An Open Letter to Our Most Holy Father, Pope Francis

St. Columba Catholic Church
6401 San Pablo Avenue
Oakland, CA 94608

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City

September 2, 2015

Most Holy Father,
We, the Roman Catholic community of Saint Columba in the Diocese of Oakland, California, heartily welcome you to our country, the United States of America.
We write to request that, during your visit to us this month you lead the universal Church to openly acknowledge and officially apologize to African Americans for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the enslavement of and acts of racial injustice against people of color, -events that have stained our history from the founding of our country, through the passing of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s to the present day.

Our reasons for making this request are as follows: First, it is well documented, especially by the late Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB , in his award-winning book, The History of Black Catholics in the United States, that European-American Roman Catholics, including bishops, religious congregations, and laity both owned and sold African slaves. Second, history also shows the bishops of the United States resisted calls for the abolition of slavery. Third, African American’s, Catholic and non-Catholic, are often troubled and even scandalized after reading such histories of the Church. Fourth, many African Americans continue to feel estranged in the Church that does little to actively speak out forcefully against racism or acknowledge their history, experience, culture, pain and most of all their joyful and spirit filled contribution to the life of the Church. To this date, the Bishops of the United States have seldom, if ever, acknowledged or apologized for this tragic history and continuing complicity in racial injustice.
In light of the pain present in the black Catholic family in the United States, there is need for an acknowledgement of the sin of racial slavery and structural injustice practiced and /or tolerated by all too many members of our beloved Church, both lay and ordained.
It is our belief, as a multicultural parish family celebrating in the context of African American Spirituality, that an apology in light of Gospel and the Year of Mercy would place the Church in the path of righting the wrong. Additionally it would allow African Americans and other people of color to practically experience the practice of mercy God within our Church. It would be a powerful demonstration of our faith’s conviction that we are all made in the image and likeness of God and are therefore all equal in dignity and valued in God’s sight. In the end, an official apology would launch the racial healing that is long overdue in U.S. Catholicism and the world we all live and share.

We love you and respect your prayerful decision on this request. We pray that God strengthens your ministry as Chief Shepherd of our Church and protects you on your journey to our country.

Yours in the “Joy of the Gospel”,
Fr. Aidan J. McAleenan, Pastor

CC: Parish Family of St. Columba
Michael Barber, S.J. Bishop of Oakland
California Bishops Conference
African American Catholic Bishops of the United States
Black Catholic Clergy Caucus
National Black Sisters Conference
Institute of Black Catholic Studies.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Papal Nuncio

Phone: 510.654.7600 / Fax: 510.654.7651 / Website: www.stcolumba-oak.com / Email: [email protected]