'Racism is a pro-life issue': The Catholic Church's latest response to racism in America

Mark Curnutte | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Archbishop Dennis Schnurr on race, racism "The dignity of the human person knows no color," Archbishop Dennis Schnurr.

The Catholic Church possesses clear doctrine that racism is a sin, even defining it as a broadly "pro-life" issue in a sweeping new document. It offers dozens of programs and opportunities to address it.

Yet the church's leaders in Southwest Ohio admit to a frustrating disconnect with many of the faithful on the topic.

"We're not getting the message across as clearly as we should," said Cincinnati's archbishop, the Most Rev. Dennis Schnurr.

"The dignity of the human person knows no color. We're all made in the image and likeness of God. We all have our own talents, so we don't all reflect God in the same way. Color is one trait, but it's a trait that comes from God."

The Catholic Church's struggles with race and racism are similar to other Christian denominations here and across the country. But with 461,000 members and the nation's sixth largest Catholic school system with about 43,000 students, the archdiocese is the most influential denomination in the area.

Extending north from Cincinnati into west-central Ohio and east into Appalachia, the archdiocese has many small rural and sprawling suburban parishes that are overwhelmingly if not exclusively white. And it is more "brown than black," church leaders say, because of an increase in Hispanic families migrating from Central and South American nations.

Many of the archdiocese's estimated 16,000 African-American members attend its four predominantly black urban churches – three of which are in Cincinnati's West End, Winton Hills and Bond Hill neighborhoods. The other is in Dayton.

Those demographic patterns make for little organic interracial contact. Though the archdiocese says black Catholics are welcome in any of its 211 churches, and some do attend in small numbers, African-Americans say they feel isolated in a church that is nonetheless their faith home as much as it is for white, Latino or Asian Catholics.

Royce Winters, director of the archdiocese's Office for African American Pastoral Ministries, sees how the disconnect between doctrine and practice is troubling for black Catholics.

"We have the language that racism is evil, but we are so polarized in our own groups even within the church," said Winters, who is African-American, an ordained deacon and the pastoral administrator of the Church of the Resurrection in Bond Hill. "We as Catholics receive the body and blood of Christ, but the spirit can't transcend our divisions."

Studies show that only about 25 percent of people who identify as Catholic attend church regularly. "So the very people who need to hear the message about the dignity of each individual life are not there," Schnurr said.

The church's programs on race and racism don't reach them because, he said, "they're not in front of us."

`We are sitting on a powder keg'

Schnurr and Winters were two of the five archdiocesan officials with whom The Enquirer met to discuss race and racism this past Tuesday, a day – like many in America – when race made major news.

On May 29, coffee retailer Starbucks was preparing to close 8,000 of its stores so up to 180,000 employees could undergo anti-bias training. That move stemmed from an April incident in a Philadelphia coffee shop when a white manager called police on two black men who hadn't ordered but were waiting for a third person to arrive.

Even as Schnurr spoke these words during the interview – "Obviously, we are a country divided, and by that I mean we are drifting away from the common good" – the ABC television network was deciding to cancel the reboot of the popular comedy series "Rosanne." Star and show creator Rosanne Barr had directed a racist tweet at former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett.

During the interview – and without leaning on his aides for information or stifling their input – Schnurr spoke openly and comfortably about race, expanding his answers to incorporate additional perspective.

"We have slogans that focus on one event or one individual or one group, so there's polarization," he said. "And when there's polarization like that, the culture is ripe for division – be it along the lines of race or many other issues,"

Schnurr referred to the police shooting of John Crawford III, a black man holding a pellet gun in the Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, in 2014, about a year before a white University of Cincinnati police officer, Ray Tensing, shot and killed an unarmed black motorist, Sam DuBose, in Mount Auburn.

"There has been real tension," Schnurr said. "We see it on a national level and here in the archdiocese. It's like we are sitting on a powder keg. People are wondering what event is going to erupt in a very ugly way."

Polarized society, polarized church

Schnurr acknowledges that, like the larger society, "there is polarization within the Catholic Church. We see that, in particular, every four years, when we put out `Faithful Citizenship.' … We're not just one issue. That's not respecting human dignity."

"Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" is a teaching document on the political responsibilities of Catholics that is published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

For Schnurr, the issues of race relations, race and racism can be solved by adhering, he said, to the command that Jesus said was the greatest.

"`Love God,' and what follows immediately is, `love neighbor.' If we fail to teach the love of one another, we are failing at the very foundation of our faith," Schnurr said.

To that end, the archbishop said, he recently read a meditation about St. Catherine of Siena and her contemplation of the 25th chapter of St. Matthew's gospel.

Paraphrasing the reading, Schnurr said, "God spoke to her and said, `I love you without any obligation to love you. You love me, but your love doesn't increase me in any way. My love for you increases your worth, but your love of me doesn't increase anything in me. So I give you your neighbor to love because that is how you can show your love for me.'

"Addressing racism is following that command."

Document: `Racism blots out image of God'

Neither the Catholic Church here nor its national leadership is ignoring the thorny issue of race in America.

On the heels of 2017's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which one counter-protestor was killed, Schnurr issued a statement in which he said, "We stand against the evil of racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazism."

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also published a document titled "Responding to the Sin of Racism." The new report quoted the bishops' 1979 Pastoral Letter, "Brothers and Sisters to Us," in which they wrote, "Racism is a sin: a sin that divides the human family, blots out the image of God among specific members of that family, and violates the fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same Father."

The 2017 document is part of the work being done by the bishops that will lead to release this fall of a Pastoral Letter on Racism.

"The bishops are continually looking for ways to encourage a vitally needed conversation and conversion," said James Rogers, communications officer for the Catholic bishops group in Washington, D.C.

"Sin of Racism" contains an index of resources and is organized neatly into one topic per page. One of the most compelling is the short essay titled "Racism is a Pro Life Issue," which attempts to connect what are often politically opposing issues within Catholic teaching: its staunch anti-abortion stand with the rest of its teaching on the sanctity of life – opposing the death penalty and shredding of the social safety net and advocating for immigrants and refugees.

"Racism and attacks on human life are two forms of evil," the page reads.

Said Schnurr, "It's a very important observation. Too often, as people who advocate the dignity of each human person through natural death, we are accused of bringing the child into the world and forgetting about the child. We don't do that.

"We wouldn't have Catholic Charities if we weren't fostering the dignity of the human person. We wouldn't have to get into all the social concerns if we were not trying to respect the dignity of every human person. And it's color-blind to do that."

During the group interview, Tony Stieritz, director of the Catholic Social Action Office in the archdiocese, produced a three-page report summarizing some of the programs that address race issues.

It includes Dismas Journey Encounters, which have brought recently released prisoners reentering society to at least 15 parishes for presentations and conversation. The archdiocese's twinning program – an effort to show the universal diversity of the Catholic Church, Stieritz said – has matched 45 parishes here Catholic churches overseas and with Appalachian and Native American Catholic communities in the United States.

Still, said Winters, that disconnect persists.

"I hear frequently that the church shouldn't be involved in social issues, yet we have social teaching," he said. "Abortion is a social issue and a life issue. Racism is a social issue and a life issue, as well. Somehow, we get so privileged that we don't recognize that not having jobs and not having clean water impacts the dignity that is life."