Catholic politicians working to sustain racial segregation

worked to integrate Catholic and public institutions in

in neighborhoods and in the workplace and tales of fear

the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Chicago's African American

that a school would be  ruined  because Father or Sister

Catholic community courageously insisted that racism

allowed African American Catholics to enroll their

must have no place in the Church founded by Christ.

children. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some African Americans participated with great hope

marched in Chicago during the summer of 1966, he

in these local efforts; others contributed to the foundation

described the racism and hatred he encountered as more

and development of al black Catholic

 hostile  and  hateful  than anything he had witnessed in

organizations. These groups serve today as places where

the South. Some of the neighborhoods he entered were

African American Catholics work to develop leadership

home to Catholic parishioners.

and institutions that nurture and sustain the Catholic

In order to examine our present situation completely, it

faith in a manner sensitive to black culture. They are often

seems important also to note that factors other than racial

places for prophetic voices within the church, speaking

prejudice enter into the history of resistance to integrated

against racism and cultural domination within Church

neighborhoods. Most working class and middle class

and society. Sadly for all of us, some African Americans

people, of any race or religion, cherish their home as their

have left our Catholic community to join other Christian

biggest investment. Their house is their legacy to their

faith communities, independent  Catholic  churches or

children. The destruction of the economic value of their

even Islam, in part because they found it difficult to

house is a threat to all that they have accomplished.

reconcile their own identity with manifestations of racism

Unfortunately, white people have too often equated the

within the Catholic Church.

racial integration of a neighborhood with decreased

The story in the almost forty years since the Rev.

property values. Sometimes their fears were encouraged by

Martin Luther King, Jr. marched through Chicago

real estate agents eager to buy homes at prices far below

neighborhoods is at once familiar and new. Racism is still

their real value. Fear of economic loss is not evidence of

found in varying degrees in our churches and schools, just

prejudice. Fear of losing one's life savings is not the same

as it haunts our city and suburbs. The combined

as fear of a different race, but the two fears can reinforce

influences of racial discrimination and social isolation, at a

each other.

moment when a wealthy society should confront these

There is another fear that complicates this history: the

problems directly, continue to make the plight of many

fear of violence. The desire to live without fear for one's

African Americans and other people of color Chicago's

own safety and that of one's family is not evidence of

greatest shame. Today, however, the careful way in which

racism. Everyone shares the fear of violence. Prejudice is

some Catholic parishes in neighborhoods undergoing

evident, however, if it is simply assumed that people of

racial and cultural transformation have begun to confront

another race must be violent because they are who they

these changes directly is a source of pride to me as

are. White people might find themselves afraid in a black

Archbishop of Chicago.

neighborhood, but blacks have even more reason to be

While African Americans and other groups have made

afraid in many white neighborhoods. The original

much progress in education and employment, especially

impetus for this pastoral letter was the terrible beating of

in the last generation, race relations in the Chicago

Lenard Clark in 1997 and the Archdiocesan Task Force

metropolitan area have become more complicated as

on Racism that responded to it.

neighborhoods receive immigrants from India, China,

Unfortunately, the fears of economic loss and of

Africa, Vietnam, the Middle East, Latin America and the

personal violence can blind people to what their Catholic

Caribbean. They add new hues to Chicago's one largely

faith calls them to do dwell together in love. These fears

black and white picture. Contemporary racism has a

have to be honestly addressed if we are to live in a

multicultural face.

genuinely multi racial and multi cultural society. 

Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago now celebrate

That some Catholic priests, nuns and lay people, both

Mass in more than twenty languages, making the Church

black and white, marched with Dr. King suggests another

of Chicago more representative of the Church universal.

dimension to our history. Long before the civil rights

One third of the city's residents are now either Spanish 

marches of the sixties, the Catholic Church in Chicago

speaking immigrants or their descendants, from countries

was blessed with faith filled people eager to see the

as diverse as Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico.

Catholic community welcome all cultures and races. They

The dramatic increase in the population of Hispanic

were willing to sacrifice much in order to live in a

Catholics in the entire metropolitan area has not

genuinely multi racial society. Catholics of all races

prevented them from experiencing the effects of racism.

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