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Loyola University Maryland

Campus Ministry

Racial Justice

"Love one another as I have loved you."  John 15:12

As the office of Campus Ministry at a Jesuit Catholic University, we are called to promote the inherent dignity of each member of the human family. The Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus call us to walk with those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation & justice. Catholicism teaches that all people are made in the image and likeness of God & possess an inherent dignity. It also teaches that racism is a sin, an intrinsic evil which, "...divides the human family, blots out the image of God among specific members of that family, and violates the fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same Father (God).” U.S.C.C.B. 2018

While it is true that all lives possess inherent dignity, we know that racism and white supremacy benefit white people and plague people of color with oppression, trauma and violence. Faith compels us to struggle against racism and "...demands an equally radical transformation, in our own minds and hearts as well as in the structure of our society”. (U.S.C.C.B.) 

The first thing Pope Francis said to the world in St. Peter's square was, "I am a sinner."  As a faith based office at a primarily white institution grounded in the city of Baltimore engaging in the work of racial justice, we must acknowledge the ways we participate, support or benefit from the sin of racism.   We lament the ways we have fallen short, been complicit, silent or slow to respond to the sin of racism.  We are sorry for the ways our actions or inactions have impacted or caused harm to our students, faculty, staff and administrators of color.   

"Love ought to show itself in deeds more than words." St. Ignatius of Loyola

Our office has taken steps over the last six years to increase our commitment and resources towards racial justice. We have offered racial justice trainings for students leaders, our professional staff have attended workshops and trainings on racism,  we work alongside our community to offer prayer and vigils in response to racialized violence and oppression, addressed racism through preaching and our prayer intentions in our Masses and liturgies, used our resources to partner for lectures and programming focused on racial justice and engaged our F.I.R.S.T. participants in conversations about the city of Baltimore and systemic racism through the experiential game Factuality.   These have been important initial steps.  Yet, faith, the Catholic Jesuit tradition, the community and our pursuit of the Magis calls us deeper into our commitment.  We commit to engaging in antiracist work and allyship through a lens of faith.  We offer the Loyola community space, programming, prayer, education, examination of thoughts and actions, care for those who carry the trauma and pain of racism, discernment and actions for the identifying and dismantling of racism within ourselves and institutions.  We offer this not as experts free from the sin of racism but as people of faith co-laboring with a loving and merciful God and each other to bring about a more just and humane world.   

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Documents and Letters

Prayer

Context: Books and Articles

Articles

Books

  • How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
  • Racial Justice and the Catholic Church by Bryan Massingale
  • Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experienceedited by M. Shawn Copeland
  • Christ Divided: Antiblackness as Corporate Vice by Katie Walker Grimes
  • Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
  • The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone
  • The History of Black Catholics in the United Statesby Cyprian Davis
  • The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
  • Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation by Jennifer Harvey
  • Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
  • America's Original Sin by Jim Wallis
  • Why Race Matters by Cornel West
  • Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
  • The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates,  MLK Convocation Speaker 2015
  • The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine,  MLK Convocation Speaker 2016
  • Letters to My Black Sons: Raising Black Boys in a Post-Racial America by Karsonya Wise Whitehead
  • Race Brace by Karsonya Wise Whitehead
  • Me and White Supremacy Workbook by Layla F. Saad
  • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass 
  • So You Want to Talk About Race- Ijeoma Oluo
  • The Hate U Give- Angie Thomas
  • The Fire Next Time- James Baldwin
  • The Color of Law- Richard Rothstein
  • The Warmth of Other Suns- Isabel Wilkerson
  • An African-American and Latinx History of the United States- Paul Ortiz 

Videos

Movies and Films

  • Baltimore Rising free on HBO
  • Notes from the Field, free on HBO
  • Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, free on HBO
  • King in the Wilderness, free on HBO
  • 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay
  • When They See Us,  directed by Ava DuVernay
  • Selma,  directed by Ava DuVernay
  • The Hate U Give, directed by George Tillman Jr. 
  • I Am Not Your Negro, directed by Raoul Peck
  • Just Mercy, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
  • Best of Enemies directed by Robin Bissell
  • 42 directed by Brian Helgeland
  • The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code directed by Sheldon Peters Wolfchild

Podcasts and Radio

Training Curriculums & Other Resources

Reflection

Action

More Resources at Loyola

We welcome the community to offer additional resources for antiracist education, reflection, action, etc... to this webpage.  Please email resource suggestions to CampusMinistry@loyola.edu 

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