News Intro Text
[Dr. Nicholas Mitchell for The Second Line, Fall 2016]
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<p>By Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D. for<em> The Second Line</em></p>
<p>Pope Paul VI wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), that all people have the right to liberation from marginalizing forces, be they social, economic, or political. In the United States, black people suffer from such marginalization and today they desire and work for liberation from all its forms.</p>
<p>The Church is called to support these efforts. If Catholics turn a blind eye to the forces that strip the dignity of millions of African American people in this nation, they are allowing a social structural sin, which is one where the personal prejudices of individuals have been elevated to social policy, to flourish. This guarantees the continuation and escalation of social unrest as the marginalized resist the forces that marginalize them.</p>
<p>The preservation of Black lives is a profoundly Catholic issue because respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life is the very foundation of Catholic social teaching. The single greatest threat to Black lives, physically and spiritually, is the imposition and effects of White Supremacy in the forms of interpersonal and institutional racism which are interconnected. Interpersonal racism is the racism held on a personal level whereas institutional racism is what is manifested in educational, legal, financial, health, and political institutions and can be quantifiably measured through material disparities. Interpersonal racism gives birth to institutional racism and the institutional racism feeds the interpersonal. In this cycle, millions of black lives are stripped of their dignity.</p>
<p>Black Lives Matter and its subsequent polities seek to break this cycle. May we, as a united Christian community, take action from Pope Paul VI’s opening words in Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975): “There is no doubt that the effort to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress, is a service rendered to the Christian community and also to the whole of humanity.”</p>
<p><a href="http://obcm.arch-no.org/system/newsletters/assets/000/000/011/original/OBCM_-_Fall_2016_Newsletter.pdf?1473779699">MORE ARTICLES FROM <em>THE SECOND LINE</em>>></a></p>
<p>Pope Paul VI wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), that all people have the right to liberation from marginalizing forces, be they social, economic, or political. In the United States, black people suffer from such marginalization and today they desire and work for liberation from all its forms.</p>
<p>The Church is called to support these efforts. If Catholics turn a blind eye to the forces that strip the dignity of millions of African American people in this nation, they are allowing a social structural sin, which is one where the personal prejudices of individuals have been elevated to social policy, to flourish. This guarantees the continuation and escalation of social unrest as the marginalized resist the forces that marginalize them.</p>
<p>The preservation of Black lives is a profoundly Catholic issue because respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life is the very foundation of Catholic social teaching. The single greatest threat to Black lives, physically and spiritually, is the imposition and effects of White Supremacy in the forms of interpersonal and institutional racism which are interconnected. Interpersonal racism is the racism held on a personal level whereas institutional racism is what is manifested in educational, legal, financial, health, and political institutions and can be quantifiably measured through material disparities. Interpersonal racism gives birth to institutional racism and the institutional racism feeds the interpersonal. In this cycle, millions of black lives are stripped of their dignity.</p>
<p>Black Lives Matter and its subsequent polities seek to break this cycle. May we, as a united Christian community, take action from Pope Paul VI’s opening words in Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975): “There is no doubt that the effort to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress, is a service rendered to the Christian community and also to the whole of humanity.”</p>
<p><a href="http://obcm.arch-no.org/system/newsletters/assets/000/000/011/original/OBCM_-_Fall_2016_Newsletter.pdf?1473779699">MORE ARTICLES FROM <em>THE SECOND LINE</em>>></a></p>