The Catholic faith, and the policy positions that flow from our faith, is founded upon the belief that every person has inherent dignity:
"United, we seek healing, harmony and solutions that recognize that every person has been created in the image of God and that every person possesses human dignity. ...[T]he Catholic Bishops of Maryland have stood firmly in our support of laws that sought to bring about justice and an end to unequal treatment based on race.
"This includes access to health and maternal care, meaningful educational opportunities, prison reforms, restorative justice initiatives, housing anti-discrimination efforts, juvenile justice reforms, and ending the grossly disparate practice of capital punishment." - Catholic Bishops of Maryland, 2020
Maryland's (arch)bishops on racial justice
- Building Bridges of Understanding and Hope: A letter on racial justice
- Police reform townhalls - Archdiocese of Baltimore and Archdiocese of Washington (Oct. 2020)
Additional resources on racial justice
Prayers, statements, videos, study resources, and more for individuals and groups:
- Archdiocese of Baltimore - The Path to Racial Justice
- Archdiocese of Washington - Made in God's Image anti-racism initiative
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee Against Racism, including the statement Open Wide Our Hearts | Abramos nuestros corazones
- National Black Catholic Congress (based in Baltimore)
- Canonization cause of Mother Mary Lange
"This way of discarding others can take a variety of forms ... a readiness to discard others finds expression in vicious attitudes that we thought long past, such as racism, which retreats underground only to keep reemerging. Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think."
Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 20