Anti-Racism and the Catholic Church: Deconstructing a Homily
“Be free, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil.”
-1 Peter 2:16 (NABRE)
On Thursday, August 24th, 2017, The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, led by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, held what it titled a “Mass of Solidarity and Peace,” at the Co-Cathedral/Basilica of St. James. This service was organized as a response to the brash display of US White Supremacy via the Confederate “Free Speech Rallies” in Charlottesville, Virginia. As the press has documented since the incident, this “rally,” as these White Supremacists misnomered it, was little less than a reaffirmation of the ongoing racist, Anti-Black sentiment shared by countless White men and women across the United States, and true to form, it was successful in inciting the kind of prejudiced violence for which generations of White Americans are known. This success on the part of these “organizers” resulted in the death of one Heather Heyer, a fatal victim of vehicular manslaughter at the hands of a White Supremacist, who barreled through a crowd of people protesting the original rally.
While the atrocity of these events has certainly struck a powerful chord amongst many who still possess some semblance of a moral conscience — and while the memorial, dedicatory, and prayer services that followed have worked to reiterate such morality alongside a sense of civic duty amongst Anti-Racist Americans of all creeds — as someone who finds himself at the intersection of several demographics that are the subject of Supremacist hatred, one can’t help but wonder about the stereotypical nature of far too many religious leaders, particularly those who identify as Christians, in their textual and verbal responses to this incident. Put simply, it is a faith-based whitewashing of a much larger issue that these leaders fail to address.
This, unfortunately, was a strong takeaway in the homily given by Bishop DiMarzio at this recent Mass for Peace.
In his sermon, the Bishop references the historical fall of the Babylonian Empire via the Biblical Old Testament account of the prophet Daniel. DiMarzio uses Daniel’s interpretations of the Babylonian King’s dreams to draw an allegorical line towards the futility of allowing monuments denoting political and military leaders of the Confederacy to stand, as they are collectively, yet arguably, agreed to be blatant examples of the United States’, “particular original sin.” That sin, of course, being racism. By default, this kind of metaphorical comparison immediately presents a highly problematic assessment of what St. Paul would categorize as, “the wages of sin.” Without blinking, DiMarzio goes straight for the aesthetic interpretation of the prophet’s words, choosing to utilize the rhetoric of denouncing American racism as a whole, instead of highlighting the obvious similarities that exist between the admittedly oppressive Babylonian regime and the imperial exploits of the United States, who, from its infancy, has used — and in many ways continues to use — racism (most notably its invidious Anti-Blackness) to sustain the benefits it has reaped from those exploits.
Instead of saying that American racism will be the downfall of the American Empire, the Bishop only goes so far as to say that this country will, “fail to reach [its] full potential” if the country does not correct itself and its actions. As if People of Color, Black and Brown communities specifically, haven’t been saying this for time out of mind.
It is, at best, a paltry attempt at relaying the dire consequences of maintaining a society based on prejudiced violence; at worst, a heavy blow to all the People of Color who have suffered and died from that violence, and to those who literally sacrificed everything, including their lives, to resist it.
Bishop DiMarzio continues in his speech by highlighting which White Supremacists were a part of the Charlottesville attacks and demonstrations, using the term, “Alt Right,” to identify a faction of those in attendance alongside self-professed Nazis and members of the KKK. This term, “Alt Right,” has quite literally been a way for the American media to normalize/desensitize what members of this group really are.
For the Nth time, let us be unflinchingly clear: the so-called Alt Right are, without a doubt, nothing more or less than racist, violent White Supremacists. They do not need fancy nomenclature to describe their intentions any more than 21st Century Nazis need the prefix “Neo” before their party identification. As has been said by Black and Brown thinkers with far more credible intellectual labor than mine, White bigots, White racists, and White terrorists need to be called out for what they are, not for what will make the public less likely to have a visceral reaction to whom they think they are. And, quite frankly, other White people taking the time to use these anesthetizing terms, with no regard to the effects that such classifications would have on the victims of violent hatred, shows a lack of care on the part of His Excellency in working to be resolute in his Anti-Racist stance.
Exacerbating an already precarious statement, the Bishop then proceeds to paraphrase the time-honored, if spurious, quote from the US Declaration of Independence: “all are created equal.” In editing, it seems, the word “men” was scrupulously omitted, thereby eliminating a justified critique of this phrase, namely, its being cultivated and uttered by a gathering of privileged 18th Century White males, with many only seeking to use the Declaration and subsequent detachment from the British Crown as a means of expanding their sociopolitical prowess in a burgeoning nation-state, once again, at the expense of horrifically abused Black (African) and Brown (Indigenous) individuals, who were most certainly not seen as anywhere near equal at the time these words were written.
But from this Queer Afro-Latinx’s perspective, as a man who was adopted and raised into an Irish Catholic family, who has spent years in service to this institution via music ministry, what I found to be most distressing in His Excellency’s homily is the idea that, in his words, “people are not evil.” I speak as someone who still believes that yes, it is oftentimes a logical fallacy to comprehensively judge or condemn anyone based on a subjective set of actions. However, at some point, logic and conviction have to supersede the inherently intellectually dishonest concept of blind empathy, most especially if it is based in debatable or specious doctrine. In the case of White Supremacy and its followers, this continual notion of empathy by the religious, this insistence that its Black and Brown faithful be nonviolent in their response to racism, to perpetually forgive and show mercy towards the very thing that stands in the way of the restorative justice and liberation that is rightfully owed to them, has, in far too many ways, done more damage to those people than it has healed them.
As his homily progresses, His Excellency takes a predictable turn by highlighting what he terms “heroes” within Church history that have used their influence to combat racism. In noting people like St. Peter Claver, the Spaniard missionary whose resolve to help the marginalized does deserve the credit it is endued, he decidedly overlooks the glaring fact that the work of this Saint’s legacy would have been wholly unnecessary, were it not for mandates that had come directly from Rome itself for countries like Spain, in allegiance to the Vatican, to explore, convert, and conquer lands or people it deemed to be “barbarous” in the New World, not a century and a quarter prior to Claver’s arrival in the 1600’s to Colombia — the country where I was born. Nor does he acknowledge the ongoing political strife, poverty, or violence that has been a staple of the Colombian nation-state as the long-term effects of these Doctrines of Discovery.
Considering the exponential number of Black and Brown Christians, those who have been on the receiving end of racist violence, that have made their marks in the annals of world history in resisting racism towards them while remaining strong in their Faith, the Bishop’s choice to use what many People of Color would deem a “White Saviour” as an example of the benevolence of the Holy See is a misuse of his understanding of history in trying to show the Church’s commitment to stopping the spread of this social poison. As austerely pointed out in a recent pop song by singer/songwriter Taylor Swift, “Band Aids don’t fix bullet holes.”
As this enigmatic speech draws to a close, His Excellency works to conflate the idea of Catholic Christians being unwavering in their Anti-Racist convictions with Christ’s message of comfort and hope in The Beatitudes. He also restates that as human beings living on Planet Earth, we are “exiles,” with our “real home” being Heaven itself. Regarding St. Matthew’s Gospel passage, it must be said that, like so much of Scripture, the egregious misinterpretation of — or blatant inattention to — the context in which these words were uttered has rendered untold violence in the form of American racial discrimination, with a goodly amount of that violence coming from the Church itself. While the Bishop does highlight this, the brevity with which he does so speaks more volumes than many other points he wished to get across that Thursday evening.
In my recent years of taking various music ministry assignments in Brooklyn, I have heard many stories of everyday racism within the ranks of Diocesan administration and clergy, paired all too often with the scars worn by older Black and Brown Catholic parishioners and their experiences with the prejudice levied against them by White Catholics at all levels of this New York institution. Refusing to publicly acknowledge these specific acts of violence — keeping in mind that racial violence is most certainly not relegated to physical aggression — in the midst of trying to make amends with a racially marginalized congregation, only widens the divide that DiMarzio seeks to close with his ministry and message. For how can anyone forgive a long-standing hurt if that victim is unaware of the full nature of its offense, particularly when the offenders are consciously, if forcibly, keeping that information from them?
Upon reviewing my analysis of Bishop DiMarzio’s words at the Mass of Solidarity and Peace, I realize there is no easy or uplifting way in which to close this out. It therefore justifies my adding to this piece that throughout the 1/3 of a Century that I’ve lived and operated as a Man of Color who has gone through the rigamarole of being a practicing Catholic, it should be considered an inanity that my upbringing, along with so many others in The Church, has been widely absent of the ever important history of its prejudiced development in the United States; how racism, with Anti-Blackness as a focal point, has been a means by which all US White Catholics, and, by extension, all White American Christians, have upheld their privilege, their entitlement, and their sense of security. While the unconscionable events in Charlottesville, Virginia should unequivocally draw a reaction of condemnation and disgust, the everyday, commonplace examples of White Supremacy, deserve no less of a critique by those who identify as the marginalized and oppressed.
Not much can be left to supposition in terms of who is responsible for what tasks moving forward from this point: if the Diocese of Brooklyn, as a representation of the Catholic Church in America, is to truly be firm in its stance against racial injustice, let it, then, be unwavering in calling out White Supremacy for what it is; an evil, horrible system that pervades every aspect of human life in this current inversion of modern society, carried out by evil individuals who are not only well aware of the insidious, violent nature of their existence, but seek to use whatever methods are most feasible to them in allowing it to continue. As it is staunchly committed to standing against anything or anyone compromising the statutes and tenets of the Faith, let the Holy See give no quarter to those who are relentless in their racism, whose minds are beyond changing, and would just as soon die before investing in an egalitarian or equitable civilization, to say nothing of justice and liberation for People of Color. Let it also recognize and be no less stringent in its self-criticisms of the ongoing racist attitudes and behaviors consistently present in its own ranks. Let those criticisms be transparent, with the victims of racism being both the most important audience and primary arbiters of that intellectual labor. Let that labor then lead to taking the immediate steps necessary not just to “alleviate” the suffering of Black and Brown people, but working to eviscerate any and all forms of Supremacist aggression towards its intended targets.
Ultimately, it is irrefutable fact that whatever prayer and Eucharistic devotion Bishop DiMarzio has called upon in this Mass and his homily as a way to counter racism in America will simply not be enough to defeat such a deeply entrenched, foundational component of American life. Hoping and wishing racism away has never worked to solve the problems it creates. Neither has a passive response to Supremacist oppression, nor has a completely pacifist application of moral righteousness. By all standards and practices, for all intents and purposes, action — tangible, effectual, purposeful action — is required, especially on the part of those with large platforms or significant influence such as this Diocese and its leader. Any other response outside of immediate, justice-based, long-term action that renders foreseeable results is, in this humble author’s opinion, a flagrant rejection of Scripture, most pointedly that of the Epistles of James:
“For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
-James 2:26 (NABRE)
