June 23, 2021

Dear Friends in Christ,

When President Joe Biden signed a bill last Thursday making Juneteenth a federal holiday, his pen stroke validated the events on June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, TX, learned they were free people – nearly two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This occurred because the 16^th president’s decree had not taken effect in slave-holding border states like Maryland -- and the Confederate states refused to accept it. Juneteenth has long evoked immense pride for our African-American brothers and sisters who rightly revel in their forebears’ freedom. But, for me, it is a day of soul searching.

As Americans, we are only now collectively grappling with the impacts that racial injustice have wrought in our country, a legacy seared in all our consciences since George Floyd’s death in May 2020. Designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday is an important step, because it requires us to collectively recognize our country’s painful past with slavery, Jim Crow laws, the ongoing struggle for civil rights and the systemic racism that still pervades our housing, healthcare, and educational systems. As we do when we examine our consciences before Confession, this is an opportunity to acknowledge pain and seek atonement.   

For me, part of the pain sits squarely with actions committed by our Catholic Church. On June 17, Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J, wrote in America magazine about Peter and Mary Hawkins. Born a slave, Peter grew up on Jesuit properties in St. Louis, MO, saw members of his community beaten and was separated from his family members when the Jesuits sold them off. Even though the Jesuits allowed Peter to buy his freedom in the early 1860s, they asked him to pay the equivalent of $20,300 to secure his wife’s passage. The couple was then required to stay on without pay for two more years, before eventually receiving meager salaries. Read more.

At the same time, I look with pride at Catholics like St. Katharine Drexel, who was born into wealth and dedicated her life and considerable fortune to the advancement of African-American and Native American communities. Even though she could have easily led a life of comfort and luxury, Mother Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which she founded, advocated to revive anti-lynching legislation in the 1930s – an act that was designated a federal hate crime only last year. Read more.

A day like Juneteenth is a time for us Catholics to learn more and reflect on our shared history, especially the lesser-known parts. In just the past 100 years, there have been so many atrocities visited on our African-American brothers and sisters, from the Tulsa race massacre in 1921, well-known and forgotten lynchings and incidents of policy brutality today.  

As our beloved Fr. Ralph Kuehner often said, we need to own it. We can do better than that.

I wish you all a blessed and wonderful week.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John