Profiles in Catholicism
- Sep 28, 2020
- 29 min read

Racial Challenges

Updated: Sep 30, 2020

A Message from the Editor

We have a World in crisis. 270 million people are on the brink of starvation because of the coronavirus-induced hunger pandemic and most of us do little to help. We often fail God’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves by not providing assistance to them.

More than a million people globally have died from Covid-19 and we need to pray for them daily. In the United States, more than 200,000 people have died, many of them unnecessarily due to the failed leadership of Donald Trump who knew early in the pandemic of how deadly this virus was and did nothing about it because he didn’t want any bad news to affect the stock market.

Trump’s failure to believe and trust in Science has resulted in Scientific American Endorsing Biden. Trump’s failure to believe in Global Warning has contributed to the loss of lives and homes of thousands of Americans due to wildfires.

Trump may be trying to make the United States a fascist country. We need to do all in our power to preserve democracy in the United States/

Many are deeply concerned about Trump’s immoral politicization of the Covid-19 vaccine. The majority of people in the United States have indicated that they will not take the vaccine which would eliminate herd immunity and everyone would still have to wear masks.

Racism is also increasing everywhere so we have tried to provide some insights into these growing challenges by addressing Racial Challenges and Outreach in this issue of Profiles in Catholicism. Be sure to check out our powerful Videos on this challenge.

We have been blessed to have interviewed His Excellency His Excellency Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic . Be sure to read Holy See: indigenous communities to be included in the decision-making process Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva highlighted the plight of indigenous communities hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in his address to the UN on Thursday.

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A Quote to Remember

“Today I wish to emphasize that the problem of intolerance must be confronted in all its forms: wherever any minority is persecuted and marginalized because of its religious convictions or ethnic identity, the wellbeing of society as a whole is endangered and each one of us must feel affected,” he said. “With particular sadness, I think of the sufferings, the marginalization, and the very real persecutions which not a few Christians are undergoing in various countries. Let us combine our efforts in promoting a culture of encounter, respect, understanding, and mutual forgiveness”.

by Pope Francis

Special Prayer

A Prayer for Challenging Racism

God,

You are the source of human dignity, and it is in your image that we are created.

Pour out on us the spirit of love and compassion.

Enable us to reverence each person, to reach out to anyone in need,

to value and appreciate those who differ from us,

to share the resources of our nation,

to receive the gifts offered to us

by people from other cultures.

Grant that we may always promote

the justice and acceptance

that ensures lasting peace and racial harmony.

Help us to remember that we are one world and one family.

Amen.

by Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

A Prayer for Father Roberto Malgesin

God of consolation and healing, in your servant and priest, Roberto, your Son's passion, death, and resurrection was made real and present through his words and actions. In service to the Gospel, Fr. Roberto ministered to the immigrant and those in need in the Diocese of Como. We pray for those who attacked Fr. Roberto, that they may have a conversion of heart and recognize your face in the poor, the outcast, the sick, and the dying. As Fr. Roberto sheds his blood in service to the Gospel, grant that he may be greeted with the martyr's crown into the halls of heaven. Grant us, we pray, consolation and solace, forgiveness and hope, knowing that death does not have the final word, but that you, O God, are the life and resurrection we desperately long for. We ask this in Christ our Risen Lord. Amen.

by Deacon Andy Matijevic Seminarian Mundelein Seminary

Prayer for Fr. Nomer de Lumen

Lord Jesus give eternal peace and welcome to Father Nomar who has passed from this world in a tragic death. You have compassion and understanding for everyone, embrace his spirit, may the good he has done on Earth live after him and may he be remembered for the service and goodness he brought to those in need. Amen by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism

A Prayer for Two Police Officers Shot in California

God of all peoples and all places, We know that life is full of risks. Getting out of bed is a risk. Walking across the street is a risk. Loving others as you love us is a risk. With COVID-19, even breathing has become a risk. Some of us have jobs or professions that put us at greater risk. That includes those in law enforcement. Lord, we decry the senseless attack on two Los Angeles County deputies, A man and a woman sitting in their patrol car near a subway station. We pray for their full recovery. We also pray for our nation and for our world. While violence may seem like an appropriate outlet for our anger, A justified response to oppression, Your gift to us is “peace”. You asked us to learn to forgive one another, As you have forgiven us. by Father Joseph Chamblain, O.S.M. Profiles in Catholicism

Prayer for the Victims of Wildfires

Oh Lord, we have watched with horror the wildfires devastating the West Coast of our country in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Many innocent people of all ages and creeds have lost their lives and their homes, family members, and friends.

We grieve with and for them.

We pray that our country may do what is needed

to stop the climate change that is harming us all,

in this country and around the world.

Children have lost their parents.

Many survivors are seriously injured, homeless, hungry, and in greed need

of solace and the basic necessities of life.

We pray that help will come to them in time to save their lives.

We pray that our entire country may come together in solidarity and shared humanity to work together to at least ameliorate the continuing disasters that we all, together, are facing in these perilous times.

Amen

by Dr. Eugene Fisher Profiles in Catholicism

Prayer in Memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Oh Lord, we thank you for the blessings that

Ruth Bader Ginsburg brought to the lives

of all Americans.

She fought for and won

equal rights for women

and minorities

and those in need.

She stood for and helped to make real

the ideals and hopes of our constitution.

Oh Lord, now that she is with You,

may her spirit, ideals, and interpretations of our laws

continue to bless us, everyone.

She was and is, according to Jewish tradition,

a true Tzaddick,

a personification of your commands

of love, justice, and mercy

for all Americans.

May her memory be for a blessing

for us all.

by Dr. Eugene Fisher Profiles in Catholicism

A prayer for the Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia: starved; rejected; and victims of traffickers

In the Service of Love

Oh Mary, Mother of the Lord and Mother of All:

We beg you to speak to your Son!

We cannot escape the plight that has made us

Homeless, hungry, and unspeakably abused!

We cannot cry loud enough to pierce the hearts

Of those who prey on us!

Therefore we cry to you, Mother of the Crucified,

Who knew the pain of inescapable vulnerability!

Oh Mary, Mother of the Lord and Mother of All:

We beg you to speak to your Son!

Who will understand our humiliating entrapment

In the wretched webs which surround us?

If not you.

Who will listen to our hopelessness, feel our helplessness?

If not you.

Who can help us as what we need to live is leaving us?

If not you.

Help us as you helped your Son at the foot of the cross.

Oh Mary, Mother of the Lord and Mother of All:

We beg you to speak to your Son!

We pray, too, that the paths that make human trafficking

Possible are pulled up, abolished, and destroyed.

We pray, too, that you have pity on those who are trapped,

For whatever reason, in the destruction of humanity.

We pray, too, that those who know how to undo

These crimes will do it with your motherly love.

by Francis Etheredge Profiles in Catholicism

Prayer

Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may, at any moment, become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself:

What else is the world interested in? What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships? God is Love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship to each other…There can never be enough of it.

by Dorothy Day

Interviews