Bellarmine Chapel Statement on Racial Justice

​Adopted April 2021

As a Catholic faith community, we, the members of Bellarmine Chapel, recognize the pain and suffering that systemic racism and white supremacy has inflicted upon communities of color, particularly the Black community in our city, our state, our nation, our world, and our Church.

Grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and emboldened by our parish mission “to work for justice and welcome all with love,” we strive to co-create the beloved community Jesus imagined, a vision founded upon the inherent dignity and worth of every person.

With humility, we lament our historic and present, personal and congregational complicity in the sin of racism, a sin which dehumanizes us all. We seek forgiveness and pray for the grace to sustain our lifelong journey of conversion to racial solidarity.

Now and in the future, we strive to atone by becoming an anti-racist parish community committed to:

• Listening to and learning from one another, especially our long- silenced brothers and sisters of color, whose gifts we have often failed to recognize, nourish, or treasure
  
• Discerning how racism, particularly white privilege, distorts our thoughts and our actions, both individual and communal
  
• Acting with courage and compassion against those patterns of prejudice and discrimination in ourselves, our families, our church, and our communities
  
• Integrating our commitment to racial justice into our public liturgies, faith formation, education, and sacramental preparation
  
• Offering prophetic witness to justice and liberation, pursuing focused strategies for personal, congregational, and public action
  
• Working to eradicate economic disparities and systemic inequities in our relationships and spheres of influence
  
• Collaborating with faith communities, civic leaders and elected officials in advocating for economic and social policies that dismantle structural racism and establish an inclusive society where all can live a fully human life

We pursue all of these actions in continuous reflection upon the Gospels and through the ongoing guidance of the Spirit.