With businesses along K Street in downtown Sacramento boarding up their windows and doors — either to cover up glass that was smashed in the chaotic early days of protest against police brutality or to prevent future destruction — the staff at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament boarded up its lower level entrance on K Street and the adjacent building at 1119 K Street, headquarters of the California Catholic Conference.
Valerie Ramos, a member of Good Shepherd Parish in Elk Grove, and Cathedral parishioner Mirella Aguirre, used their artistic inspiration, gifts and skills to turn those sheets of plywood into impromptu canvases to spread a message of faith, peace and racial justice.
“My feelings about being involved this mural run deep,” says Valerie, a retired educator from the Sacramento Unified School District and also was director of religious education at St. John Vianney Parish in Rancho Cordova for several years.
“My husband, Carlos helped me unload all my paints and what I needed on K Street. I asked him to pray over me as I started painting. I wanted my work to be offered to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit to be my artist, be my hand, and guide my mind and my heart. I was crying as I was painting, just feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit. I thought this is an important mural to create, for people to see God’s word and to see the faces of Black Catholics, to know we have Black saints in the church. And that we are all praying in solidarity with our peaceful protestors and all people of good will to achieve justice and peace in our country.”
The colorful mural across the windows at 1119 K Street depicts Black saints, Augustus Tolton, Josephine Bakhita, Martin de Porres and Charles Lwanga, as well as Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Thea Bowman, whose cause for canonization was opened in 2018. Ramos says the background is four panels of color, modeled after the colorful Kente cloth, the national cloth of Ghana. Flanking each end of the mural are two women who represent modern day African American women, one with long braided hair and “no justice, no peace” on her shirt, and one with natural African hair, with “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) on her shirt….
The above comes from a June 16 release from the Sacramento diocese.
Evidently, St. Paul was not woke:
There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
That’s an edifying use of plywood during these turbulent times.
I sent that story to my brother-in-law (pastor of a mostly black inner-city parish in Newark, NJ) and my daughter-in-law (who teaches art at a mostly black Catholic school in Harlem).
We need positive, inspiring messages and images, especially at this time.
The “obligatory” BLM acronym? That tells you right there it’s ideological.
Third-rate drawing + pandering to the new woke race theology = pathetic. Why not depict Katherine Drexel, who was white and rich but served poor blacks? Oh, it’s because all that matters these days is skin color and making superficial woke signals of virtue.
Holiness matters, not skin color.
Maybe some of you would like to “hear” the thoughts of some black Catholic leaders.
Can a Catholic support Black Lives Matter? Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, a black Catholic deacon of the Diocese of Portland, OR, said: “Marching to protest the inequitable treatment of black people by those in authority — that’s good.” But he noted that Black Lives Matter supports a “radical feminist agenda.” He added: “No Catholic can support the national organization, whatsoever.” The full story from Catholic News Agency is linked below:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/can-catholics-support-black-lives-matter-92926
Black lives do matter (even though the organization BLM is evil). Especially at this time, it seems appropriate to listen to black Americans, including black Catholic leaders, and publicly renew our commitment to end racial injustice. As Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican noted, ““I don’t know how to tell people the nation is not racist. I’ll try again. We’re not a racist country. We deal with racism because there’s racism in this country. They are both true; not mutually exclusive.” Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a leftist, but I am grateful for all Saints and want their stories told.
Just being picky: “Sacramento cathedral boarded-up windows become showcase for black saints
Augustus Tolton, Josephine Bakhita, Martin de Porres, Charles Lwanga”
Tolton is not yet a saint, he is venerable, I believe.
Martin de Porres was Peruvian.
You are right that Father Tolton has not yet been canonized a Saint. Let us seek the intercession of the first African American priest, especially during this time. “Good Father Gus,” pray for us.
Saint Martin de Porres was of mixed race and unmarried parents, for which he suffered ridicule and more. He is a patron for those of mixed race. His mother was a freed woman of Panama, mostly likely black, but possibly native American.
The blm tag tells everything that you need to know , go to that website and see what they believe in , it is incompatible to the faith and society , look at it’s founders and who the ally themselves with , Assata Shakur read her record and her views
Rick, as I noted above, the organization BLM is evil. That said, the phrase is true. Did you read what black Catholic leaders are saying (which I linked in a previous post)? The Southern Baptist Convention put out a statement which was similar: black lives matter and the Black Lives Matter organization is terrible. Both of those are true. I hope this helps explain that many who might use the phrase “black lives matter” are not embracing the anti-Christian ideology of the organization of the same name.
Deacon , as always thanks for the info I did read your post , I still will take people /organizations at their word that they support this group , until I can determine otherwise . They may not agree with the goals of this group but they are using it to virtue signal and by that means give the group credibility. As an example there have been business that for whatever reason have stated their support for this using the phrase and referring to the website, I have unsubscribed and put their correspondences in my spam folder .They may be doing this out of fear or social pressure , but it is up to them to differentiate themselves from this group. If someone uses a swatstika I don’t think of the Hindu or Native American use of it I think of the German use of it . Watch and see if this does not become or try to become a obligatory phrase , that any modification of is met with abuse , ie you must say blm ,not all lives mater or you are a racist or worse. You seem to me to be a intelligent man , read your history on totalitarian movements and how they move hearts and minds, God Bless you Deacon.
In other words, Rick W, he thinks BLM is evil but he’s still gonna use their rhetoric. It’s a white liberal delusional thing – we wouldn’t understand.
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth . . . black crime, wildly out of proportion.
I have the book, “Saints of Africa”, by Fr. Vincent O’Malley. It is mostly about the saints of the African continent and is very informative about early Church history.
Twiddling (and pandering) while Rome burns. So much for the real victims.
As if any one of these saints would tell us that they lived and died for anything other than Our Lord…Charles Lwanga and Companions died at the hands of African pagans, specifically a homosexual monarch enraged that they would not submit to his advances. The irony there is that all that ‘matters’ is the skin of the saints/martyrs and not their ‘lives’.
I was thinking the same thing myself. In some of the newer adult writings on the saints I have noticed they often do not tell us why St. Charles Lwanga and his companions died, and the monstrous evil that was committed against them. It is one thing not to put too many details in children’s books but quite another thing for adult literature.
The book I recommended, “The Saints of Africa”, gives the full story. It also relates the Islamic expansion into Northern African to the near elimination of the Catholic Church there. Only 224 well packed pages including 88 saints.
BLM is a socialist moment and is set on destroying the “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” and replacing it with the village raising the children instead. It is also a supportive of homosexuality as well as transsexuality. The term “comrade is use throughout their mission statement – gee, what does that remind you of- . They are also attack verbally and physically at time when one prefers the believe that ” ALL lives matter “.
This being the case they should cringe at the sight of the BLM in the picture. The so called artists should be horsewhipped for putting on the mural too!
Angie, “horsewhipped?!” Really?
You are referring to one specific BLM organization. I am sure that most people who are saying Black Lives Matter do not know all this.