US Bishops' Conference head and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez's (pictured) 4 November speech to a group of Catholics in Spain shows "a serious misunderstanding, and perhaps even a willed ignorance, about the goals and motivations of contemporary social justice movements," says Fr Bryan Massingale.

Massingale is concerned Gomez described the US anti-racist movement as an angry expression of corrosive secularism being pushed by an "elite leadership class."

Gomez characterizes social justice movements like Black Lives Matter as "pseudo-religions based on profoundly atheistic ideologies that are hostile to Catholic belief," Massingale says.

But Massingale says most Black Catholics he knows advocate Black Lives Matter "precisely because of our belief in the universal human dignity of all people as images of God.

"We declare that Black Lives Matter precisely because of our allegiance to what the archbishop calls the Christian story."

From Gomez's perspective, the "new social movements and ideologies ... were being seeded and prepared for many years in our universities and cultural institutions."

He said in the U.S., amid the tension and fear created by the pandemic and social isolation, "these movements were fully unleashed" with George Floyd's death.

While Gomez characterized new social movements as evidence of "extremism" and a "harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving approach to politics," he was selective about the examples he used.

Some observers note he didn't mention anti-vaccine demonstrations or violent incidents such as the 6 January insurrection. During the insurrection, Donald Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. Many invoked their faith while doing so.

A Black sociology professor at Villanova University says Gomez's talk sends a message to Catholics who are people of colour or involved in anti-racism that Gomez does not stand in solidarity with them.

"This is beyond disappointing because the president of the [bishops' conference] should, in fact, do more than stand in solidarity. He should be an anti-racism activist in his own right," she says.

Another Black commentator says one of her immediate takeaways from Gomez's speech was "how out of touch and erroneous" his interpretation of social justice movements in America is.

"Today's social justice movements are rooted in the very ideals that Catholics profess: that all life is sacred, that the least among us deserve respect and protection, and that we must strive to end oppression and hatred."

Gomez's message sought to "erase the voices of millions" of Catholics and Christians of color who are involved in the anti-racism movement, she says.

"Seventy-nine per cent of Black Americans identify as Christian, and you better believe most of those people are also against racism," the commentator says. "He is revealing the blind spot that many leaders in the church have."

She noted Pope Francis has commended activists who protest against police brutality and racism. He called them the "Collective Samaritan" - who did not turn away when they saw "the wound to human dignity, afflicted by such an abuse of power."

Source

• Religion News Service
• America Magazine
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: America Magazine

Following the statue's toppling in July 2020 amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill last Friday — coinciding with Native American Day — that will remove the statue of Father Junipero Serra which was installed in 1967.

The removal of the statue, as with similar efforts across the country, has been a lightning rod for controversy. Serra, a Spanish missionary, played a pivotal role in converting Native Americans to Roman Catholicism in the late 1700s, per the Los Angeles Times.

Read More

The emphasis is, at once, on a list of ideas about the universe, human life, purpose and what, if anything, is beyond the universe.

Once I have such a list, I can then tick the ones I also accept and a cross off those I consider weird, wrong or simply crazy.

Interestingly, this is the same way we approach various philosophies, political systems or any number of off-the-shelf spirituality books.

The world is a marketplace of various beliefs and you can either buy the "whole package" (a whole religion with every one of its beliefs — if you can list them all); the "lite version" (what you take as the key items you can believe and then skip the bits that look silly or awkward or just too complicated); or you can have the "pick & choose" selection that you make to order.

Ticking all the boxes

Few ever question the idea that, for example, if you wish to be a Catholic, then it's key that you sign-up to "all the Catholic beliefs".

Moreover, people sometimes say "I am no longer a Catholic" or "I could not be a Catholic" because "I no longer" or "cannot believe X, Y. or Z.

This focus on beliefs - statements that demand acceptance - is not only reinforced by our culture of ideologies, but by a long history of the western Churches fighting over which is the exact beliefs and statements of beliefs that are declared orthodox.

All this fighting, and this emphasis on having the right set of beliefs, makes it even harder to distinguish between a religion and a philosophy, or between a religion and a political party.

Indeed, for many Christians today the notion of a "party line" is almost identical with "orthodoxy" and with belonging to a religion.

A good example of this would be some Catholics, including some bishops, in the United States.

This confusion is demonstrated in these Catholics and bishops conduct debates or discussions with their fellow Christians - their brothers and sisters in Christ - with the same venom, bitterness and suspicion that they conduct their party politics.

While I might condemn such animosity-driven politics that damages the public forum and the common good, I am scandalized when I find the same style being used in the name of Christianity or Catholicism.

It is another instance of what I call "the Sin of Cain": sibling rising against sibling, made worse because it is done in the name of the God who is Father of each of us.

But is there any other way to view a religion?

Where do I belong?

Religion is also a means of belonging.

It gives me a home with others so that I can share a vision, help and be helped, and affirm with others all that is part and parcel of my humanity.

I need, we all need, to belong more than we need a box of doctrines or set of beliefs.

If I do not belong, my humanity is enfeebled.

I need to exercise care for others and I need the care of others.

Cut off, I wither.

While we might find Robinson Crusoe a good read, and there is a streak of devil-take-the-hindmost individualism in our culture, it is actually a vision of horror.

We really are social animals!

During these COVID-19 lockdowns, we have started to discover this as a reality in a way that we could not have imagined a year ago.

On the one hand, people's mental health is suffering when they are cut off from others. They know just how much they need to be with others and with Zoom, Skype and Facetime as poor substitutes, people need to know that they are not forgotten.

We need to belong!

The full verse reads: "See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God; and so we are".

On the other hand, we have discovered the joy and energy that comes from looking out for others.

Knowing that, somehow, we all belong to one another, we are, each of us, the keeper of our sisters and brothers.

We want to be able to know that there is an "us" and that we are working together. And - working with people we might never have met before COVID-19 - that belonging to the human family is more important than divisions caused by lists of beliefs that can set us at loggerheads.

Perhaps we need now to think of religion as belonging before we think of it as believing?

Frightening consequences of truly belonging

This is, of course, a frightening prospect for many people.

They love the idea that, for example, the Catholic Church is a monolith. Unflinching it stands there - and there are clear lines indicating who is "in" and who is "out".

This attracts many who see themselves as the great champions of faith and it appeals to those who want the Catholic Church as their enemy - and an enemy that is monolith is an easy target. Both sides see a very close link between religion and social control and cohesion.

However, the Church is first and foremost a place of belonging: we are welcomed into the Church at baptism. We become a brother or a sister of both the Christ and of one another - look at how we address one another at our formal gatherings - and we become daughters and sons of the Father in heaven - look at how we pray: "Our Father..."

It is as this community, this Church, that we profess our faith: it is our common vision, hope, and commitment.

It is not a series of questions on a form such as we might get at a customs barrier where you are excluded if you do not tick the right boxes.

Once one begins to think of the Church as a place of belonging, then the fireworks begin.

It must be a community of welcoming and acceptance that works together.

It must be a community that puts forgiveness and reconciliation close to its centre.

So a sacrament of reconciliation makes sense, but not if reconciliation and healing are seen as "payback time" or a moral rectitude test. Such a community must have healing at its centre, but not if that is seen as a re-modelling to a standard issue.

And we must work together because belonging must be an awareness of all our human bonds and belongings.

Consequently...

• Will this be a "home" where every race will be made to feel valued? Will Black Lives Matter in this place - along with people of every other colour? We might glibly say "yes" but we are less than 200 years since we Catholics defended slavery as acceptable within the divine plan!
• Will this be a place where we accept people as they are? "Yes" comes the resounding answer. But will the gay couple see their love as valued in this community as that of the straight couple?
• What about the couple; each divorced from their former partner and is willing to join up with us so that we have a common pilgrimage of faith?
• Will they have a place at our table where they can share the loaf and cup of the Lord with us as siblings? We all know too many clergy and groups who have used the Lord's Supper as if it were a reward for rule-keeping rather than food to help us travel on together.
• And, will we work together for humanity and the health of the planet? Again, "it goes without saying" is our response! But what about our being willing to change lifestyles and helping one another in putting pressure on governments for this?

The people of the covenant

Belonging sounds so sweet: it rapidly becomes the challenge to faith that is far more demanding than any ticking of credal boxes.

Faith can sound so much like an ideology that we can pervert to communities that make suffering humanity welcome into stifling agenda-driven parties.

Our history - back to the time of Abraham - is not that of God revealing secrets to us but of his making a covenant with us.

Jesus is not a guru. He never wrote a book to convey his ideas. Nor did he have a party-line.

Jesus is the one whom we look back to as making us a new people: children of the Father.

So in Christianity, as in Judaism, belonging is what is fundamental.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, emeritus professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK) and director of the Centre of Applied Theology, UK.
• His latest award-winning book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).
• Image: Flashes of Insight

They called for new legislation to address racial inequities in the country.

And they urged people to vote.

Among the speakers Friday was a son of Martin Luther King Jr and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, whose killing in 2012 led to the Black Lives Matter movement.

He urged participants — who watched on television, online and in-person — to continue the work of the 1960s with what his father called the "coalition of conscience" by seeking a country that seeks love and health and dispels fear and hate.

"To achieve that America, we need to raise our voices and cast our votes," King said. "There's a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, and other speakers echoed some of the same themes enunciated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his "I Have a Dream" speech at the first march in 1963.

"We come in the same spiritual lineage," said Sharpton, organizer of the Commitment March, after members of King's family addressed the crowd. "'cause I want this country to know that even with your brutality you can't rob us of our dreams."

Sharpton announced the event — also called the "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" march — as he preached at the funeral for George Floyd, a Black man who died in May under the knee of a white police officer.

Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial before thousands, Sharpton said that Black people have long fought bigotry. But he noted that members of the interracial crowd that gathered in the same spot where others marched in 1963 have the power to move beyond their circumstances.

"We are the dream keepers, which is why we come today — black and white and all races and religions and sexual orientations — to say that this dream is still alive. You might have killed the dreamer but you can't kill the dream."

Before the throngs of people started marching to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the granddaughter and a son of the famous civil rights leader took turns at the microphone to speak where their predecessor had appeared 57 years before.

"Americans are marching together — many for the first time — and we're demanding real, lasting structural change," said Martin Luther King III.

"We are socially distanced but spiritually united. We are masking our faces but not our faith in freedom."

"There are two systems of justice in the United States," said the father and namesake of Jacob Blake, the man who was shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday.

"There's a white system and there's a Black system. The Black system ain't doing so well. But we're going to stand up."

Sybrina Fulton, also addressed the crowd saying her favourite Bible passage is Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not unto your own understanding."

"Even though it looks dark, I want to tell you to be encouraged," she said.

"Don't stop saying Black Lives Matter. Don't stop peaceful protesting. Don't stop praying. Don't stop unifying. Stand together," she said.

Source RNS

Holding made his emotional plea on the morning of the opening Test between West Indies and England, illustrating his comments with examples of what black people experience.

A lot of discussion on Black Lives Matter has taken place leading up to the series, with the players taking a knee, a protest against police brutality and racism before the match.

The t-shirts the players wear also have "black lives matter" written on them. George Floyd's murder in the US by a white police officer two months ago has created a wave of emotion concerning the treatment of black people.

During a pre-match discussion on TV Sky Sports, Holding said, "Education is important unless we just want to continue living the life that we are living and continue just having demonstrations every now and again with a few people saying a few things."

"When I say education I mean going back in history."

"What people need to understand is that this thing stems from a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. The dehumanization of the black race is where it started. People will tell you, 'That's a long time ago, get over it,'" the cricket legend says.

"No, you don't get over things like that and society has not gotten over something like that."

Holding says black people have been constantly portrayed in a negative light.

"We have been brainwashed and not just black people, white people have been brainwashed in different ways...look at the image they give you of Jesus Christ - pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes...that is the brainwashing to show you this is what perfection is. This is what the image of perfection is."

On the other hand, Judas who betrayed Jesus, was a black man. People are brainwashed that because Judas was the black man he was the bad man, Holding says.

When he went to school in Jamaica he was never taught anything positive about black people, Holding says.

People say there is nothing called white privilege, but from where he stands, Holding says this is not the case.

"Give me a break. I don't see any white people going into a store on Oxford Street (in England) and being followed.

"A black man walks in somebody is following him everywhere he goes. That is basic white privilege, whether that white person went there to rob the place or not he is not going to be thought of in that way and things like that have to change."

Source

• Newsday
• Image: The Hindu

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" And the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand." (Gen 4:9-11)

In yet another iteration of state-sanctioned police brutality, the United States has witnessed the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minn.

In harrowing fulfilment of what political philosopher Hannah Arendt once defined counter-intuitively as the "banality" of evil, Officer Chauvin seemed frighteningly calm as he slowly asphyxiated Mr Floyd with his knee outside a corner store: eight minutes and 46 seconds of deafening, uncontested silence, save the plaintive protest of a passerby, and Mr Floyd himself, gasping for enough air to call for his mother.

How do we protest such a grotesque execution of injustice? How indeed do we cry out against its quiet collusion with systemic racism, which shapeshifts in response to each civil rights victory in order to ensure its transmission to the next generation?

An inventory of our treasures

As a Catholic, it has been both encouraging and indicting to follow the Catholic Church's response to the death of George Floyd: from watching clerical leadership denounce the "real and present danger" and "ongoing reality" of racism in America; to hearing lay prophetic voices, including EWTN radio show host Gloria Purvis, calling us to consider the extent to which racism has become an ecclesial "blindspot" among white American Catholics; to finding so few Catholic Church communities marching alongside our Christian and non-Christian brothers and sisters.

Why are we not, as Presbyterian minister Rev Alexis Waggoner of the Church of the Village in New York City recently described it, "putting [our] body where [our] theology is"?

Perhaps, in fact, we are: Increasingly privatized religion means privatized bodies. We have fulfilled, not forgotten, our seclusive theology.

At worst, Christians have preferred instead to cry foul in the face of church property damage and graffiti, blithely unaware that our central liturgical image is the crucified Christ, whose body was broken by violence and adorned with Roman graffiti, "INRI."

That is to say, our fidelity to Christ and his body the church has less to do with becoming an aggrieved church of fire damage than a compassionate church of kinship with the broken.

Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman once opined concerning the Christian intellectual and spiritual tradition, "[w]e have a vast inheritance, but no inventory of our treasures."

In a brief attempt to take stock of our shared inventory, then, and likewise to advocate a more self-consciously incarnational practice of Christianity in the world, I would like to propose that Christianity is best understood in nature and practice as a form of protest.

Who God is in the world

That is, Christianity offers a radically divergent vision of how humanity might confront, interrupt, and heal experiences of violence, suffering and loss, and in so doing both reveal and enact who God is in the world: the God of boundless compassion for the afflicted, the morally outcast and the enemy; and the God of unity, that binds together the "beloved community" in charity against temptations to self-conceit, the abuse of power, and indifference to the poor.

To begin, Christianity as protest reveals who God is in the world. Let us begin with the daring, plaintive story of the Book of Job. Continue reading

As the church prepares to celebrate his feast day tomorrow, the Archbishop asked Catholics to invoke the intercession of St Junipero "for this nation that he helped to found."

He also urged prayers especially for "an end to racial prejudice and a new awareness of what it means that all men and women are created equal as children of God." Read more

And by Saturday afternoon another Serra statue was toppled at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles.

"Pull it! Pull it! This is for our ancestors," a person shouted.

In a video of the San Francisco toppling, people can be heard cheering as the statue of the 18th-century Franciscan priest holding a cross fell to the ground. People strike and kick the statue in the video, and it's clear the statue has also been tagged and splashed with what appears to be red paint.

Meanwhile, in the city of Ventura, the mayor, a pastor and a tribal leader announced in a letter that a statue of Serra near Ventura City Hall would be removed. This announcement was made after an online petition demanded the statue be taken down.

"Serra is not the historical hero people thought when this landmark statue to him was erected, one of many throughout California, as a historical emblem, he is toxic and should be removed," the petition reads.

In the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, statues honouring Christopher Columbus and Confederate leaders have also been defaced and toppled.

In light of these nationwide events, Californians are once again re-evaluating their statues of Serra — who led the Catholic Church's missionary efforts among Native Americans on the West Coast.

Serra in 2015 was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis during a trip to the U.S.

While Serra is credited with spreading the Catholic faith across what is now California, critics say Serra was part of an imperial conquest that beat and enslaved Native Americans.

Serra, who was born in Spain, came to the Americas in 1749, and in 1769 he founded the first of what would become 21 missions along the California coast.

Native Americans brought into the mission to be evangelized were not allowed to leave the grounds. Many laboured for no pay. There is evidence of beatings, imprisonment and other abuse at the hands of the missionaries.

Serra defenders say it's unfair to judge him by 21st-century standards. They say he frequently pleaded for more merciful treatment for the Native Americans under their control.

Months before Serra was canonized, Cliff Trafzer, director of UC Riverside's California Center for Native Nations and a history professor, told the Press-Enterprise in Riverside that the church continued to ignore the Indigenous American viewpoint on Serra.

"Father Serra represents the invasion of California and the taking of native lands," he told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, in the Los Angeles Times, said Serra was an inspiration in his ministry.

"He preached God's compassion, fought for the dignity of women and the rights of America's native peoples, and he was probably the first person in the Americas to make a moral case against capital punishment," Gómez said.

The Catholic News Agency detailed how Serra asked Spanish authorities to spare the lives of the California natives who had attacked a San Diego mission.

In Ventura, the letter announcing the removal of the Serra statue was signed by Mayor Matt LaVere; Father Tom Elewaut, pastor at the San Buenaventura Mission Church; and Julie Tumamait Stenslie, tribal chair of Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians (Chumash).

"We have listened and we have heard the calls from those in the community and believe the time has come for the statue to be taken down and moved to a more appropriate non-public location," the letter reads.

"We all believe that the removal of the statue should be accomplished without force, without anger, and through a collaborative, peaceful process."

• Kimberly Winston and David Gibson contributed to this report. First published in RNS.

"They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been," King, 40, tweeted on Monday over the movement to topple monuments.

He then extended his demands to include "all murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends.

"They are a gross form [of] white supremacy. Created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down."

"If your religion requires Jesus to be a blonde haired blue eyed Jesus, then your religion is not Christianity, but white supremacy."

Despite questions about his claims to be black and allegations of rampant financial misdeeds, activist King is one of the more visible & vocal leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Brooklyn-based King — who denies being a white man masquerading as black — posted a photo of a dark-skinned Jesus he says is the most accurate depiction.

"In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? Egypt! Not Denmark."

The reason white Americans had images of a light-skinned Jesus is because they bought, sold, traded, raped and worked Africans to death, for hundreds of years. Therefore they couldn't have a dark-skinned man at the center of their faith, he says.

King's series of tweets have resulted in ridicule, outrage and threats, he says.

"Received about 20 death threats in the past 12 hours since I said that statues of white European Jesus are a tool of oppression for white supremacy and should be taken down," he wrote.

One responded asked him "Does it hurt to be this stupid? Honest question."

King, who is a former newspaper columnist, is known for scandals over his financial dealings.

He was recently attacked for his botched attempt to recreate abolitionist Frederick Douglass' newspaper, The North Star, as an online venture.

He was also recently accused of failing to refund $27,500 in donations to his shuttered activist organization, Justice Together.

Source

• New York Post
• Daily Wire
• KRTH News Radio
• Image: Newsweek

They also daubed the letters "BLM" beneath it.

Breda's mayor, Paul Depla, says the incident is "particularly sad for the Polish community, for which the monument is of great value".

The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa - also known as the Black Madonna - is revered by Poles.

It was erected in a park in Breda in 1954 in thanksgiving for the city's liberation from the Nazis.

The Polish 1st Armored Division, commanded by General Stanisław Maczek, freed the city on October 29, 1944.

After the war, 40,000 inhabitants of Breda signed a petition to award him honorary Dutch citizenship. He is now buried alongside his fallen soldiers at a Breda cemetery.

The organizers of a recent 'racial justice' protest in the city have also spoken out against the vandalism.

Spokesman Patrick van Lunteren says none of the protest organizers know who was responsible for it.

"This hurts the Polish community and that is not the intention [of the demonstration]. People are now open to dialogue, but with these kinds of actions you lose sympathy."

Frans Ruczynski, who is a former chairman of the General Maczek Museum, which commemorates Breda's liberators, says the vandalism is an insult to the Polish community.

"Polish people are very religious. Every Sunday they go to church, with hundreds in Breda. Why would you want to hurt them? We don't know if it comes from the left or right corner. But when it comes to Black Lives Matter, I don't understand it. The Black Madonna has nothing to do with oppression at all."

The original image of the Black Madonna is at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, which is Poland's most popular place of pilgrimage.

Breda authorities have now removed the BLM graffiti from the mosaic.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

"This is my love letter to New Zealand for all you've done for me after escaping a country that made me feel like a natural-born refugee and becoming a well-rounded human to show the same enduring openness you've given me," says Kelvin Taylor.

Taylor is an actor, dancer and model. He travels frequently between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

He is known for his character portrayal of George Kerr, the Jamaican 800m runner who went up against Peter Snell in the 1960 Rome Olympics, in the TVNZ International Emmy Award Nominated Documentary "The Golden Hour."

He has also been described as a controversial journalist and social commentator.

"In light of Black Lives Matter and the current state of world, I wanted to thank the New Zealand people for doing their part to help this world, not just for African Americans but for everyone."

"What I've seen in New Zealand contrasts to the US protests, which often appear insidiously complex and at times infiltrated outside of their genuine intentions."

He thinks the word black distracts from the message.

It is a colour code invented by German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1779 he says.

"I prefer to say African to humanise myself more than a colour. To be specific is to be respected and I myself do not want to be painted, or paint others, as one hue."

Taylor thinks the police angst in America does not need to be shared in New Zealand.

"The police in New Zealand are lovely but underpaid and sometimes under-staffed."

He says accountability is needed any organisation that is often self-governed: "but comparison is the killer of compassion.

Keep our love with all things individual, not painted grouped together with police, ethnic groups, genders or walks of life."

Source

• wikipedia.org
• nzherald.co.nz
• ghgossip.com
• starnow.com.au
• Image:kelvintaylor.com

It attracted coverage from every major media outlet in New Zealand.

"St Patrick's Church Masterton and the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Parish of Wairarapa sincerely apologise for the hurt and distress that the sign posted outside the church last week has caused to many members of our community," it said.

"Our Parish Council and community will stand against and speak out against all racism, including the institutional racism suffered by many people all over the world. Black Lives Matter."

Cardinal Dew, the Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, said the sign was placed when the parish priest was away last week.

On June 3 Pope Francis denounced the "sin of racism" and twice identified Floyd as the victim of a "tragic" killing.

"My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life."

"At the same time, we have to recognize that the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating."

"Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost."

On the same day, the Pope called the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop José Gomez.

He also called Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso who was recently photographed with a group of priests dropped to one knee at the spot where protesters had clashed with police the night before.

They had prayed in silence for about eight minutes, the time Floyd spent under the officer's knee before becoming unconscious.

Seitz said the pope thanked him without mentioning the demonstration, but the context was clear: "My recent words and actions on the events that are taking place in the country now" after Floyd's killing.

Source

• times-age.co.nz
• time.com
• voanews.com
• americamagazine.org
• Image: learningenglish

He said this when speaking at a vigil for George Floyd which was held at St Peter's Church in Willis St, Wellington on Wednesday.

"The events that led to the death of George Floyd are shocking. The complete absence of humanity, or even fairness ... it rightly triggered an outcry in the United States and across the globe."

"In this context, it is right that we gather to reflect on our own situation in Aotearoa."

Coster believes New Zealand's style of policing was different from that seen in other countries.

However, he acknowledged that criminal justice outcomes for Maori, in particular, are appalling.

"This is not a situation that we should ever accept, and I do not accept it," he said.

Coster wore plain clothes on Wednesday and said he acknowledged the police uniform could be seen as a barrier to human connection.

"Despite the uniform, the police force is an organisation made up of individuals, who are also a part of our communities."

One of his aspirations as police commissioner is to bring humanity into every police interaction.

"We need to recognise that there is almost always a life course and certain circumstances that lead people to the places they are in when we deal with them," Coster said.

"We deal with people at the worst times of their lives, and do that day in, day out."

On Tuesday Coster told Stuff the morale of the police in New Zealand is being affected by the worldwide protests against police racism: "It's quite a difficult time to be in policing," he said.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

"As Archbishop for the diocese, I do not support the placement of that sign. It should not have been put there," he said.

"A church should not be politicised this way. A church should be a safe space for everyone, a place where everyone feels welcome without being confronted with politicised material that some could find unwelcoming or offensive."

RNZ published a photograph which appears to show the message board had been vandalised.

Masterton Mayor Lyn Patterson said the church did not seem to have been aware of the controversy surrounding the All Lives Matter slogan.

Patterson said she had not heard much from the community about the message.

"I haven't had any phone calls around it but I would understand and certainly appreciate why people might feel strongly about the signage."

"Lots of people have individual views on it."

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said it would be "provocative" to post the phrase on a public noticeboard.

"The statement is politically loaded and has been used to justify ignoring racial disparities, such as the over-representation of African American communities in police shootings," Foon said.

"The phrase is therefore associated with racial division and intolerance."

"People have the right to freedom of expression. However, it is equally important for people to be thoughtful about how they express themselves, including how their expression impacts others."

Source

• Supplied David McLoughlin
  Communications Adviser, NZ Catholic Bishops
  Te Huinga o nga Pihopa Katorika o Aotearoa
• rnz.co.nz
• Image: rnz.co.nz Amber Craig

A Twitter user posted a photo of the slogan on social media, saying it was "pretty disgusting."

"All lives do not matter until black lives matter. All lives do not matter until brown lives matter," she wrote.

"It's not white people being shot because they're white. Learn what white privilege is. This is tone-deaf and racist."

In Auckland last week a young woman was yelled at, threatened, and told to go back to her own country after wiping out "it's okay to be white and all lives matter" that was written in chalk on the ground.

In the video of the exchange, the woman explains people only say all lives matter as a response to black lives matter and says it is a way of erasing black people.

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon has also condemned the saying, as well as the phrase "it's okay to be white."

"The phrases are known to be associated with groups who deny that racism exists or who would minimise its impact..."

"There is no place for that in New Zealand," Foon said.

Last week, three schools, Marist College in Auckland, St Andrews and Christchurch Girls' High School in Christchurch came under fire for removing Black Lives Matter posters.

The prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday the removal of posters is ultimately a matter for schools but said students should be encouraged to engage with the world around them on both domestic and international issues.

"I'd say that in New Zealand we'd want our young people to be engaged in the issues that are around them, including whether it's domestically or internationally. Engaged citizens, that's good for New Zealand," Ardern said.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz

Image: twitter.com

Principal Raechelle Taulu said the Diocese, who own Marist, will mediate a meeting with those who have raised issues.

She said, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees and senior management last night, they agreed students have every right to be heard. Read more

As I reflect on the heartbreaking deadly scene of a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee into George Floyd's neck for nearly nine extremely long minutes, and recall my harrowing encounter, I have a small, gut-wrenching sense of the fright Floyd must have felt when he cried out "I can't breathe!"

As reported by Democracy Now, friends of Floyd said that he was a mentor to young African American men in Houston where he grew up. He preached "peace, love, God, unity, advocating against gun violence" said Corey Paul, a Houston hip-hop artist who ministered with Floyd.

On Pentecost Sunday, I participated with about 150 black, white, young and elderly people in two peaceful protests in Dorchester County, Md. - where the famous Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved.

While most of the other protests throughout the U.S. and world were also peaceful, several were violent - tragically causing more innocent deaths and many small businesses being destroyed.

Violence, in all its many evil forms - including riots - is always harmful and hurtful. Violence is never the answer!
Pope Francis said "The violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and much is lost."

But in order to end violence, we must seriously probe its root-causes. And to that end the Holy Father also said, "My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life."

In his article "The Psychology of Rioting: The Language of the Unheard" at Psychology Today, Dr. Joe Pierre, M.D. writes, "Denouncing symptoms of disease without treating the root cause is bad medicine. … The root cause in this case is systemic racism."

From 1619, when kidnapped Africans were brought for the first time to what would later become the U.S., to the brutal death of George Floyd, it is beyond dispute that countless African Americans have been, and still are, the victims of systemic racism.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who consistently preached and lived Gospel nonviolence, said in his 1967 "The Other America" speech "I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice."

"It is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air."

But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard."

"America has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility, and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity … Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention."

Please also watch "Race Matters: America in Crisis."

And kindly consider prayerfully reading the 2018 U.S. Catholic bishops' pastoral letter against racism "Open Wide Our Hearts: the enduring call to love".

Beginning their letter the bishops quote from Scripture's First Letter of John, "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are."

Loving Father, open wide our hearts that we may truly know and live this truth!

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

The gesture has spread. Lately, even police officers showing solidarity have knelt before those protesting the May 25 killing of George Floyd, who died after being filmed pinned to the ground with a knee to his neck, constrained by a police officer.

On 1 June Bishop Mark Seitz from El Paso joined with the gesture, 'taking a knee' during a rally. He was the first Catholic bishop to do so.

Holding a sign that read "Black Lives Matter", he led a silent prayer for eight minutes and 46 seconds - the length of time police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on George Floyd's neck.

Seitz says he was nervous about making the gesture.

"It's difficult to know what a bishop should do. But I've had some excellent advisers — people and priests. I tried to listen to them, listened to my heart."

"Sometimes, you just have to take the leap into the unknown."

Seitz's action was rewarded last Wednesday, when he received an unexpected phone call.

It was the Pope's secretary, who said the Holy Father was on the line.

Francis congratulated him for speaking out, Seitz said.

Francios also said he had called Archbishop Jose Gomez, the president of the U.S. bishops' conference, to convey support and solidarity during the civil unrest.

"I told him I felt it was very important at this time to show our solidarity to those who are suffering," Seitz says.

"I told him I had just come from Mass at which I was praying for him and I always do. He thanked me and said that whenever we celebrate Mass, we are praying together, he where he is and me at the border."

Seitz says the phone call shows Francis "is aware of what's happening...and is anxious for the church to be responsive in a pastoral way ... in solidarity with those who have experienced racial discrimination."

After the call, Seitz wrote an essay reaffirming his commitment to racial justice.

"Frankly, civil rights are not enough. That's the minimum and clearly, we're not there yet," he wrote.

He also reflected of an image he saw on video of "a young white woman at a protest near the White House who put her body in front of a young kneeling black teenager as police officers in riot gear approached."

"As Jesus said, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

"It's a scene of solidarity and self-giving that has played out across the country so many times in the last week.

"Here in El Paso there were two young police officers who knelt down ... during our protest and it helped diffuse some tension. There is something profoundly eucharistic about that and I'm so inspired by our young people. They are teaching us something."

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Insider
• Image: KVIA