I am deeply saddened by the senseless killing of George Floyd and the tumult that has resulted in Minneapolis. My prayers and thoughts and those of the Catholic Community of Our Lady of Lourdes go out to the family and friends of Mr. Floyd as well as the African American community and citizens of Minneapolis.
As a pastor, law professor and citizen of Minneapolis, I remain deeply concerned regarding the persistent and manifest patterns of racial injustice in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota. I have been aware of these patterns of racial injustice and their pernicious effects for a quarter century. In 1995, when I was in law school an African American friend and fellow law classmate drove to pick me up in Minneapolis. She was stopped by the Minneapolis Police without basis – an injustice suffered by countless people of color in our community. When I spoke with her later that evening, she was visibly shaken and in tears. As a law student and savvy person, she was able to have the citation thrown out. I think of all our brothers and sisters who are not so fortunate and not in positions of power to advocate for themselves and for justice.
With a sincere hope to turning the page to an era of greater justice and peace in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota, I draw two analogies to the crises of clergy abuse and coverup that have afflicted the Catholic Church for too long. Like police officers, the vast majority of priests are good, self-sacrificing and use their authority and power to help others. However, the closed culture of clericalism and the closed culture that often accompanies police departments provides the temptation to countenance behavior and people who use their power to harm others and who are deleterious to the public good.
As we have seen in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, only robust change of culture and leadership will allow the page to be turned from harm to healing. This change of culture is possible in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota as well, but it will take courageous conversations, resolute determination and social solidarity for this change to occur.
Our Lady of Lourdes stands in solidarity with our African American brothers and sisters and the citizens of Minneapolis who are shocked and saddened by the death of George Floyd. Our parish will seek to engage in a broader conversation of how we can more boldly confront the sin of racism and seek to build a community of authentic solidarity.
Many years ago, Pope Paul VI said,
if you want peace, work for justice. In the same decade, writing from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. decried the scourge of segregation as well as the apathy of Christians who were not courageous enough to stand up against this regime of injustice. May vigilance and not apathy prevail in response to our current regime of injustice in Minneapolis and beyond.