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Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘As words fail’ after Floyd’s death, Catholic leaders share wisdom from MLK

“We are one human family — what affects one of us, affects all of us,” Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis CEO wrote May 29, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officers was unjust,” Tim Marx wrote in a letter to Catholic Charities’ supporters. “It goes against the principles of Catholic Social Teaching that guide us at Catholic Charities and my own deeply held values. This tragedy tears at the fibers that bring us together and shines a harsh light on the systemic injustices that too many must confront every single day of their lives.”

He told them it was hard for him to find the words to describe the pain and anger the Twin Cities community was experiencing, “but silence is not an option.”

“George Floyd was killed not far from several Catholic Charities locations serving children and adults, where staff work hard to build a culture of safety and community for individuals who have experienced unthinkable trauma in their lives. They are reeling, and our staff are at a loss to provide comfort,” he said. “Hundreds of Catholic Charities staff who work on our shelter and emergency services teams share something in common with George Floyd; he worked at Harbor Lights shelter in Minneapolis, committed to our most vulnerable neighbors and working to create hope and opportunity.”

“At a time when words seem to fail,” Marx pointed to a quote from Martin Luther King Jr: “People often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.”

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“We cannot be numb,” Marx said. “We cannot separate ourselves from the injustices in our community. And we must not stop communicating, even if it’s hard to find the words.”

“As I write, our community is shaking with emotion and violence. We don’t know what today or the weekend will bring,” he continued. “We are concerned about the safety and wellbeing of our clients, staff, all of you, and our entire community. We must pursue peace. We know it is only possible if we also pursue justice.”

“Our prayers are with the family and friends of George Floyd, all of you and our entire community as we move forward, together,” he said.

In a statement shared May 28, the leadership of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province, also turned to King’s words to make sense of the “sadness, frustration, fear and anger” in the community: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

The sisters “pray for the family of George Floyd, for all those struggling with his senseless death, the officers who must live with the results of their actions, and for the entire community,” they said.

Again quoting King, they continued: “We are ‘caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,’ again revealing systemic injustice causing indescribable suffering to all and disproportionately to our black brothers and sisters.”

The sisters called on elected officials and the community to address ways that “demean or deny” human rights, and for criminal justice systems and law enforcement “to pursue accountability and realistic alternatives to the use of deadly force.”

“Let us act in ways that demonstrate that all lives, indeed Black lives, matter,” they wrote.

Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis, also shared a statement on Floyd’s death May 28, and highlighted King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, in which King “decried the scourge of segregation as well as the apathy of Christians who were not courageous enough to stand up against this regime of injustice.”

Noting that King wrote that letter in the same decade as Pope Paul VI said “If you want peace, work for justice,” Father Griffith said that Our Lady of Lourdes stands in solidarity with African Americans and the people in Minneapolis shocked by Floyd’s death, and that the parish “will seek to engage in a broader conversation of how we can more boldly confront the sin of racism and seek to build a community of authentic solidarity.”

“May vigilance and not apathy prevail in response to our current regime of injustice in Minneapolis and beyond,” he said.

 


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