Catholic churches take on ‘most segregated hour’

To the Editor,

In this time of terrible racial violence and social injustice, the upcoming birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. should renew the call to each of us to identify our role in promoting racial healing and justice. This should be a particular imperative for our faith communities, which, 60 years later, still have much to do to change what Dr. King called — referring to the time people spend in church — “the most segregated hour of Christian America.”

To that end, our two Catholic parishes – one urban and predominantly Black, and one suburban and predominantly white – have joined together to address the sin of racism and prayerfully develop actions to build Dr. King’s “beloved community” in our own communities.

The Joint Catholic Ministry on Racial Justice, a partnership of St. Martin de Porres Parish in North Philadelphia and St. John Chrysostom Parish in Wallingford, aims to foster opportunities for spiritual growth, fellowship, education, and dialogue to promote racial understanding, healing, and justice within, among, and beyond our parish communities.

We invite other area parishes and other faith communities to join us in creating similar partnerships between and among their houses of worship, to pursue the peace and justice that our society needs and all of our faiths command.

Parishioners of St. John Chrysostom & St. Martin de Porres