The following reflection by Shannen Dee Williams, historian and assistant professor at Villanova University, originally appeared in our 2014 Advent-Christmas reflection booklet.

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Patience is one the greatest and most valuable Catholic virtues. In Galatians 5:22-23, St. Paul lists it among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Yet, for many of us, patience remains elusive, especially when we are confronted with human injustice and suffering.

How many times have we become disgruntled when someone or some entity called for patience in the wake of preventable human tragedy or a clear instance of racial discrimination? How often have we equated patience with indifference or complicity in social injustice?

In the 1980s, German feminist theologian Dorothy Soelle coined the term “revolutionary patience” to characterize the uncommon faithfulness and resilience of those who struggle against injustice and refuse to give up hope in the face of routine setbacks and defeats...

To my white Catholic brothers and sisters:

As a Black “cradle Catholic” who is highly engaged in the church, I have been driven into deep reflection and prayer by the events of the past several months in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic: the taking of the innocent Black lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police.

As I reflect on the Catholic anti-racism efforts in which I have been involved since the 1980s, two conflicting currents of thought come to me. First, I am elated that so many white young people, many of whom are Catholics, have awakened from their slumber to recognize and take action against white supremacy. Second, I feel exhausted by the paucity and tepidity of white Catholic leadership in the ongoing cause for freedom for people of color in this country.

The pastoral letter “Open Wide Our Hearts,” issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2018, was intended to be a message from the church hierarchy that would give substance to Catholic anti-racist activism. Yet the document has no direct references to white privilege and white supremacist ideology. It defines racism in general terms as what arises when “a person holds that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard.” There is little consideration given to racism’s purpose, its beneficiaries and its targeted casualties...

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Does your child go to Catholic school? Are you a teacher, director of religious education or college professor? High school student or college student? Support the effort to incorporate the work of Black Catholics into Catholic education!

> Find resources by going to this link to the Black Catholic Syllabus by Tia Noelle Pratt, Ph.D.

> Order Olga Segura's new book, Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church and organize study groups, use it in classrooms, get it in your school's library, etc.

> Download this resource packet from the Archdiocese of Washington, DC's Office of Black Catholics created for the observance of #BlackCatholicHistoryMonth.

> Find more resources on our Black Lives Matter: Pray, Study, Act webpage.

December 10th is International Human Rights Day. Look next week for a special Pray-Study-Act e-bulletin from us, but in the meantime, take the "pledge to STAND UP for human rights”. You can take the pledge on your own, with your families as an Advent action around the Advent wreath on Dec. 10th, or with your local Pax Christi group over Zoom.