Catholics throughout the United States were urged to pray for racial justice on Sept. 9 to mark the Day of Prayer for Peace in Our Communities. “We hope to highlight the importance of prayer as a reasonable and efficacious response to the violence that has touched too many communities in our nation,” Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta said on Sept. 8, explaining the effort on a call with reporters. “We also hope that through this prayer, local dialogues will take place in parishes and in small communities to highlight the root causes of this tension that obviously is still very much a part of too many of our lives.” Archbishop Gregory is leading a task force of the U.S. bishops’ conference charged with assessing diocesan resources on racial justice and promoting dialogue in communities affected by violence. The group is expected to present a final report during the conference’s semi-annual meeting in November.

This article appears in September 26 2016.