It's a sin too

I was shocked one day a few months before ordination when a parishoner asked me if racism was a sin. I could tell she was both sincere and totally not convinced that racism is a sin. For many, I still believe it is generational. In any event we must proclaim that yes, racism is a sin.

I wish that I had more of my resources at my disposal tonight but I'm sitting in a hotel room, on a stormy night just 15 miles south of downtown Cincinnati. Yesterday morning I was in Memphis and at the urging of my not quite 20 year old daughter we visited the National Civil Rights Musuem located at the Lorraine Motel. If you are my age, or there about, you may recognize this as the spot where Martin Luther King was assasinated.

Let me say without a doubt, this was one of the most profound and well done musuem tours I have ever experienced. And I was equally not prepared for the emotional impact and profound sense of sadness I felt throughout the various displays. And to physically stand inside both the room King was leaving as he was murdered and the room where the assasin, James Earl Ray, fired the shot was overwhelming.

I have grown so much personally in my attitudes and belief about racism and the basic dignity of all human beings. We are all made in God's image. Each of us posseses in us the ability to achieve great things; the greatest of these to know, love and serve God and spend eternal life with Him.

How is it that we distrust each other based on race? What is it about the color of someone's skin? Why in our last election could those who voted for or against a candidate of color not resist the temptation to make it about race?

Soon, I will post a brilliant report issued by Archbishop Alfred Hughes, our now retired Archbishop in New Orleans, about racism and the heroic men and women from New Orleans who stood in the gap and fought against racism. Today, our community is a melting pot of white European descendants from so many different countries, and black Africans and Caribbeans, Hispanics from Mexico, south and central America and Asian Pacific folks from Vietnam and the Phillipines and other countries. We still have many racial divides that spill into politics, economics and our cultural experiences. Still, many people of faith worship in congregations that tend to be segregated by race.

Catholics from all walks of life would do well to study the lives of Martin de Porres or Katherine Drexel or Henriette de Lisle. These powerful Catholic witnesses gave all of us the example of treating all people as children of God; and yet that is what we are; all of us. And don't forget the example of Archbishop Oscar Romero of Nicaragua who defended the marginalized and poor of his country and died celebrating Mass at the hands of an assasin.

Whenever you see the opportunity to participate in any of the faith based programs that address the issue of race and racism take part. If you want to explore this in your parish, my home parish, then please call me. We all can work together to create a society based on our character and not the color of our skin.

And if you ever get a chance to be in the Memphis area, yes Graceland is great and the ribs are super and the Peabody ducks are cute, but do yourself a huge favor and visit the National Civil Rights Musuem and the Lorraine Hotel. You will never forget the experience.

Racism is a sin; pray for an end to racism.