interesting one. Catholic atonement in America. On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 at 23:19, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote:
> NY Times, March 15, 2021 > Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales > By Rachel L. Swarns > > In one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery, a > prominent order of Catholic priests has vowed to raise $100 million to > benefit the descendants of the enslaved people it once owned and to > promote racial reconciliation initiatives across the United States. > > The move by the leaders of the Jesuit conference of priests represents > the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the > buying, selling and enslavement of Black people, church officials and > historians said. > > The pledge comes at a time when calls for reparations are ringing > through Congress, college campuses, church basements and town halls, as > leaders grapple with the painful legacies of segregation and the > nation’s system of involuntary servitude. > > “This is an opportunity for Jesuits to begin a very serious process of > truth and reconciliation,” said the Rev. Timothy P. Kesicki, president > of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. “Our shameful > history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off > the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back.” > > The money raised by the Jesuits will flow into a new foundation > established in partnership with a group of descendants, who pressed for > negotiations with the Jesuits after learning from a series of articles > in The New York Times that their ancestors had been sold in 1838. The > order relied on slave labor and slave sales for more than a century to > sustain the clergy and to help finance the construction and the > day-to-day operations of churches and schools, including the nation’s > first Catholic institution of higher learning, the college now known as > Georgetown University. > > Father Kesicki said his order had already deposited $15 million into a > trust established to support the foundation, whose governing board will > include representatives from other institutions with roots in slavery. > The Jesuits have also hired a national fund-raising firm with a goal of > raising the rest within the next three to five years, he said. > > The pledge falls short of the $1 billion that descendant leaders had > called on the Jesuits to raise. Father Kesicki and Joseph M. Stewart, > the acting president of the newly created foundation, the Descendants > Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, said that remained a long-term goal > as the organization moves to support institutions and initiatives > focused on racial healing. > > “We now have a pathway forward that has not been traveled before,” said > Mr. Stewart, a retired corporate executive whose ancestors were sold in > 1838 to help save Georgetown from financial ruin. > > Roughly half of the foundation’s annual budget will be distributed as > grants to organizations engaging in racial reconciliation projects, > Jesuit and descendant leaders said. About a quarter of the budget will > support educational opportunities for descendants in the form of > scholarships and grants. A smaller portion will address the emergency > needs of descendants who are old or infirm. > > Bishop Shelton J. Fabre, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic > Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, described the plan as the > church’s “largest financial commitment” to “heal the wounds” caused by > its participation in slavery. > > About 5,000 living descendants of the people enslaved by the Jesuits > have been identified by genealogists at the Georgetown Memory Project, a > nonprofit group. > > Craig Steven Wilder, a historian at M.I.T. who has written about > universities, the Catholic Church and slaveholding, described the move > as an important initial step. “It will put tremendous pressure on other > institutions in the United States — universities and churches — that > share this history,” Dr. Wilder said. > > Faith institutions have been at the forefront of the growing reparations > movement. In 2018, the Catholic sisters of the Religious of the Sacred > Heart created a reparations fund to finance scholarships for > African-Americans in Grand Coteau, La., where the nuns had owned about > 150 Black people. > > Georgetown, which was founded by the Jesuits, has promised to raise > about $400,000 a year to benefit the descendants of people enslaved by > the order. The university, which holds a seat on the board of the newly > created foundation and contributed $1 million to get it off the ground, > plans to distribute the first grants this year. > > This is not the first time the Jesuits have reckoned with their history. > In the 1960s, the Maryland Jesuits established the Carroll Fund for > Black students in need with the proceeds from the sale of property that > had been part of one of their plantations. The fund provided between $15 > million and $25 million in scholarships to Black students at Jesuit > schools, Jesuit officials said. But money from the fund also went to > unrelated purposes. > > Some descendants fear that the new plan — which was hammered out over > three years during a series of private meetings that included > representatives from the Jesuits, Georgetown and three descendant > leaders, Mr. Stewart, Cheryllyn Branche and Earl Williams Sr. — will > also fall short, noting that the foundation was developed without input > from the wider descendant community. > > Sandra Green Thomas, the founding president of the GU272 Descendants > Association, called the $100 million pledge from the Jesuits “more than > I ever thought we would see.” > > “But my concern is whether or not this foundation is going to benefit > descendants or those who are in control of the foundation,” she said, > expressing concern over administrative costs, such as salaries and > fund-raising. “If the money is not earmarked for the descendants, then > it really isn’t reparative. We need more details.” > > Richard J. Cellini, the founder of the Georgetown Memory Project, > worried that descendant leaders had agreed to a deal prematurely, > without “a full accounting from the Maryland Jesuits of the proceeds > generated by nearly 150 years of Jesuit slaveholding.” > > “We need to be looking at balance sheets, current and historical,” Mr. > Cellini said. “Until we know the size of the wealth taken from these > families, we can’t judge the appropriateness of the remedy presented to > them.” > > Enslaved people have been largely left out of the origin story > traditionally told about the Catholic Church in the United States. > > But in the early decades of the American republic, the church > established its foothold in the South, relying on plantations and > enslaved laborers for its survival and expansion, according to > historians and archival documents. > > The Jesuits believed that the enslaved had souls, but they also viewed > Black people as assets to be bought and sold. At the time, the Catholic > Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, according to the Rev. > Thomas R. Murphy, a historian at Seattle University.. > > So priests baptized the children of the enslaved, blessed their > marriages and required the people they owned to attend Mass, Jesuit > records show. But the records also document whippings, harsh plantation > conditions, families torn apart by slave sales, and hardships > experienced by people shipped far from home as the church expanded. > > Still, the decision to sell virtually all of the enslaved people owned > by the Maryland Jesuits in the 1830s to raise money to save Georgetown > and to support the financially strapped order left some priests deeply > troubled. Life on plantations in the Deep South was notoriously brutal. > > “To sell our slaves,” some Jesuits argued, “was the same thing as to > sell their souls.” > > But Jesuit leaders prevailed, signing an agreement in 1838 to sell 272 > men, women and children in one of the largest recorded slave sales at > the time. > > Their story largely faded from public memory until 2015, when > Georgetown’s president, John J. DeGioia, announced the creation of a > working group on slavery and called for a campuswide discussion after > reopening a building named for one of the early presidents involved in > the slave sale. > > After student protesters demanded that the names of the presidents be > removed from campus buildings, Mr. Cellini established the Georgetown > Memory Project and hired a team of genealogists to identify and locate > the descendants of the people who had been sold. > > Mr. Stewart, a devout Catholic, was one of them. “I had to process that > this was done by the Catholic Church to my ancestors,” he said. > > Then, Mr. Stewart said, he started focusing on the Jesuits, “looking for > a way to hold them accountable.” > > In May 2017, Mr. Stewart wrote to the Jesuit leadership in Rome on > behalf of the GU272 Descendants Association, calling for formal > negotiations. > > A month later, the Rev. Arturo Sosa, the superior general of the order, > responded, describing Jesuit slaveholding as “a sin against God and a > betrayal of the human dignity of your ancestors.” > > Father Sosa called for a “dialogue” process between Jesuits in the > United States and descendants. > > In August of that year, Father Kesicki flew to Michigan to meet with Mr. > Stewart and his wife, Clara. He blessed their home. Then the two men sat > down for a conversation that would lay the groundwork for their > negotiations. > > Rachel L. Swarns is a journalist and author who covers race and race > relations as a contributing writer for The New York Times. Her articles > about Georgetown University’s roots in slavery touched off a national > conversation about American universities and their ties to this painful > period of history. @rachelswarns • Faceboo > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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