Catholic school leaders, clergy, lay leaders called to fight racism by ‘educating themselves’

The world would have people think one of two things, said Danielle Brown in her keynote address Oct. 21 to a conference of Catholic school educators in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: Everything is about race, and racism can be found in everything, or racism does not exist, and claims of it are political ploys and false cries of victimhood.

“The truth lies, as we all know, somewhere in the middle,” said Brown, who is Black, an attorney and the associate director of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

She spoke at a conference hosted by the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, titled “The Call to Open Wide our Hearts: Catholic Schools Confront Racism” and held at the University of St. Thomas School of Law campus in Minneapolis.

The conference’s goals included inviting reflective and prayerful encounters with the mind and heart of Christ to honestly confront racism, engaging with the experiences of people who have been harmed by the evil of racism, and seeking justice and “right relationships” in schools and communities in the archdiocese. Before Brown’s remarks, educators had time for discussion with peers in breakout groups and during lunch.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the vicar for Catholic Education in the archdiocese — who will be installed bishop of Crookston Dec. 6 — also was recognized in words and with a standing ovation for his service to Catholic schools during his past eight years as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Bishop Cozzens introduced Brown, saying she brings to the discussion a love for the Church and for evangelization.

In her address, Brown referred to the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts,” issued in 2018. Brown said the bishops teach that racism occurs when a person ignores the fundamental truth that, because all humans share a common origin, all are equally made in the image and likeness of God. When this truth is ignored, she said, the consequence is prejudice and, all too often, hatred.

Through the pastoral letter, the bishops instructed priests, deacons, religious, lay leaders, parish staff, Catholic school leaders and the faithful to be missionary disciples, carrying the message of fraternal charity and human dignity.

“We ask them to fight the evil of racism by educating themselves,” Brown said, reflecting on personal thoughts and actions, listening to experiences of those affected by racism, and developing and supporting programs that help repair damage from racial discrimination.

“Friends, the rubber meets the road where parishes and schools begin to zealously bring the gift of the faith to the most underserved, particularly Black and native and indigenous communities, to whom we as Catholics have viewed with a … neglect based on our desire to go where the numbers are,” she said.

What pains her most, she said, is the “spiritual apartheid” that U.S. Catholics seem to be engaged in, adding that many are not prepared to encourage, encounter and integrate the idea of normalizing Catholicism in communities of color beyond well-known numbers of Hispanic people.

Catholic schools bring cohesion to communities, Brown said. She recalled that last year in the U.S., more than 1.7 million students were enrolled in 6,183 Catholic schools. Ethnic minorities comprised 21.8% of those students.

Research shows that Catholic schools close the achievement gap in low-income neighborhoods, Brown said. “A Black or Latino child … is 42% more likely to graduate high school, and two and one-half times more likely to graduate college, if he or she attends a Catholic school,” she said.

Blacks make up about 4% of Catholics, she said, representing a large opportunity for catechesis and evangelization.

Catholic schools in the archdiocese are already doing great work, said Emily Dahdah, director of educational quality and excellence in the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education. The conference was a way for school leaders to reflect more deeply on the precious gifts of faith, which “order our efforts” against injustice and further strengthen the ability to serve all students, she said. While not everyone was able to attend, 115 people from archdiocesan schools and parishes register for the event. More than 50 were school presidents and principals and 24 were priests from parishes with Catholic schools. Teacher-leaders, deans, directors of advancement and development, and business administrators were among others attending. A handful participated by livestream.

The conference included five concurrent breakout sessions focused on topics related to educators serving students of color. At the end of the gathering, participants were invited to a Mass for racial healing celebrated by Archbishop Bernard Hebda in the campus chapel.

Kari Zobel, principal of Annunciation in Minneapolis, attended a session led by Joshua Blonski, upper school dean of students at Providence Academy in Plymouth, that focused on supporting students from all cultural backgrounds. Simply changing policies is not enough to fully engage in that effort, Zobel said. People need to be willing to change their hearts, she said.

“We need to be bold in our conversations around race and how we treat each other,” she said. “We need to think like Jesus thinks and have a heart like Jesus. He calls us to live out the truth that all humanity has been created in his likeness and image.”

Zobel said teachers, administrators and families need skills and tools to have age-appropriate conversations about race and racism when the subject comes up in classrooms, schools and homes.

“Many people in our archdiocese are working toward this goal, and I feel like there are school leaders who are knowledgeable about this and willing to help schools that are just starting the conversations,” she said.

“We want our Catholic schools to be places where all our students feel loved and respected, regardless of the color of their skin,” Zobel said. “Jesus teaches us that all people are created in his image and our schools need to carry out this teaching.”

Joelynn Sartell, principal of Risen Christ Catholic School in Minneapolis, and Mike Rogers, its president, participated in a session on cultural-specific strategies for serving students and families from Hispanic backgrounds. That demographic applies to about 90% of students at Risen Christ, they said.

With the large number of Latino families, especially newcomers to the United States, Sartell said, learning more about how to best serve school families is important, including sharing ideas.

“For me, the idea I took away was continuing to help my families and help my students believe that they have a voice,” she said. “They have a place here and to give them hope here in Minnesota, and that our school is a safe place for them to find their voice.”

Rogers said the session’s presenter talked about a “sense of otherness” that some students might feel, which is important for Catholic school personnel to understand. There might be students who feel that that they might not belong, that there are people different from them, he said.

“But really, what we want is for that higher-level idea of human dignity and togetherness, and everybody being made in God’s image, to shine through, so that regardless of how people differ, there’s still the one human family that everybody is part of,” Rogers said.

Providing that is unique to Catholic schools, he said.

“You can’t necessarily get that elsewhere because you don’t have that faith, background and faith basis and the reason for the school’s existence, which is primarily to evangelize, to form students in mind, body and spirit,” he said. “I think that’s kind of the unique thing that we offer in the Catholic schools that everybody here can learn from.”