Honoring Those Who Were Enslaved: Do Justice, Love Goodness, and Walk Humbly

“To do justice requires an honest acknowledgment of our failures and the restoring of right relationships between us….It requires a determined effort, but even more so, it requires humility; it requires each of us to ask for the grace needed to overcome this sin and get rid of this scourge.” (USCCB, Open Wide Our Hearts)

Over the last few years, the Archdiocese has had various engagements with the community of descendants of enslaved peoples of Maryland.  Through these encounters, we have learned that there are ways through which the Archdiocese can improve its relationship with this community.

It is important for us to understand that, in the past, Catholics in Maryland lived in a culture that depended on and was formed by the enslavement of African peoples.  In the last several years, there has been a great deal of media attention about the sale of 272 enslaved men, women, and children by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus and the benefits from that sale to Georgetown University.  However, that media coverage ignored the larger history of Catholic Maryland and the fundamental place that slavery holds in the history of our local Church.

To work to repair our relationship and acknowledge the failures of our forebearers, we have created this initiative.  This initiative gives us the opportunity to put our prayers for justice into action and build a closer community in the Archdiocese of Washington.