Racial Justice and the Catholic Church; Bryan
N. Massingale; Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books, 2010; 224 pp. paper
$26.00
Racism is alive and well in the
United States. Racism lingers on in the Catholic Church. The Catholic
Church has precious little to say about racial justice. The responsibility
of the African-American Catholic theologian is “passionate participation in
reasoned inquiry on behalf of God’s oppressed and despised people.” (p. 160.
quoted from M. Shawn Copeland) While these statements are not a summary of
Bryan Massingale’s important study, they are salient points he develops.
Obviously, the information and insights in this book will help when we
preach on the sin of racism; however, they are equally valuable as part of
our general store of information and insight that nourishes all our
preaching, as well as our other work and relationships.
Bryan Massingale, the 2009-2010
President of the Catholic Theological Society of America, writes from his
experience as an African-American Catholic, as well as from his extensive
experience as Catholic theologian, author of more than sixty books, book
chapters, articles and book reviews. He writes tightly reasoned argument in
wonderfully readable prose. He is not afraid to include song and poetry in
his argument; in fact, he insists on the need to understand emotion and
passion in order to understand the African-American experience.
Massnigale delves deep when he
defines terms. Racism, for example, has little to do with one person’s
actions against another; “racism is a cultural phenomenon. . . .” (p15.
emphasis in original) And culture is more than the symbols that identify a
group. Culture is “a people’s soul, a set of meanings and values that is an
individual’s and a social group’s identity.” (p.18) The soul of
African-American experience is struggle; the soul of white experience is a
“worldview that. . .sees itself as the measure of what is real, standard,
normative and/or normal.” (p 22) The results of this worldview are economic
advantage and political power. These are hard words for us white, privileged
persons to accept. Yet, as I read this meticulously reasoned, documented
argument, I had to agree.
After tracing the history of the U.S.
bishops’ statements on racism, and acknowledging the particular significance
of Brothers and Sisters to Us, Massingale brilliantly critiques this
document. He points out, for example, its dearth of social analysis, its
lack of theological or ethical reflection on racism, and the bishops’
failure to provide directions for implementation of the teachings and
exhortations of the document. Massingale’s most scathing criticism of
Catholic teaching on race in the U.S.,
I think, is that it “has neglected or slighted an
essential step in social reflection, namely, listening to the voices of the
victims and examining the situation from their perspective.” (p.75)
In the chapter “Toward a More
Adequate Catholic Engagement,” Massengale addresses the issue of
reconciliation. “Our racial divides,” he posits, “stem from a history of
abuse, neglect, and abandonment; from the legacies of exploitation and the
realities of humiliation; in short, from an absence or miscarriage of
justice. Overcoming them requires social transformation.” (p.96) Social
transformation, in turn, requires truth-telling and affirmative redress.
Massingale describes various forms of affirmative redress, and assesses
their relative effectiveness or non-effectiveness. As contexts for
initiating a process of truth-telling in the U.S. cites the South African
Truth and Reconciliation process, as well as Pope John Paul II’s call for “a
purification of memory.”
Massingale’s moving description of,
and challenge to, African-American Catholic theologians is a voice of
prophecy. In addition to telling some of his own story, he lays out a
series of “non-exhaustive” questions that call for theological
investigation. Finally, he insists that the African-American Catholic
theologian is “not a hybrid,” part-time African-American and part-time
theologian. Rather, “Our vocation is shaped by the reality of simultaneous
truths and multiple identities, being indivisibly members of the theological
academy, the black ‘community-in-struggle,’ and the Catholic faith
communion.” (p.160)
Patricia Chaffee, OP
Racine, Wisconsin
Book Review Archive
Just click on a
book title below to read the review.
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