From the Office of the Vicariate for Black Catholic Concerns:Reopening Churches Prematurely PutsBlack Catholics at Risk

May, 2020

“Of all the forms of inequality,” Martin Luther King Jr. told a gathering of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1966, “injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane.”
— Damon Tweedy, MD

It goes without saying that from the first wave of the African Diaspora and the long-standing racial oppression it has rendered in the United States, marginalized Black communities in post-modern America have continually found themselves desperately grasping for even the lowest rungs of this nation’s social, economic, and political ladders as a means of self-determination. It’s also clear that those in opposition to these goals have used all sorts of underhanded, violent methods and false logic to justify this societal bigotry.

However, as Dr. Tweedy’s statement points out, some of the worst offenses levied against Black Americans in more recent decades have come in the form of recurrent healthcare discrimination. It is all the more disconcerting, then, to be made aware of preliminary projections as to how Parishes in Brooklyn & Queens can begin to reopen their doors to the lay Faithful. The seriousness and mortality rates surrounding the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic make it crucial to get to the underlying issue(s) being raised by these kinds of conversations. Having said this, it is ultimately the position of the Brooklyn Vicariate Office for Black Catholic Concerns to make our issues plain:

By prematurely opening the Parishes of Brooklyn & Queens, we are undeniably putting every member of the Faith in this Diocese at risk for COVID-19 infection, and, in a very particular way, Black Catholics.

• Draconian measures for social distancing at Mass is a form of hyper-policing.

It is important to note that the issue of violent interventionist tactics by law enforcement in disenfranchised Black neighborhoods for places like Brooklyn & Queens is a problem the USCCB has expressed in recent documentation on racism. It is now being compounded by the increased police presence in said areas, monitoring social distancing and punishing those who are noncompliant. As to be expected, the end result has been that Black New Yorkers are once again being unfairly targeted and arrested at exponentially higher rates than violators who identify as White or [Non-Black] Latin.

Concurrently, it has been suggested that Diocesan Pastors reopening their churches utilize strict safety guidelines for Liturgy (ex: add’l Masses, modified occupancy limits, socially distanced seating and procession lines, etc.) outlined in content provided by institutions like the World Health Organization and CDC. Cultivating these ideas would require a more forceful team of volunteers or security personnel. To now have Black Catholics be subject to this kind of drastic crowd control is unequivocally a recipe for misunderstanding and potentially confrontational interactions between laypersons & staff, the results of which could end up requiring assistance from local precincts.

All of which ends up completely negating the social distancing being suggested in the first place.

• Placing an added fiscal burden on poor Black Parishes is a discriminatory act.

It would seem that the kind of personnel & materials necessary to engage in a socially distanced reopening of the Diocese would be funded through Parish budgets. That said, it is no secret that some of our most financially struggling Parishes are those with predominantly or historically Black congregations. Forcing these churches to now have to make additional sacrifices in compliance with future Diocesan mandates for reopening, knowing full-well the generational economic disenfranchisement experienced specifically by Black communities in Brooklyn & Queens, is a wildly intellectually dishonest take on how to achieve this goal safely & responsibly.

• For Black Catholics, devotion to Liturgy should never outweigh practical risk.

Any Pastor assigned to a Black Parish in this Diocese knows & has seen the lengths to which members of his community will go to attend Holy Mass. An announcement to reopen could certainly render a large turnout in support of their church. Based on these assumptions, we can surmise that traveling to & from Sunday Liturgy, even if it’s within walking distance, will be a risk that Black Catholics in Brooklyn & Queens will be willing to take, since it’s something they’ve done proudly and persistently in the midst of their marginalization, national crises, or social upheaval. However, this modified participation still carries with it the very real threat of churchgoers returning to Mass on a Sunday, and ending up in a hospital bed the following week — or worse. Why any of our Black Parishioners should be compelled to make this kind of a choice is an affront to their sensibility, their experience, and, quite frankly, is directly juxtaposed to the Catholic advocacy for the sanctity of life.

CLOSING: In the ABC series, “Blackish,” during an episode about the 2016 election, actor Anthony Anderson opens a final monologue with these words: “I love this country, even though at times it doesn’t love me back.” In a parallel way, the same can be said of racially marginalized Catholics in places like New York City. The devotion and generosity of Black Catholics in this Diocese is some of the most astounding, given the ways they have been treated by their peers from other races — historically & presently. The truth is, for any Diocesan Parish, the amount of time, personnel, and planning necessary to accomplish a socially distanced Liturgy at this time, with a truly minimal risk of COVID-19 infection, is virtually impossible.

Furthermore, in discussing these kinds of projections, there is a de facto point of liability for the potentially harmful and/or traumatic interactions that will naturally be part of the execution of these ideas. Medical experts agree that such stress can exacerbate any health problems of an individual or group. And since Black Americans at large already grapple with a host of underlying medical conditions, a disproportionate lack of access to healthcare, as well as the Anti-Black racism that is present in various US Health institutions when being seen for treatment, this kind of comorbidity makes it all the more likely that if the faithful in our Diocese are being told to come back to Mass too early, Black Catholics, who are subject to all of these factors, will inevitably find themselves even more susceptible to COVID-19 infection — the dangerous consequences of which we now know all too well.