“This isn’t very Christian, but at one of our meetings, we discussed whether or not there was such a thing as a decent white man.”
natcath.org/NCR_Online/arc…
(From the @NCRonline archives, on Dr. Arthur G Falls, #BlackCatholic and founder of the first Chicago Catholic Worker.)
"“The time is not opportune,” the official church used to say when confronted by [racist] moral outrages. “The time was never opportune,” Dr. Falls recalled.
“But... Those who were responsible always knew what they were doing. And that included church leaders.”"
"[Falls attended] @NorthwesternU's Medical School, where the professors in the gross anatomy lab would assure the students they needn’t be nervous about making mistakes.
“Don’t worry about it,” they were told. “We can always go out on the street and get a nigger to dissect.”"
“I was always careful to explain the church’s position on reproductive issues. I never did an abortion. I don’t believe in it.”
“[But] if the Church had put as much energy into racial issues as it has on abortion, we would have held and increased the Black Catholic population.”"
"The archbishop for much of this period was Cardinal Samuel Stritch...
From 1946-1953, there were 6 race riots in Chicago. Stritch remained silent, saying only, “Give it more time.”
“This is very unchristian of me,” Falls said nearly 50 years later, “but Stritch was a bastard.”
"“I think he would qualify as a martyr,” said Msgr. John Hayes...
“This is an unchristian thought,” Falls said... “But when I die, I want to go to Heaven and sit next to St. Peter at the Last Judgment and listen to all those explanations about why the time was never ripe.”"
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