Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 13, 2020
We dodged a bullet when the strongest winds and rains of Tropical Storm Cristóbal skirted Baton Rouge this past week. Bishop Duca says he’s taking credit for that, since at our special “Mass for Hurricane Protection” on the first Friday of June his prayers were so powerful! But until the end of October, we’ll still keep an eye out for tropical cyclones!
Natural disasters of other sorts can strike, too, as memories of the “Great Flood of 2016” remind us. The present tragic Covid-19 virus pandemic also is a natural phenomenon, one which has caused much pain and harm to individuals and to the economy of the world.
But certainly the worst things of all are man-made evils. The May 25 murder of Mr. George Floyd in Minneapolis – and its aftermath of protest and senseless violence around the country – again has focused our attention on the sin of racism within individuals and our social institutions. So what should we do? We honestly have to face up to our Christian responsibility to end the shameful prejudice and harmful actions against people of color in our society. Black Lives Matter.
I guess first of all I should point to the in-depth insights offered by the Catholic bishops of the USA, in their pastoral letter not so long ago on the subject, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call To Love. Bishop Shelton Fabre, originally from our own Diocese of Baton Rouge and now Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, chairs the committee which authored its text. Find it on the internet at http://bit.ly/3cAiqRi and give it a careful, prayerful read.
Then commit to raising your awareness in whatever situations you find yourself. Talk about racial equality at home and at work, and decry as wrong those who fail to recognize it.
This is where we here at the Cathedral might even be able to do something more. We have here – in what others might call just a “destination parish” – a really “intentional community” of faith, where diverse peoples come together. During the present pandemic opportunities for interaction with others are pretty limited, but we still might be able to find ways to welcome and encounter each other on this topic. Could we? Maybe it can be done via Zoom, which so many of us have learned to use lately!
This idea of listening is key. We need to hear the stories of our brothers and sisters for whom racist suffering not only was a thing of the past but is still painfully real. And we need to hear “Where are we failing? Whose voices as leaders and volunteers are not being heard?”
If we can possibly manage it, could we arrange such listening sessions? Sure, it might be difficult to set up, and if done right certainly would have awkward and even painful moments of realization and sorrow. Yet we have parishioners of various backgrounds who will help, I think, by raising their voices and sharing their stories. We have even more who would just like to learn, and do their best to feel authentically, and not just presume they already know what to think.
Such encounters would be well worth the effort, although they definitely will demand we all be willing to be humble and vulnerable – and not defensive when outside of our comfort zones! Would you be interested in such a sharing opportunity for Cathedral parishioners? Could you help with it? Email me at pastor@cathedralbr.org to help with ideas or organization. I think through some kind of authentic opportunity (or two or three or more) for engagement with each other, we can together forge something useful from our diverse perspectives and experiences in light of God’s understandings of justice and human dignity.
Think about it, anyway! I think this is something we can do.
Yours most sincerely in Christ,
Very Rev. Paul D. Counce
