WASHINGTON (CNS) — The racial divide in American society and within the Catholic Church is one that needs to be bridged so that healing and progress can take place, said retired Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Illinois. “My hope is to move some people to make realistic efforts to bridge the racial divide. This can only come about by deep interior conversion of hearts and minds,” Bishop Braxton said Oct. 8. He made the comments in an address, “The Catholic Church and the Racial Divide in the United States,” for Department of Africana Studies’ Colloquy on Black Church Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “This is a high and distant goal,” he added. His address came during the 31st annual meeting of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium Oct. 7-9 at the university. Bishop Braxton said he prefers to use the term “racial divide” as a broad description, from which he singled out racism as “the most damning and most egregious example.” The racial divide, he said, began with slavery “to provide free laborers … by working as beasts of burden” on plantations. The divide, Bishop Braxton added, includes time in U.S. history spanned by the Civil War, “the Lost Cause era” and the Dred Scott decision. Read More

The title “Servant of God” is given by the church to a sainthood candidate when his or her cause is officially opened. The first step in the process after that is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church bestows the title “Venerable.” The second step is beatification, after which he or she is called “Blessed.” The third step is canonization. In general, for beatification one miracle needs to be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint and a second such verified miracle is needed for canonization. Following the procession, Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski of Baltimore, the archdiocese’s urban vicar, celebrated a Mass for the feast of All Saints. Nearly 200 people were present. The Mass was organized by a national campaign made up of members of three Baltimore parishes, St. Ann, St. Francis Xavier and St. Wenceslaus, as well as longtime members of St. Ann’s social justice committee. The purpose was to create awareness and educate the American people about the stories of these six candidates for sainthood. Members of the campaign are collecting signatures in a letter to Pope Francis asking him to expedite their canonization. Read More

Face to face at the Vatican, President Joe Biden held extended and highly personal talks with Pope Francis on Friday and came away saying the pontiff told him he was a “good Catholic” and should keep receiving Communion, although conservatives have called for him to be denied the sacrament because of his support for abortion rights. Read More

Gary Crosby says he will demand excellence in all areas of Saint Elizabeth University — the same standard he’s been held to — as he takes the helm of the private institution as its eighth president. “I stand before you today as president because God put people in my life who not only delivered excellence, but they also demanded it from me,” said Crosby, a first-generation college student, during his inauguration ceremony on Thursday. Read More

M. Shawn Copeland, a retired American womanist and theologian, professor emerita at Boston College and the author of Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience, delivered the symposium's annual public lecture on Oct. 7. She analyzed the Black Lives Matter movement as "a performative public theology" that uses "critique, organizing, advocacy, protest and love" to fight for "the lives and survival, flourishing and beauty of Black human beings." "When Pope Francis exhorts us academic theologians to leave our desks, to do theology from within the field hospital posted at the frontier, he reminds us that institutional Christianity — that the Catholic Church — has no exclusive claim on doing theology," said Copeland. "Artists, poets, novelists, film directors do theology, do public theology, and the architects, organizers, demonstrators and members of Black Lives Matter do and perform theology publicly in the public square." Read More

A group of Black Catholic administrators is calling on “Catholic leaders to do something, to say something” about undertones of racism they say is playing out in the treatment of Haitians at the U.S.-Mexico border. The National Association of Black Catholic Administrators, in a Sept. 28 news release, said the organization did not “begrudge the compassion and respect offered to our brothers and sisters from Afghanistan, Burma, Korea, Latin America, Poland, Ukraine, Vietnam,” but it was asking that Haitian migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. “be given the same level of care and respect, and an equal fight for justice.” Read More

Sometimes we do not see or even acknowledge social problems. When we do recognize them, we do not always agree on what must be done to rectify the situation. Often these disagreements can result in inadequate responses. Read More

The life of a diocesan priest is demanding. But for Father Robert Boxie III, the past year has been especially taxing. With many Catholics compelled to learn more about the Church’s teaching on racism and its application in the aftermath of George Floyd’s May 2020 killing, Father Boxie has become a sought-after speaker on the topic. The African American priest has presented not only to groups and parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington, where he serves as chaplain at Howard University, but across the country. “I’m happy to do it, but it gets exhausting,” said Father Boxie. Read More