Don’t Worry, I’ve Been Thinking About It, Too . . .

There’s been a lot going on lately.

And it keeps coming at you.

#AhmaudArbery, #GeorgeFloyd, police brutality, racism, and widespread protests across the nation, even in my city. All of this has had a deep connection and impact on the Black community because we are in the thick of it. And, as you might have noticed, I have been mostly silent on my apostolate so far. Don’t worry, I’ve been thinking about it, too. A lot of things have been going on with me as well lately: seminary, the COVID19 impact on life, finishing up my philosophy degree, graduation, and my reception of Candidacy for Holy Orders last week. Along all this time I have also been looking at all the main issues going on, and trying to learn the basic facts and wait on the details as they come out. I have been using all that along with time to form some type of viewpoint, which is nowhere near complete at this time. It’s been a challenge as things come out so fast to find something substantial to say. But I feel like I’m close to finding something. I want to say good things people need to hear and that I actually believe in, but I also want to avoid meaningless virtue signaling to just appear righteous and with the crowd. That doesn’t help anybody or anything. However, there’s a triple tension I have been feeling as well.

(1) Because I am a seminarian I official represent the Church. Thus, I need to be prudent in what I say and cannot just blindly run into a china shop being a bull. These issues touch on the social and political and things can get messy if you mix in a wrong/imprudent way the Church and the political. I am not trying to be politician. I am in the business of souls and saving them. This is partly why Church leaders might appear slow to say something in these moments. However, there are definitely the right moments for the Church to speak on these things and be the prophet and the teacher of good and to comfort the troubled with God’s Truth and the Sacraments. There is the element of these moments that is bigger than the social and the political. This element is for the Church.

(2) But I am Black. I feel like I have to say at least something because my people are hurting, and I also need to show how the Church can heal and comfort them as it has me for coming up on seven years now this month.

(3) And I have a Black platform, my BLACKCATHOLIC apostolate. I cannot be silent forever while this is going on. I feel a certain responsibility to be a voice.

A fellow seminarian posted yesterday on his personal FB page about feeling a similar tension as he represents the Church as well, and he said in the end “the Church has a responsibility to stand up, to cry out with a prophetic voice,” and this is very important.I may not have it all together yet, but I do have some fundamental things to say and to share about these recent events and what the Church and me as a Black Catholic have in response to it all. Over the next days and weeks I will be trying to comment more directly and share more content that relates to the Church and the recent events. And, above all, I will try to a few things in particular:

-Catholic

-Black

-Honest

Hopefully, I can provide for you all, and in particular my fellow Black Kings and Queens in the One Kingship of Jesus Christ the King, a good thing you need to hear.

Pray for the nation and the world. We turn to Jesus and His Church.