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“What Would Jesus Do?”
Cardinal O‘Malley joins hands with Fr. Pratt and Martin Luther King, Jr., Prayer Breakfast participants while singing “We Shall Overcome.”
A Conversation with Fr. Oscar Pratt and Sister Marie-Therese Browne, S.C.N.
There has been some discussion of the phrase “Black lives matter” as well as controversy around certain views on abortion and the family expressed by the Black Lives Matter Global Network. A number of Church leaders have urged faithful Catholics to support the broader societal movement for racial justice, a firm element of Catholic social teaching, regardless of any views the BLM corporate entity may hold. The Boston Pilot spoke about these issues to Fr. Oscar Pratt, administrator of St. Katharine Drexel Parish, a Black Catholic community in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Sister Marie-Therese “Tess” Browne, S.C.N., a co-chair of the parish‘s social justice committee, in a June 30, 2020, interview. Here are some excerpts from the article:
father pratt stressed that fighting racism is a life issue. He said it is necessary to ask and be guided by the question, “What would Jesus do?”
“I think Jesus would be out there. Jesus would be trying to help folks to realize ‘What you’re doing to them you’re doing to me,’ and that should matter to people,” Father Pratt said.
Sister Tess said that while some people may perceive the phrase “Black lives matter” as being exclusive, in her view it is not.
“When somebody says, ‘Black lives matter’ it doesn’t mean they’re saying other lives do not matter. I think they’re saying that all lives matter but somehow in our society Black lives have not been seen to have mattered,” she said.
When someone responds to the phrase “Black lives matter” by saying “all lives matter,” Father Pratt said, “that’s true, but not all lives are threatened.”
Some Catholics have expressed concern that the Black Lives Matter organization does not align with Catholic teaching, as it has expressed support for abortion rights and LGBT lifestyles.
Sister Tess said she thinks people “may use that kind of approach as a way of continuing the status quo or to divide folks even further.” She said to her it seems like “an attempt to obfuscate what is really happening.
“I think, many times, we work with people, and they may not have all the same opinions, but we can work together on some things we have agreement about,” Sister Tess said.
When asked about the Black Lives Matter organization, Father Pratt said he does not care what people think of it.
“What we care about is that when you see us, you see us,” he said.
Father Pratt said many people who participate in Black Lives Matter rallies may not know what the official group says, but they know what the expression means.
“The significance is not in the ideology of that particular organization, but it’s in the truth of what it is the expression is saying,” he said.
Sister Tess pointed to the example of two saints who, though white, are renowned for serving people of color. St. Katharine Drexel used her large inheritance to serve African Americans and Native Americans. St. Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit, ministered to slaves during the height of the slave trade.
Both of those saints were white people with privilege, Sister Tess said, “but their actions and their lives showed they believed that Black lives matter.” ■
Excerpted from the July 7, 2020, article “Racial justice a long-time concern for Boston parish,” written by Jacqueline Tetrault and reprinted with permission by The Boston Pilot: www.thebostonpilot.com.
