One of the duties that I was given as Vicar General in Brooklyn was to shepherd parish mergers. As you can well imagine, such work at times caused moments of both confrontation and dialogue. However, there was one conversation that I will never forget and for which I will be always grateful because of the lesson it taught me.
That evening I met with a small group of parishioners who worshipped at a Church that was in serious need of repair and scheduled to merger with its neighbor. After my presentation, the first person to speak was an elderly black woman who had been a parishioner of the church for over 50 years. She spoke eloquently and from the heart. She began by acknowledging that she had great respect for me (for she and I had met before) and she would cooperate with whatever plan was approved. But then she said, “Bishop, you may not realize this but my grandparents, when they came from the South, first went to the parish where you wish to send us now and they were told to get out because they did not belong, since the color of their skin was black. They came here and my family has worshipped here with acceptance ever since. Do you realize how difficult it will be for me to return to that parish, knowing the past hurt that the people I loved endured there?”
Her words broke my heart, since I did not know that terrible history. As I drove back to the residence, I could not imagine how any cleric or lay person could say such words to a fellow believer, or to anyone else for that matter? It left me unsettled for a very long time.
While much has changed for the better in the years that have passed, the complete elimination of the sin of racism remains a Gospel imperative- a mandate from the Lord of all life. We cannot fight the sin of racism in our world until we have done everything to eliminate its vestiges within our Church, especially where it endures in subtle, hurtful and sinful ways. To do anything less is to betray the Gospel.
As we celebrate this weekend in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., I will always be grateful to that wonderful woman, who opened my eyes to the need for us to face the truth of our past and to build a united future together in Christ.
The previous reflection originally appeared on Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Facebook page. Follow the Bishop for daily reflections and weekly homilies.
