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Washington D.C., Oct 3, 2017 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Racism is not going away. Catholics can’t pretend that it will just disappear, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ new anti-racism committee said on Monday.

“The problems of racism are deep and widespread, and will take time to heal,” Bishop George Murry, S.J. of Youngstown, chair of the U.S. bishops’ new Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, told CNA on Monday.

That doesn’t mean Catholics can simply do nothing, he said.

“Racism has been around for a long time. The result of racism is discrimination,” he said. People of all ages and races “have been prevented from a number of opportunities,” he said, like “housing, schooling, job opportunities.”

“Young people are understandably frustrated. We don’t do them a service by not talking about this, by hoping it’ll go away,” Murry said.

“We need to turn to them and say instead of throwing rocks, instead of destroying buildings, and instead of setting cars on fire, let’s sit down and talk about what concrete steps can we take to overcome this problem.”

“Sometimes a person will have problem, a physical problem, a psychological problem, and they ignore it. And they think that ‘well, if I don’t do anything about it, it’ll eventually go away’. I think that’s what we have in many of the social situations in our country,” he said.

Murry spoke with CNA at an Oct. 2 gathering of Christian leaders at the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The leaders, including Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, invoked King’s 1957 essay “Non-Violence and Social Justice” to call for a peaceful response to injustice in society.

Murry explained that the bishops’ new anti-racism committee will promote human dignity, which he hoped would channel social frustrations towards peaceful solutions.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced the establishment of the committee in August after white supremacists and neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville, Va., and a 20 year-old man drove a car into the counter-protest killing one and injuring 19.

The bishop members of the committee, Murry told CNA, are Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, and Bishop Martin Holley of Memphis.

Bishop consultants to the committee include Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C.; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore; Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice; and Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin.

Lay consultants to the committee will be announced later this week, Murry said.

The Charlottesville violence came after months of heightened racial tensions in the United States, and demonstrations across the country. The committee was formed to respond to this developing social tension, the USCCB noted

The committee will explore ways the Church can address the root causes of contemporary manifestations of racism, the conference said. The bishops will also hold public conversations about racism and race-related problems.

The committee will collaborate with the Knights of Columbus to combat racism and violence, he added. The Knights, he said, “have been a consistent voice for racial equality since they were created.”

The goal of collaboration is “to try to help people to experience a change of heart, and to recognize every human being is created in the image and likeness of God.”

Although some protests in recent years turned violent – like riots in Baltimore in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray – many demonstrations have been non-violent, and many parishes have worked admirably to address the problem of racism, Murry said.

He pointed to St. Peter Claver Parish in West Baltimore, Md., St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Springfield, Ill., and Holy Trinity Parish in Dallas, Tex. as examples of Catholics “coming together to address these issues frankly and to find solutions in a non-violent way.”

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Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 3, 2017 / 02:18 pm (CNA).- Mitch Davis had the best intentions for his career and family life. He was an executive at the Disney and Columbia movie studios in the 1980s. He wanted to make family films, and he made the effort to… […]

Washington D.C., Oct 3, 2017 / 12:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During the annual Red Mass marking a new term of the U.S. Supreme Court, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said that early American missionaries should be honored among the founding fathers o… […]

Washington D.C., Oct 2, 2017 / 05:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After recent violent protests and the deadliest mass shooting recorded in U.S. history on Sunday, Christian leaders invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. as they condemned racism and violence.

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Las Vegas, Nev., Oct 2, 2017 / 09:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday, the U.S. Bishops’ Conference voiced grief over a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has been called the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

“My hea… […]

Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct 1, 2017 / 04:42 pm (CNA).- Just a few weeks after Catholic artist Cory Heimann got married, a close friend of his, who had been planning on travelling to Africa to film a documentary, passed away.

That friend had a simple but inspiring mission statement: “Present Christ as irresistible to the yearning heart.”

“Ever since that day, I’ve taken that mission as my own,” Heimann told CNA in e-mail comments. “And if Christ is irresistible, all we have to do is show it. I think that’s our job as artists, whether subtle or overt.”  

That mission statement has driven Heimann’s work with his design studio, Likable Art, as well as the work behind his new book, “Created: Bridging the Gap Between Your Art and Your Creator,” which explores the art and inspiration of more than 40 Catholic artists and creators of all kinds.

“When I see great work I want to know how the heck did they do that? How did they take their ideas and share it with me in a way that moves me to my core?” Heimann said in a video about the project.

So he decided to ask them – if you could share anything with your fellow artists and creators, what would be your first five words to them?

Heimann chose to start with five words, because the first five words of the Bible are also about creation: “In the beginning, God created.” (Genesis 1:1).

“I realized that’s why it’s so innate in us to create – because we’re sharing in the first thing that God shared that He did,” he said.

For the book, Heimann sought out his heroes – Catholic artists, architects, chefs, musicians, calligraphers, and everyone in between. He talked both to artists who are doing specifically Catholic work, and artists who are Catholic but working in the secular world.  

“We have everything from podcasters to painters, from Bishop Barron to a kindergarten teacher,” he said.

That’s because, as Catholic author and philosophy professor Peter Kreeft explains on his page: “We’re artists because God is.”

“Which goes to show that in some way we are all artists, we just have to recognize it,” Heimann added.

This idea was also proposed by Pope John Paul II in his 1999 letter to artists, in which he wrote: “Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”

There has been a recent re-emphasis on the importance of beauty and quality art in the Church, including the creation of a collaborative group called Catholic Creatives, the brainchild of brothers Marcellino and Anthony D’Ambrosio. Many of the artists and creators in the book, including Heimann, are part of the group.

Good art is important in the Church, Heimann said, because it is the first thing that can attract and invite modern man into a deeper conversation.

He said that Bishop Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles explains on his page that using beauty to draw someone to the Church is like taking a kid to a baseball game to inspire him to play baseball, rather than just telling him all the rules.

“You take him to a game, let him smell the smells and watch the players, and he will desire and ask how to play the game. Good art does that for the Church, it draws us in to ask for the truth. We don’t abandon the truth, but we do lead with beauty,” Heimann said.

He added that he hopes the book will inspire people to continue creating, and will help them see how the act of creating could lead them closer to God, and ultimately answer the question, “Why bother with beauty?”

“I think this book will (show) those that wrestle with being too artsy for their Catholic friends and too Catholic for their artsy friends that they have a place in the Church, and that their passions and desires are needed. I hope that it will help people to not turn inwardly in their creating but instead turn toward the ultimate creator.”  

The 9×9-inch book features a full-sized color photo or work of art from each collaborator, as well as their first five words and a brief reflection on how their art leads them to God. The book’s beauty also has the potential to draw in people who might not consider God as part of their creative process, Heimann noted.

“We never intended it, but I think this turned out to be one of the best evangelization books for the right-brained,” he said. “The average person reads two books a year, but this book doesn’t fall into that problem. It’s a book where you flip through a bit, you read a page, then another and all of a sudden you’ve read the whole book.”

The project has already seen impressive success – within two days of launching the book’s kickstarter fundraising page, the project had already surpassed its goal of $7,000, with more than $10,000 pledged by a total of 218 backers.

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Washington D.C., Sep 30, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Federal disaster relief policy denies repair and reconstruction assistance to houses of worship – and that needs to change, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders have said.

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Baltimore, Md., Sep 30, 2017 / 04:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As racial tensions continue across the United States, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore announced a statewide task force to combat racism and promote unity within local communities.

“T… […]

San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sep 29, 2017 / 04:58 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Puerto Rican bishops’ conference issued a message of hope to Puerto Ricans after Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed much of the U.S. territory this summer.

In the letter, published on Sept. 27, the bishops of Puerto Rico said that the destruction “fills us with pain and suffering, especially when we see so many tears, and so much anguish in the faces of our people.”

On Sept. 6, Hurricane Irma passed through northern Puerto Rico, though it did not directly impact the whole island. However, on Sept. 20, Hurricane Maria directly hit the island as a Category 4 storm, leaving at least 16 dead. The hurricanes have left much of the island without water and electricity, and have led to widespread shortages of gasoline and food.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, told local media that these storms are “Puerto Rico’s biggest catastrophe…in terms of damage to infrastructure.”

Reuters reported that the storms had left an estimated $30 billion in material losses.

The Puerto Rican bishops praised the faithful for maintaining “…order and respect for neighbors, the law and the property of others.”

They added that the two massive hurricanes show the urgency of the need to address climate change.

“We understand that we cannot act as before and continue like this,” they said.

The bishops noted that the only way for the island to “be reborn” is by clinging to the “love of Christ.”

“From his cross and his pain, our hope is reborn,” they wrote.

The bishops’ conference also recommended that the Puerto Rican people adopt three attitudes: “to rebuild, rediscover, and have a reunion with Jesus.”

The bishops stressed that as people rebuild houses, churches or roads, they also need to repair “the damage that does not allow us to grow as a people and to progress as a nation.”

“Let us overcome the barriers, selfishness and divisions that may exist between us, and unite to rebuild our homeland, which shines with the beautiful, noble and Christian values that live in our hearts, and spring from our identity,” they said.

“Jesus comes to meet us, calms the storm and give us confidence. He invites us to walk towards Him, takes us by the hand and will not let us sink, so that we can say: ‘Everywhere we are pressed, but not crushed.’”

The bishops promised to provide financial aid to the most affected dioceses and offered prayers for the victims of the storm. They also thanked local authorities and rescuers for their work.

“In these days, where basic resources are scarce, especially light and water, let us enter into personal and community prayer with the Lord,” they said, and urged everyone to continue their “gestures of solidarity with those brothers and sisters in need.”

The full press release in Spanish can be found here.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Los Angeles, Calif., Sep 29, 2017 / 10:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian leaders in the fight against pornography have called the death of Hugh Hefner “tragic,” while reminding Catholics to take seriously the impact of Hefner’s legacy… […]