CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2020 / 06:10 pm (CNA).- The Knights of Columbus have announced a forthcoming novena for an end to racism, as Catholic fraternal organizations urge prayer and justice amid burgeoning civic unrest that began with the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while being arrested May 25.
“George Floyd was a man, a human, a being. Not a stat. Not just another one. Not to be forgotten,” the Knights of Peter Claver, a traditionally black Catholic fraternal organization, said in a statement released last week.
“The Knights of Peter Claver condemns the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis policemen. There is no explanation to justify the actions taken by the police that ultimately led to Mr. Floyd’s demise. We pray that God will grant his family peace and that the Minneapolis community finds healing during this difficult period,”
The group called for “true respect of the Dignity of Black Lives. These statements should not have to be made. These demands should not have to be made. These lives should not be lost.”
“We call on all who are sworn ‘to protect and to serve’ – to carry out that very motto. We call on all leaders elected to serve – to listen, to act, to legislate. We call on all of God’s children created to love – to do just that – love.”
“The anger, emotions, and outrage must be followed by effective solutions that do more than just penalize murderous actions, but eliminate future ones. The ink has run dry on writing statements, and it is now time to write laws, to write policies, to write sentences,” the group said.
“George Floyd – let your name be remembered as the murder that sparked effective change.”
The Knights of Peter Claver was founded in 1909 as a fraternal organization of black Catholics. The group has more than 18,000 members and affiliates worldwide.
For its part, The Knights of Columbus on Thursday announced a novena for unity and peace.
“We ask all people to come together in solidarity to forge a path forward — free of discrimination and hate — for our nation,” Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a June 4 statement.
“The Knights join Pope Francis in urging all to express their anger and cries for justice in nonviolent ways to end the sin of racism.”
The Knights of Columbus novena will begin June 7.
“For the two million members of the Knights of Columbus and their families, this understanding starts with prayer,” Anderson said, adding that the novena will ask God “to bring together in your
love all whom hatred and racism have separated.”
“We must show love for one another, praying that all people come to understand that injustice to any black person is injustice to all persons and that all of us, regardless of our differences, are children of God made in his image and likeness,” Anderson said.
The Knights of Columbus, founded in 1882 by Venerable Father Michael MicGivney, said in its release it has always been open to members of all races and nationalities, and that “the Knights was the only organization to run integrated facilities in World War I, and the organization commissioned a black history by W.E.B. Dubois in the 1920s while also openly opposing the racial and religious intolerance of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The Knights of Columbus also sponsored and funded the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, a committee for which Anderson serves as a consultant.
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Well, that’s a big fat lie.
Thankfully he addresses one subject at a time! One cause of divisive results! Typically journalists love to water down the affected subjects by drawing attention to other events!
Snort. Consider the source.
A source of scandal??? The Latin Mass? REALLY?? Can this guy exaggerate even more?? The opinions from the nest of vipers which is Germany hold no water for many in any case. .
Okay, Boomer.
Can you explain your cryptic comment? To whom is it addressed?
As I understand it, the phrase is a way to avoid substantial discussion by dismissing the opinions of any persons born from 1946 to 1964 (so, some 71 million people in the United States) as valueless because of when they were born.
Kasper has dedicated his life to fostering division by undermining and contradicting Church teaching on the Virgin Birth, Resurrection, the Real Presence etc. and by deliberately undermining Pope’s St John Paul Ii and Benedict XVI as a member of the Sankt Gallen mafia. Pot, meet kettle.
From Cardinal Kasper: “As far as I know, none of the bishops wants any schismatic act and there is a slowly growing number in the bishops’ conference who are resistant.”
About the German Synodal Way(ward) we have only “worries” and wishful thinking from Kasper. Perhaps the possibly shifting results of Kasper’s nose count of German bishops can be made as public as could be the also undocumented results of the Vatican survey regarding the Latin Mass?
The “slowly growing number” of resistant bishops rests on an originally small handful. I recall a reported 13 out of 69 bishops against the directions taken early by the synodal way. The schismatic and invalid blessing of homosexual unions is already a well-known “schismatic act”. From Rome, case-specific corrections would be most welcome, as such an approach could have been made against only those alleged traditionalist enclaves who reportedly reject the Second Vatican Council. Unlike the theology of Aquinas, for example, a similar precision in policy making is too-often vastly undervalued (but how to do this without being duped into creating photo-op martyrs and seemingly triggering the full-blown schism?)
As for the German Catholic laity: “The Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost reported Sept. 17 [2020] that 53 percent of German Catholics said they were not interested in the Synodal Path” (https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/09/cologne-cardinal-warns-german-churchs-synodal-path-could-cause-schism/).
On the other hand, also in 2020, “conservative clerics were repeatedly outvoted by 80% to 90% when they tried to change the [unstructured membership] rules governing the [eventually “binding” synodal] talks” (https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/reformers-ideas-gain-momentum-german-synodal-way).
Apart from any future results, is the synodal-path process itself, in Germania, already schismatic?
This is the clerical equivalent of “You are a racist because you don’t agree with me.” EVERY single person who attends a Latin Mass rejcts Vatican II??? What world are these people living in? And he is a cardinal? So much for mercy and dialogue.