African-American Priest Weighs in on Why #BlackLivesMatter (and #PlannedParenthood)

Last updated on: May 4, 2023 at 10:06 am by Kate O'Hare

African-American Priest Weighs in on Why #BlackLivesMatter (and #PlannedParenthood) 2023-05-04T10:06:31-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Once you have seen injustice, you can’t unsee it — and the knowledge places upon you the burden to respond, if only in prayer.

Father Claude Williams, 34, is a parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa, California. He’s also a member of the Norbertines of St. Michael’s Abbey, an Orange County-based chapter of the The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, founded by St. Norbert of Xantren in France. Our Sunday Visitor profiled him back in January (click here for that).

He penned a piece for the magazine of the National Black Catholic Congress. That comes out in September, but Father Williams released it to me for early publication, and I posted it over at my other home, CatholicVote. In it, he reminds us that we have a moral obligation to look at injustice, and then, having seen it, to respond, if only in prayer.

It’s long, but read the whole thing. Click here for that, but here’s a taste

Relying only on the public statement from Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, President Obama’s chief spokesman can assure the citizens of the United States that “Planned Parenthood has broken no laws.” Would Geneva Read-Veal, Sandra Bland’s mother, rely solely on public statements by the Waller County Sheriff’s department in order to ascertain what actually happened to her daughter in the Waller County jail on July 13th? Is it imaginable that Obama’s spokesman would condescendingly assert that neither he nor the president had found the time to look at the videos surrounding the death of Sandra Bland? It is unimaginable. Period. Why? Because BLACK LIVES MATTER!

On the other hand, is it at all imaginable that Obama’s spokesman would also assert that neither he nor the president had found the time to look at the videos surrounding the illegal harvesting of hearts, livers, lungs, and lower extremities of aborted babies by Planned Parenthood? Sadly, we don’t have to imagine this scenario because we are living the nightmare. Again, Margaret Talbot wrote regarding the images of police brutality towards blacks, “The videos keep coming out … the full … video of Sandra Bland’s arrest is nearly fifty minutes long and can be viewed on YouTube. It has the quality of a nightmare.” There are hours and hours of video that CMP is challenging us to look at so that we will be equipped to challenge the individuals who perpetuate this savage behavior and the government officials who enable it.

Father Williams is one of my favorite homilists, and here’s to hoping he puts more of his thoughts down on paper in the future.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page.

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