While American Catholics today would unequivocally condemn the institution of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, most do not see or work against one of its most prominent present-day manifestations: mass incarceration.

I don’t understand why some of my students are allowed to suffer as he did. But the knowledge of Christ’s death stanches my anger long enough that I am able to entertain the idea that there is still a point to serving this God.

Olga Segura’s book charts her personal journey of resisting systemic racism and her pain at finding herself unaccompanied on that path by many Catholics or by the institutional church.

The Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton, one of the few African American bishops in the Roman Catholic Church, rarely talks to the press. He recently agreed to visit at length with the Post-Dispatch. The topic was his new book, “The Church and the Racial Divide.”

As the election, the pandemic and racism made headlines across the U.S. last year, priests’ homilies did not mention these events nearly as much as did sermons by Protestant preachers.

Not every conclusion that comes out of critical race theory is compatible with Catholicism. But how could it be the case that Catholics would not want to engage with an intellectual tool that helps deepen understanding?