Racial Justice and the Catholic Church

By: Bryan N. Massingale

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Confronting racism is difficult but essential work if we are to heal the brokenness in our society and our church. In the author's words, "We all are wounded by the sin of racism.... How can we struggle together against an evil that harms us all?"

Racial Justice and the Catholic Church examines the presence of racism in America from its early history through the Civil Rights Movement and the election of Barack Obama. It also explores how Catholic social teaching has been used - and not used - to promote reconciliation and justice.

Massingale writes from an abiding conviction that the Catholic faith and the Black experience make essential contributions in the continuing struggle against racial injustice that is the work of all people. His book is a must-listen for all those concerned with justice and healing in our world.

©2010 Bryan N. Massingale (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Thank you

This book was so needed. Imagine what Fr. Massingale would have to say in 2024. I wonder how our African immigrant neighbors have adjusted.

Catholic history and future around racial justice

Some books on Catholic thought are about the universal (catholic) church but written from the perspective of a Catholic thinking. While other books on Catholic thought are particularly about what it means to be Catholic in particular. This is the latter not the former. As a non-Catholic reading it, there are still helpful ideas and considerations that can be used outside of the Catholic Church. The chapter on culture is particularly helpful in part because the Catholic Church is so universal that it (or at least parts of it) have thought deeply about how culture and faith work together.

Other parts of the book, history and the discussion of what it means to be a Black Catholic theologian in the US, are more particular and those parts are not as immediately applicable for those who are not Catholic (or Black). But there is still value in understanding particularity. Particularity, when you can understand it allow you to see how to think and act, or at least how others have attempted to think and act, and then to see if those process of thinking and acting can be helpful for you in a different context.

This is also a book written at a particular time, 2010. That time was very particular. Obama had been elected president. And the very public deaths of Black people (mostly men) that eventually gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement had not started. Massingale was writing with tempered hope. He was well aware that the idealism of many who thought we were in a “post-racial” world was not true. But he also was aware that there had been improvements within his lifetime both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Fifteen years later, and not only Benedict, and Francis, have passed away, but the American Catholic Church is in an even deeper sense of division as a result of the continued fall out of the abuse crisis, the politics of Trump, the strain theologically between reformers and traditionalists and other issues. However, I am not sure that much of the discussion in the book is really significantly different.

I am very much influenced by the work of the Catholic Church. My spiritual direction training was at a Catholic program. I am very much influenced by Catholic social teaching. But I also am aware that as much as I find value and ideas helpful, that I am not Catholic. My particularity as a Christian does not have to be disturbed by grappling with difference. Instead the difference can help me understand myself and my own context more clearly.