Black Catholics must be prophets of resistance in the current American crisis.

A careful reading of the Old Testament reveals a common theme. The thread running through the Hebrew scriptures is the waywardness of God’s people, and God’s continued pleading with them to return to the source of life. God often used prophets to speak difficult truths to the people, criticizing their failures and highlighting how they resulted in oppression, violence and injustice. These prophets often emerged from the margins of society. They were seldom priests, Levites or government officials. 

I believe that in our current climate in the United States, God is calling Black Catholics, pushed to the margins of society and the Catholic Church, to speak the truth in love. The collective African-American experience—chains in Africa; the Atlantic voyage; slavery in the U.S.; the overthrow of Reconstruction; Jim Crow; lynch mobs; restrictions on education, voting, housing and employment; mass incarceration; police killings; and now the federal assault on both truth and justice—calls us to speak out with courage. Our familiarity with the traumas emanating from hate and violence uniquely positions us to respond to societal failures to uphold human dignity.

Further, the Catholic Church equips us with the necessary theological resources. Pope Paul VI wrote in “Evangelii Nuntiandi” (Evangelization in the Modern World): “How in fact can one proclaim the New Commandment without promoting in justice and peace the true, authentic advancement of man?” The Catholic bishops of the world voted overwhelmingly at the Second Vatican Council to approve this language in “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: 

“The joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

In more recent times, the final report of the Synod on Synodality, designated by Pope Francis as official Church teaching, notes:

“Practiced with humility, the synodal style enables the Church to be a prophetic voice in today’s world… We live in an age marked by ever increasing inequalities… increasing autocratic and dictatorial tendencies; and the predominance of the market model without regard for the vulnerability of people and of creation. The temptation can be to resolve conflicts by force rather than by dialogue. Authentic practices of synodality enable Christians to be a critical and prophetic voice over against the prevailing culture. In this way, we can offer a distinctive contribution to the search for answers to many challenges faced by our contemporary societies in building the common good.”

Pope Leo XIV’s “Dilexi Te” (I Have Loved You) is an urgent call for the Church to be in continual solidarity with and service to the poor. He even suggests that if we do not understand this as the burning heart of the Church’s mission, we need to re-read the Gospels.

Black Catholic heritage overflows with examples of prophetic truth-telling. In a stirring 2020 address, the late Bishop Fernand Cheri III, OFM said of the U.S. Church: “We are comfortable with death, weapons of violence, and greed, but not the profound, revolutionary life of Jesus Christ.” Servant of God Thea Bowman said being Black and Catholic was like being a “motherless child.” Drs. M. Shawn Copeland and Diana L. Hayes; Frs Bryan Massingale and Joseph A. Brown, SJ; Bishop Edward Braxton; Alessandra Harris; and many others have prophetically outlined the impacts of racism and injustice and called the Catholic Church to embody God’s good news of justice and liberation. 

In this context, Black Catholics are called to a prophetic mission. This mission may need to begin within our own Church. Exit polls show that almost 60% of White Catholics voted for the current administration of President Donald Trump. Given the electoral power of the U.S. Catholic Church, this undoubtedly gave him the margin of victory. We are in the midst of a serious crisis in our nation, all due to the actions of this administration. I believe that White Catholics should be called to account for the harm, devastation, and destruction they have enabled. This is far beyond a partisan issue. It is an issue of human dignity, of justice, and of basic compassion toward others.

Trump’s boldly racist statements and actions are almost beyond belief. He referred to Somali immigrants, including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, as “garbage.” His beloved deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is a White nationalist whose statements and emails are chillingly racist.  Trump even joked that Miller’s dream is a nation where everyone looks like him. Miller is the architect of the roaming gangs of mostly White, masked, armed men terrorizing those they believe may be undocumented immigrants. Their tactics are horrific, including showing up at immigration hearings, day care centers, car washes, and day labor sites—grabbing people and often leaving behind children helplessly clutching for their parents. The murder of Renée Good this month in Minnesota is the inevitable outcome of these untrained vigilantes unleashed on our streets. 

The January 6th rioters, pardoned and dangerous, are now proclaimed liberators while frightened women in their cars are demonized as “domestic terrorists.” Anything related to Black history or historical injustice is being erased from federal websites and documents. The flood of lies is incomprehensible. Despite what you see on the grocery store shelves, I’ve heard the president boast that the price of eggs is down 200%. By that math, the cashier should be paying you.

The Center for Global Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and other agencies estimate that US foreign aid reductions have resulted in more than 500,000 deaths already. Poor and malnourished children around the world are dying every minute. If you recall, billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk gleefully bragged last spring that he “spent the weekend feeding USAID to the woodchipper.” This cruelly saved the U.S. about one penny on the dollar. 

Earlier this year, we were told there were “no casualties” during our government’s invasion of Venezuela and abduction of their president, Nicolas Maduro, on Jan. 3. Now we know that at least 57 people were in fact killed by our military. Moreover, I do not need to see the Epstein files to know that Trump is a sexual predator. He boldly admitted as much in the “Access Hollywood” tape that so many “family values” Christians were quick to dismiss.

None of the above is a surprise. Trump has always shown himself to be a racist, sexist, untruthful, selfish, insincere person. Ignorance, “pro-life” arguments, and other excuses fall flat when you look honestly at his past and present rhetoric and actions. You cannot have voted for him and be excused for enabling the horrors he is inflicting on the nation and the world. Further, we have yet to see the full and ugly impacts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” on health care, education. and the poor. 

When I say that White Catholic Trump supporters must be “held to account,” I simply mean that they should be urged to live up to the call of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching. After all, whenever we attend Mass, we receive the Eucharist. Among its many transformative elements is, as the liturgy says, that “by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.” The Church is intended to live out God’s desire that the human community be awash in love, justice and unity. We are to be the eternal witness that God can transform division into harmony. 

Currently, our Church is far from that reality, and it is incumbent upon Black Catholics to fulfill our sacred duty of witness. As the Synod document reminds us, we are to do this not with arrogance, but with humility and courage. Our bishops, as a whole, are falling short of this duty. They spent far too much energy worrying about hot-button issues so precious to conservatives, while ignoring obvious forms of institutional violence and overt racism. Where does that leave us? Black Catholics and their allies (who are many and persistent) must continue to speak the truth in love. 

I recently asked a Catholic woman how she maintained her progressive activism in a conservative Church. Her instant reply was “Jesus.” Indeed, we recently celebrated Christmas and Epiphany, and were reminded God was born as a vulnerable infant, and brought light to a dark world. Let’s imitate Jesus in our own vocation to “bring good news to the poor” and “let the oppressed go free.” The prophet Habakkuk likewise reminds us to stand at our watchpost, listen for what God has to say, and make that vision plain so that others may see it. Let the Black Catholic community arise, listen for God’s truth, and make it plain in our words and actions.

Daryl Grigsby is author of “Catholics for the Common Good: An Eternal Offering” and is on the board of directors of FutureChurch and Leadership Foundations.

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