Catholics “must act” for racial justice, starting with personal conversion, to honour Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s struggle and eliminate racial injustices, says the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Source: OSV News/NCR.
In his statement, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the US Archdiocese of the Military Services immediately referred to the call to action from Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, one of six Black Catholic women and men proposed for sainthood.
“People keep saying, ‘Where’s the next Martin Luther King?’ We’re all called, I think. We’re called by our citizenship, by our membership in the human race. We’re all called to free ourselves and to free one another,” Sr Bowman said.
Archbishop Broglio noted that while society has made progress toward “a just society that leaves no one on the margins” in the 60 years since Dr King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, nevertheless “much work remains”.
Dr King, whose birthday is January 15 but is celebrated on the following Monday as a federal holiday, led the civil rights movement until his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was just 39 years old and would have turned 94 this year.
“Beyond remembering and quoting Dr King today, we must act to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system, access to affordable housing and health care, and economic opportunities,” Archbishop Broglio said.
He said Dr King’s faith drove his civil rights work, and Catholics today must undergo conversion and look to the saints to undo unjust structures of racism in society.
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Catholics ‘must act’ for racial justice to honor MLK, says USCCB president (OSV News/National Catholic Reporter)
