Hoping to advance local conversation about racial equity, particularly from a Catholic perspective, the Catholic Racial Justice Coalition (CRJC) is sponsoring an April 13 event at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis.

Among members of the Black Catholic community in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis invited to share their experiences will be Cynthia Bailey Manns, as she addresses the group about the need to listen and share with respect and honesty.

Conversations about the effects of racial injustice create opportunities “for people to share with vulnerability and honesty … and to feel seen and listened to,” said Bailey Manns, a member of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis and the parish’s adult learning director.

Bailey Manns — who is also a U.S. lay delegate chosen by Pope Francis to represent the North American region at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops — will be the keynote speaker for the event, “Walking Together Toward Racial Truth and Healing: An Experience of Restorative Justice.”

“This is important within our Catholic family,” Bailey Manns said. “These are issues that are happening now and in order for us to journey together, in order for us to recognize the sacred in each other and in order for us to create a space where all are welcome and can have a place to call home, we have to do the work together.”

Such was the sentiment as the CRJC began taking shape in the summer of 2020.

“It was clear right from the beginning that our mission was to do more together than we can do alone,” said Meg Payne Nelson, vice president of impact for the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) and a representative of CCF for the CRJC

WALKING TOGETHER

“Walking Together Toward Racial Truth and Healing: An Experience of Restorative Justice” begins at 8 a.m. April 13 at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis.

People can register for the event at ccf-mn.org/crjc.

The CRJC “works collaboratively to build just relationships, heal the wounds created by racism and discrimination, and contribute to ending racial injustice within our communities and collective Catholic organizations,” according to its mission statement. It currently includes representatives of eight Catholic institutions in the Twin Cities metro area — the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Catholic Charities Twin Cities; CCF; the GHR Foundation; the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet; and the universities of St. Catherine, St. Mary and St. Thomas.

Nelson, who is helping coordinate the CRJC-hosted April 13 event, said the event is expected to draw roughly 200 attendees, including leadership from the coalition member organizations. Nelson said she is hoping even more people will register.

“Whether you have worked in racial justice or not, this is a call to all Catholics,” said Nelson, a member of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

Nelson said the event will begin with prayer and music, including choral music from St. Peter Claver in St. Paul. Then, a few members of the Black Catholic community will share “their experience, what it’s like being a Black Catholic in the Twin Cities,” Nelson said.

After the testimonials, people will meet in small, facilitated sharing groups “to both reflect on what they’ve heard (and) also tell their own stories,” Nelson said.

Relationship-building can occur within these groups, Bailey Manns said. “With the Holy Spirit among and within us, grounded in prayer and silence, we are challenged to open our hearts to one another, through that process of deep listening and honest, respectful sharing. And this can create the container for healing, repentance, justice and reconciliation.”

This effort to listen and to acknowledge harm caused by racial injustice “is part of a broader, nationwide, Church-wide effort to address these matters, to bring about healing,” said Father Chris Collins, parochial administrator of St. Peter Claver, vice president for mission at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and a representative of the university for the CRJC.

Father Collins said the April 13 event offers an opportunity to “confront history (and) also increase our understanding and desire to collaborate within the Church itself to bring about greater understanding and relationship-building and, where possible, reconciliation so that we can be part of the healing body of Christ.”

Nelson said conversations about racial equity must happen in Catholic spaces “because we should be holding ourselves to the highest standards and anti-racism has been explicit in Catholic social teaching.”

“We’re called by Jesus, by several consecutive popes, by our archbishops, and hopefully by our consciences to identify and fight racism where it exists,” Nelson said.

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

In addition to the “Walking Together Toward Racial Truth and Healing: An Experience of Restorative Justice” event April 13, the Catholic Racial Justice Coalition (CRJC) has hosted two racial justice ministry events.

Titled “Morning of Connection,” the events have taken place recently — March 2 — and March 18, 2023, at the University of St. Thomas’ Iversen Center for Faith in St. Paul. Each event drew dozens of people, including parish-based racial justice, social justice and outreach ministry workers and volunteers.

The Morning of Connection events are modeled after similar events hosted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, said Meg Payne Nelson, vice president of impact for the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) and a representative of CCF for the CRJC. The local events — which Nelson said the coalition hopes to eventually host more than once a year — offer people an opportunity to network, learn best practices in racial justice ministry and seek formation.

“I hope they will be exposed to greater ideas for bringing racial justice initiatives to their parishes; I hope they’ll get a deeper understanding of the history of both racism in our Church and racial justice work in our Church, in our local archdiocese; I’m hoping … that they’ll be able to do networking so they can support each other in this work,” Nelson said.

These events are an opportunity to “get people together, listen, learn, and then see what happens. And let the (Holy) Spirit operate,” said Father Chris Collins, parochial administrator of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, vice president for mission at the University of St. Thomas, and a representative of the university for the CRJC.

At the March 2 event, Father Collins facilitated a discussion with Yohuru Williams — founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas and a distinguished university chair and professor of history at the university — that touched on racial equity in the context of Catholic social teaching.

Father Collins said he hopes attendees have found “encouragement that there are other people like them in other parishes that are concerned and are allowing their faith to move them into deeper understanding and action as well.”

“We’d like to keep convening people and having conversation and learning,” Father Collins said.

Journeying together

Bailey Manns said she is drawing from her experiences in various roles for her keynote address. In addition to her work at St. Joan of Arc and as a Vatican synod delegate, Bailey Manns was one of 26 participants from the archdiocese to attend the National Black Catholic Congress in Florida in 2017. Upon their return, she worked with a group to restart the archdiocesan Commission for Black Catholics and joined the commission’s leadership team.

Bailey Manns said her keynote address will include “the historical and present overview of Black Catholics in the United States and our archdiocese” as well as “the intersectionality between synodality and restorative justice, which I think of as journeying together in love and pathways to healing, repentance, justice and reconciliation — reconciliation in ourselves, and our parishes, and our Church.”

Bailey Manns said she hopes people reflect on what it means to respect human dignity during the April 13 event.

“No matter the color of one’s skin, we must honor the dignity of each person,” she said. “There should be no room for racism and inequity that creates spaces or structures within our Church where anyone does not feel safe, or seen, or listened to, (or) respected. We all want a place to call home at our church.”

Catholics can foster reconciliation and healing by reflecting God’s love, Bailey Manns suggested.

“We are affirmed and anointed by God to serve in the healing of the world in our own unique way,” Bailey Manns said. “And we need everybody on this journey, we need people (who) come along and learn and love as we do this sacred work, and to commit to being the people God calls us to be, to serve and love one another as we are loved and served by God.”

JUSTICE FUND

The Catholic Racial Justice Fund was created at the end of 2022 by the Catholic Racial Justice Coalition (CRJC).

Meg Payne Nelson — vice president of impact for the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) and a representative of CCF for the CRJC — said the fund serves two purposes: to support the work of the CRJC (including covering its coordination, administrative and some materials costs) and to support racial justice initiatives that involve the Twin Cities Catholic community and “align with our mission and values.”

An advisory committee of coalition member delegates oversees the application and grant process for the fund.

During its first year in 2023, the fund awarded $18,250 in grants, the CRJC reported.

Grant recipients included the University of St. Thomas and St. Thomas More, both in St. Paul; the Minneapolis-based Minnesota Council of Churches; the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis; St. Peter Claver in St. Paul; and St. Paul-based Modern Catholic Pilgrim.

Those funds went toward presentations, performing arts, National Black Catholic Congress attendance, and a civil rights tour.

Nelson said consideration is given to “what kinds of activities might touch people’s hearts or get people talking about racial justice or move the conversation forward.”

More information about the fund can be found online at ccf-mn.org/crjc.