Gail Lumet Buckley, who died on July 18, was an award-winning chronicler of the African American experience. She once wrote of herself in ‘America’ that “I choose the cross of faith over the sword of ideology.”
Racial Justice
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Gloria Purvis at the Eucharistic Congress: Respect the pope, repent of racism and put God over politics
In her keynote address at the Eucharistic Congress, Gloria Purvis warned that disloyalty to Pope Francis, the sin of racism and putting political parties above God threaten the unity of the Catholic Church.
Posted inArts & Culture, Dispatches
M.L.B. added Negro League statistics to official record books. Are we finally telling the full history of baseball?
Major League Baseball is finally incorporating stats recorded by Negro League players as part of M.L.B.’s official record books.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Gloria Purvis on Juneteenth, racism and the Catholic Church: ‘Sin can outlive those who commit the sin’
Ahead of Juneteenth, Gloria Purvis would like to see the Catholic Church lean into the question: “What is a theological response for making repair for the sin of racism?” The answer, she says, will require “wokeism.”
Posted inArts & Culture, News
What Frederick Douglass learned from an Irish antislavery activist: ‘Agitate, agitate, agitate’
Frederick Douglass traveled to Ireland after escaping slavery in the U.S. and there was inspired by the politics of Irish nationalist leader Daniel O’Connell.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
The great religious failure: not recognizing a person in need
If you do not recognize, you do not act. Recognition is the beginning of the moral life, writes Jesuit moral theologian James Keenan, S.J.
Posted inFaith, Jesuit School Spotlight
A Catholic alternative to diversity, equity and inclusion in education
Catholic social teaching can provide a stronger framework for antiracism programs.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
My ancestors were enslaved by the Jesuits. What does the church owe to descendants like me?
The descendants of Jesuit enslavement have no choice but to confront the church’s sinful history, but rather than harden their hearts, many are seeking reconciliation along with the restoration of justice.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Langston Hughes: Communist, Christian—or both?
Langston Hughes, the great Black poet, playwright, journalist and author, had a nuanced and not easily categorized religious life.
Posted inFaith, Features
A little-known Jesuit’s battle for racial justice in the Deep South
How Louis J. Twomey, S.J., overcame his own prejudice to become one of the most outspoken white allies of New Orleans’s Black community.