No matter the outcome of the election, 2020 has demonstrated the myriad ways American capitalism exploits marginalized communities, including depriving vulnerable populations of housing and adequate health care amid a global pandemic. As countless Americans have lost their loved ones, U.S. billionaires continue to make billions. As Pope Francis mentions in Fratelli Tutti, we cannot be "a society that seeks prosperity but turns its back on suffering." Read More

A considerable number of Black, Cuban, and Puerto Rican Catholics languish on the backlogs of sanctity awaiting recognition. Read More

More Catholic bishops, clergy, and laity say the Catholic Church needs to exercise a clear leadership role in the nationwide movement to reaffirm the dignity of Black lives. Amid the nation’s mass protest over Black lives and dignity, and at the Mass on Aug. 28 commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, Archbishop Wilton Gregory declared, “We are at a pivotal juncture in our country's struggle for racial justice and national harmony.” The archbishop noted the original civil rights movement was marked by the language of faith and declared the Archdiocese of Washington would launch its own initiative to bring clear, visible Catholic leadership into the fight against racial injustice. Read More

A Mid-City roadway named for the slave-owning president of the Confederacy will be renamed for an African-American educator whose vision transformed Xavier University, the New Orleans City Council agreed Thursday in a vote that lays the foundation for renaming other streets and landmarks. The unaminous vote to rename Jefferson Davis Parkway as Norman C. Francis Parkway marks the first change to a New Orleans street named for a Confederate figure since protests against White supremacy and police brutality renewed calls for changes to the names of some streets and parks earlier this summer. Read More

In the mid-1970s, Mary Elizabeth Harper was eager to join the cheerleading squad at her all-girls Catholic academy in an Illinois town. When the team captain excluded her from tryouts with no clear explanation, the young Mary Elizabeth went to the principal. “Your being on the team won’t look right,” Harper recalled the nun telling her. “After I pushed her for what that meant, it became clear the issue was my race.” The athletes and cheer teams were all white. “It stabbed me in the heart,” said Harper, now in her 60s and a member of Resurrection Parish in Tualatin. Read More

In the archdioceses of Chicago and New Orleans, top leaders are encouraging their schools to place a new emphasis on teaching about racial justice, as well as the history of Black Catholics. The National Catholic Educational Association is forming an advisory committee to study how similar initiatives could be launched in the thousands of Catholic schools nationwide. Read More

"I expect our Church to be more proactive in addressing the sin of racism. I attended the National Catholic Youth Conference in recent years as a youth leader and was fortunate enough to attend sessions on racism. A priest from D.C. asked those in attendance how many of them had heard a homily on racism. The vast majority of those in attendance did NOT raise their hands. It was eye opening that in the 21st century, the majority of Catholics in attendance had never heard a homily on racism, when it is such a critical issue in our Church and World." Read More

From his childhood, when he preached to chickens in the dirt-poor South, to his decades as a moral force in Congress, religious faith was a constant in the life of Rep. John Lewis. Lewis spent boyhood days as a make-believe minister, preaching to a congregation of clucking birds at his rural home in Alabama. As a teen, inspired by the oratory and leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he went on to become a civil rights activist in his own right while attending a Baptist college in Tennessee. Like the earliest evangelists of Christianity, he was beaten and jailed for speaking out when others were silent. Read More