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Today, on the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd – a Black man killed by police officer Derek Chauvin — Catholic leaders reflect on the renewed attention paid to racial justice this past year and acknowledge the essential role of the Church on the long road ahead.
In the spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., “we must meet the forces of hate and ignorance with the power of love,” the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement for the Jan. 18 federal observance of the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington wants Americans to recognize the determination, perseverance and contributions of African Americans throughout United States history in spite of the obstacles they faced.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, the slain civil rights leader who is honored with a federal holiday the third Monday of January, “relied upon faith and prayer” to combat the racism and prejudice he and other U.S. Blacks suffered, said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington.
Pope Francis now has his own special edition Atlanta Hawks basketball jersey, celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The team will also wear the 2021 MLK Nike City Edition jerseys for Monday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of their commitment to those values.
When a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, demanded that a young Black woman named Rosa Parks give up her seat in the non-Black designated section of the bus, so began the civil rights movement in earnest.
The visions of peace, equality, and love will resonate powerfully during the 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, as the tumult of 2020 continues into the new year, said clergy and laity in the Diocese of Brooklyn. The annual MLK day prayer service is set for noon Jan. 18 at Our Lady of Victory Church, in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Celebrating an Aug. 28 Mass to mark the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s historic March on Washington, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory urged Catholics to continue the dream of the late civil rights leader and to work for reconciliation and unity building.
There is an African proverb that says, “As long as a person’s name is called, they never die.” With the spirit of that proverb in mind, John Thorne, pastoral minister at Sacred Heart Parish in Detroit and executive director of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, created a memorial in his front yard for Black men and women whose lives have been taken unjustly, complete with crosses bearing their image and name.
Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York and former head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) pro-life committee, delivered the keynote address at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life at Georgetown University on Saturday.
