Addressing the Social Injustice of Racism

As Catholic school educators and followers of Christ, Saint James School continues to be fully committed to ensuring our students grow to become well-educated, compassionate members of society that consistently seek to make our world a better place for all.  We believe that racism is not only a deep and grave sin, but one that clearly is still rampant in our society.  As Christians, we believe that every human life has inherent worth, as we are all created in the image and likeness of God. Racism in any form is in direct opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our mission as His followers.

The Archdiocese of Hartford’s Office of Education, Evangelization, and Catechesis has issued the following statement and resources that we wanted to share as part of our ongoing commitment to building a better tomorrow through Catholic education:

The schools and parishes of the Archdiocese of Hartford share the responsibility to address the injustice of systemic racism in our country and institutions, and we must do so through a lens of our Roman Catholic faith. Simply put, racism is a life issue.

We echo the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) who stated:

“… We must ask God where we are being called to act. As Pope Francis stated, ‘we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.’  We must discern how we can help defend our brothers and sisters in Christ when we witness injustice and racism. And we must ask what discussions we need to have or plans we must put in place to prevent racist acts in the future.”

We must reject the sin of racism, in all its forms, and stand with our brothers and sisters who have felt marginalized inside and outside of our Church. To that end, please take advantage of the resources we have gathered  from many national and local experts. Consider reviewing those in a category most pertinent to your school or parish ministry, and let us know if there are any resources we can add to benefit this important work.

To access the resources, click here.