her to tell her story, but on the other hand her family could have misinterpreted the reasons for the priest’s refusal since we do not have his side of the story. Perhaps he felt they did not understand the meaning of baptism well enough, or perhaps he was being overly caution as he had been accused of forcing baptism on unwilling indigenous people.
I don’t believe that denial of baptism story for one second. How convenient, I say. Too convenient. It’s as believable a story as Jussie Smollett’s hoax claim that he was beaten up by racists, for which he was convicted for lying about it and making up the whole thing. These racial agitators claim that racism is everywhere, and they make up stories about being victims of racism because there’s no real racism in this country, so they have to make it all up.
Click the link and read the whole article.
On a more serious note, if these ladies are Sisters or nuns I think they should be wearing habits and veils, at least most of the time. The Filipina nuns in my area wear a habit and thus give their testimony to Christ in that way. Some of the Filipina nuns wear heavier black slacks and tunic type tops with a veil during the coldest season. There is also an order of sisters here in California that wear long medium blue habits with long white veils that look great. They are mostly of Latin American and European descent. Just a thought.
Anne TE:
“Only her Hairdresser knows for sure.”
Well, Lady Clairol, I started out with Clairol but ended up mixing Weller permanent gel. What color my hair is now, I’ll never tell. I do use a hot iron, though, as it is very wavy and also frizzes up in the mist or rain outside.
And to the Read poster, I did read the whole article, but just decided to have some fun with it like the others. We can get waaay too serious at times and need to take a break.
We have all been persecuted because of our skin, hair or eye color at times, and we all have misinterpreted others. I was with a relative one time at a festival whose mother was Mexican American. A white man with a southern accent was selling a joke can making fun of people who eat beans. My relative was upset because he thought the man was making fun of Mexicans. I lifted up one can, looked at it and said to him, this can does not have pinto beans on it but the type of beans southern whites eat. He is making fun of himself.
My relative replied, “Oh.”
Southern whites eat pinto beans.
There are exceptions. The point is my relative’s mother only cooked pinto beans, and it is the favorite bean of most all the people of Mexican descent here in California that I have have known, and that particular relative would not eat any other kind of bean, with the exception of a can of chili beans made with kidney beans. He refuses to eat any other kind, so he knew what I meant when I said the man was making fun of himself, and not making fun of Mexicans.
My uncle by marriage from Arkansas did not eat pinto beans, but other kinds with bacon.
You have something against black (beans)?
I eat all kinds of beans: black, white, pink, kidney, pinto. To me a bean is a bean. It all depends on how one fixes them. I watched an African American lady make a recipe she called (note; SHE called it that) Christians and Moors that she made with black beans and rice. i I found it quite tasty. I think she was probably from Louisianna. I use Creole, Cajun, chile, terragon, chervil and curry spices at different times in scrambled eggs, and even made egg foo yung.
Spice is the spice of life!
Adults cannot digest black beans well. That’s not a racist metaphor. It’s a gastro-intestinal fact.
Well, gastro fact, I highly recommend not trying to eat them uncooked. Adults cannot digest uncooked black beans well. Some onions, garlic, and other herbs and spices make the cooked legumes quite tasty, as Anne pointed out. I prefer them to pintos as they seem less likely to become mushy like pintos, but maybe that’s just how I’ve seen them prepared. My favorite bean is gigante, a fact I’m sure will edify all the readers of CCD.
I’m so confused. Is everyone a racist now?
In my 79 years I have heard people of every color make racists remarks about those of another race or ethnic group, sometimes innocently. In my middle years, I got on an escalator at a shopping mall and a group of black teens (girls and boys) were on the same escalator above me. Then a group of Asian teens (boys) started to get on the escalator beneath me. They began throwing verbal insults to each other over my head. All I wanted to do was to get out of there. I doubt there is anyone who has not had such an experience. Very scary.
A better word would be “similar” experience before someone corrects me.