Archbishop Charles Chaput released the following statement Sunday afternoon, Aug. 13, on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia the previous day. Read more about the incident here.
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Racism is a poison of the soul. It’s the ugly, original sin of our country, an illness that has never fully healed. Blending it with the Nazi salute, the relic of a regime that murdered millions, compounds the obscenity.
Thus the wave of public anger about white nationalist events in Charlottesville this weekend is well warranted. We especially need to pray for those injured in the violence. But we need more than pious public statements. If our anger today is just another mental virus displaced tomorrow by the next distraction or outrage we find in the media, nothing will change.
Charlottesville matters. It’s a snapshot of our public unraveling into real hatreds brutally expressed; a collapse of restraint and mutual respect now taking place across the country.
We need to keep the images of Charlottesville alive in our memories. If we want a different kind of country in the future, we need to start today with a conversion in our own hearts, and an insistence on the same in others. That may sound simple. But the history of our nation and its tortured attitudes toward race proves exactly the opposite.
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Sorry, Archbishop! but when you first asked us to “…give Mr. Trump a chance” several months ago, you lost all credibility on this topic. From well prior to the start of his quest for the presidency, Trump more than demonstrated his bona fides for misogyny and racism. Trump is the main catalyst for the resurgence of White Nationalism and Neo-Nazism in this country at this time.
Hindsight is 20/20. The circumstances or 50-75 yrs. ago were much different. I feel the minority and the majority communities have made large improvements, but we still need to improve and we still need to forgive and move-on.
Since Charlettsvill a black state senator called for the president’s assainatiin, a video of a black women stating that white people are not human Black lives matter chanting kill all the white babies I guess only White racism is offensive
The biggest problem that I see is that Democrats immediately label everyone who disagrees with them on any matter concerning color, immigration or charity is immediately labeled a racist! They confuse the issue so blatantly it has lost it meaning to me! I am a staunch conservative Catholic with many years of learning and study of classical economics and know that racism has no part in prosperity. I also believe most conservatives believe as I do! The problem is the slanderous lies perpetuated by the liberal left which causes the problems in the world. All true conservatives believe in Jesus’ two commandments – Love God and love your neighbor as yourselves. The liberals talk a good game but never treat their neighbor and they would treat themselves. The true conservative knows it is far better to teach a person to fish then to steal a fish from someone who has caught it so they can pass it out to someone who has only been taught to turn to the government for fish!
Please give me a break.
The Archbishop is a concise and compelling writer. Men and women of good spirit, no matter their race or creed, “want a different kind of country in the future”. Meaningful change in society at large begins with a hard look at oneself. Racism can more subtly infect our soul. Most of us applaud as “white nationalism” exposes its obscene nature. This does not absolve us from a thoughtful self-reflection. When you hear the phrase “black lives matter”, what feelings or attitudes surface from within you. For me as a teen growing up in a West Philadelphia rowhouse neighborhood, I am saddened to think of the racism that was hardly hidden in me and my friends – and in many older folks who were better than that in many other ways. Grace abounds and I know that I am better than “in those days”. God can do wonderful things in what appears to be a defeat of goodness.