Healing the Racial Divide

A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls

Lincoln Rice

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781625644749
  9781498227551
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630875640
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Healing the Racial Divide retrieves the insights of Dr. Arthur Falls (1901-2000) for composing a renewed theology of Catholic racial justice. Falls was a black Catholic medical doctor who dedicated his life to healing rifts created by white supremacy and racism. He integrated theology, the social sciences, and personal experience to compose a salve that was capable of not only integrating neighborhoods but also eradicating the segregation that existed in Chicago hospitals. Falls was able to reframe the basic truths of the Christian faith in a way that unleashed their prophetic power. He referred to those Catholics who promoted segregation in Chicago as believers in the "mythical body of Christ," as opposed to the mystical body of Christ. The "mythical body of Christ" is a heretical doctrine that excludes African Americans and promotes the delusion that white people are the normative measure of the Catholic faith.

1: Black Experience and Empowerment in Catholic Thought

This chapter will examine more deeply the current state of Catholic racial justice—particularly as it pertains to the role of black agency and the use of black sources in Catholic racial justice. “Black agency” refers to the role that African Americans are deemed to possess in working toward racial justice in society, and “the use of black sources” refers to the extent that the intellectual, cultural, and ecclesial experiences of African Americans are incorporated into a theological framework of racial justice. The first section of this chapter will survey authors who offer a more limited view of African American sources and black agency. The latter section will consider authors who make greater use of and give greater legitimacy to black agency and experience. The first section will begin with an examination of the life and writings of John LaFarge, who, in addition to being a contemporary of Falls, was the most prominent American exponent of Catholic racial justice during the first half of the twentieth century, and whose impact is still discernible in the documents of American bishops. This section will then appraise documents from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and the statements of individual American bishops. The second section will examine James Cone, Shawn Copeland, Bryan Massingale, and Jon Nilson.

Limited Use of Black Agency and Experience

John LaFarge

John LaFarge, S.J. (1880–1963), a contemporary of Falls, was the most famous Catholic champion of racial justice during the first half of the twentieth century. He rose to prominence in the interracial relations movement when he became involved with the Federated Colored Catholics (FCC). The FCC was founded in 1924 by Dr. Thomas Wyatt Turner (1877–1978), a biologist, to further the cause of African American Catholics in the Catholic Church, as well as to promote self-worth and to provide leadership opportunities.1 The independence of this group from clerical leadership and its methods of self-determination to solve the oppression of blacks made LaFarge uncomfortable. As historian David Southern observes, “LaFarge simply disliked protest with an African American accent.”2 He believed that the FCC should have clerical leadership and focus primarily on employing moral suasion and appealing to white sympathy to bring about racial justice.3 In 1932, after garnering enough support from black Catholics within the FCC, LaFarge and fellow Jesuit William Markoe orchestrated a constitutional revision of the FCC, which resulted in a change of aims and leadership for the organization.4 As Southern notes, after LaFarge took over the movement, “instead of raising a cadre of black leaders, the Catholic interracial movement actually helped create a vacuum of black leadership in the church.”5

In his 1937 book, Interracial Justice, LaFarge advocated for the integration of public and Catholic schooling in the United States, well before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka court case, which ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional. Interracial Justice pointed to a twofold approach for Catholic action in the attainment of interracial justice: (1) “the combating of race prejudice,” and (2) “the establishment of social justice.”6 LaFarge defined racial justice as an “equality of opportunity” for all groups or individuals, regardless of race.7 LaFarge’s understanding of racism did not address how to create an equality of opportunity when great economic disparity already exists between blacks and whites.8 Southern notes that the interracial movement had a history of applying pressure on the northern Church to integrate Catholic schools, hospitals, and seminaries, but that LaFarge was “more successful at improving the church’s image than in changing the church’s behavior.”9

LaFarge had greatly refined and simplified his theology of racial justice by 1956, when he published The Catholic Viewpoint on Race Relations. This work, which was published near the end of his life, proposed that growing economic security for blacks depended on the social attitudes of whites toward African Americans. For LaFarge, there was little that blacks could do to improve or contribute to the betterment of their own situation. LaFarge cited African Americans from time to time, but not as inspiration for his thought; instead, their writings served as proof-texts for his own preconceived notions. In a subtle jab at the policies of the FCC before he and Markoe took over the organization, he stated that “the more repeatedly the demands [for justice] were uttered, the less attention and interest did they create.”10 He considered the black empowerment presence in the FCC to be a form of separatism that made its members’ calls for integration hypocritical. He believed that after being properly educated, whites would destroy the idol of racism they were worshipping. An emphasis on white agency and clerical leadership was necessary because “although the Negro is the victim of discrimination, he does not necessarily know the answer or the cure.”11 Such a sentiment left scant room for appreciating either African American sources or black agency. Essentially, LaFarge’s thought did not extend beyond the theology found in the papal encyclicals on labor, such as Rerum novarum. The papal social encyclical tradition does not advocate that the oppressed should confront their oppressors, but rather promotes the use of moral suasion to convince those in power to act properly.12

U.S. Bishops’ Statements

Discrimination and the Christian Conscience

In 1958, the U.S. bishops issued their first major post-World War II document on racism—Discrimination and the Christian Conscience. In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), twenty-one documents decrying segregation had been published by various Protestant denominations before the issuance of the U.S. bishops’ document. This document, authored by Fr. John Cronin, S.S. (1908–1994), was published only after the death of a prominent opponent bishop, Cardinal Edward Mooney, who had anticipated that the document would...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Black Experience and Empowerment in Catholic Thought
• Chapter 2: The Life of Dr. Arthur G. Falls
• Chapter 3: The Thought and Writings of Dr. Arthur G. Falls
• Chapter 4: A New Understanding of Catholic Racial Justice—Inspired by Falls
• Chapter 5: Virtues for the Oppressed
• Afterword
• Bibliography