It was after this moment, 30 years ago, that chiefs of police, beginning in Los Angeles and spreading everywhere, started to say, “We cannot arrest our way out” of this.

The promise of eternal life must lead to greater forgiveness and reconciliation, not passivity in the face of injustice. Such reconciliation can come about only when judgment is left in the hands of God.

The Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops March 16 called for “the immediate cessation of Russia’s armed aggression and unprovoked war on Ukraine.”

The church’s passion for justice arises not only from its moral certainty, but even more from its solidarity with those who are suffering.

Human suffering crosses all ethnic, racial and political borders. Efforts to alleviate it must do the same.

It is difficult for a thoughtful Catholic to separate the wheat from the chaff in assessing secular social movements and causes. But we owe it to each other to try.