On a weekend when Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory spoke at a conference sponsored by the Diocese of Arlington that examined how the Catholic Church should respond to the sin of racism, Pope Francis tweeted about the reality of racism, calling it a virus that shames humanity.
Pope Francis on his @Pontifex twitter account on March 21 said:
“Racism is a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting. Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think. #FightRacism #FratelliTutti”
The point made by Pope Francis echoes a statement that then-Archbishop Gregory made on May 31, 2020 after the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
Responding to Floyd’s death, which sparked nationwide protests for racial justice and against police brutality, Cardinal Gregory said, “…This incident reveals the virus of racism among us once again even as we continue to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.”
In that statement, Cardinal Gregory expressed gratitude to first responders for their work in protecting and saving lives, while noting, “…as a society, we must find ways to understand and to respond to the pain of our brothers and sisters. We see racism destroying the lives of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian people because of their religious and ethnic heritages. Racism triggers the divisive and xenophobic attitudes of nationalism. It also targets people because of their cultural traditions or physical appearances and it threatens immigrant people who seek nothing more than the opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of their children.”
Washington’s archbishop said people should work together non-violently to heal and build “the ‘Beloved Community’ that was spoken about by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr… We must examine our own attitudes and actions in order to seek conversion from sin and turn our hearts towards Christ in order to end personal and structural racism. Now, and every day, we must pray to find the strength to do what is right and just as we encounter our neighbors from a culture, country, religion, race, or experience different than our own and see in them God’s creative design. This moment calls us to be the Church of hope that Jesus Christ created us to be in a world full of pain and despair…”
On March 20, the day before Pope Francis’s tweet, Cardinal Gregory gave a keynote address titled “Seeing with the Eyes of Christ” at the conference at Nativity Parish in Burke, Virginia, where he called on people of faith to confront the sin of racism by opposing it forcefully and to work for racial harmony and justice by getting to know each other and their histories and by seeing the nation’s diversity as a strength reflecting its founding ideals.
The conference’s title, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love” was drawn from the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter against racism.
The pope’s tweet noted that “instances of racism continue to shame us.” Cardinal Gregory in his talk the evening before noted the March 16 murders of six Asian American women working in spas in the Atlanta area.
“Within the past few days, we have been faced with the hatred and violence that Asian-Americans have endured with increased intensity since the beginning of the global pandemic, and now the horrific killing of Asian women in the Atlanta community reminds us that we still have serious racial problems that continue to plague our national harmony and unity,” the cardinal said.
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