For Immediate Release: May 16, 2022
Contact: Colleen Ross | [email protected] | 202-601-7877
NETWORK commits to continue fighting against white supremacy and replacement theory after racist violence in Buffalo
As Pope Francis said, “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form.”
American politics and social discourse are infested by the virus of white supremacy. This ideology grounded in hatred and fear has fueled numerous deaths in Black and Brown communities with the latest being the killing of 10 souls in Buffalo this weekend. Once again, a young white man has brutally murdered innocent people in the name of white supremacy and white nationalism.
Our prayers are with the victims of the mass shooting in Buffalo and their families. This horrific act of violence was a hate crime motivated by white supremacy. The mass shooter also invoked ‘Christian values’ in the midst of his murderous spree, a horrific, but not uncommon combination. As Father Bryan Massingale has pointed out, this normative whiteness in the Church is ‘a form of idolatry, the worship of a false god.’* Only a sinful, willful theological distortion of a religion based on the call to ‘love one another” could be compatible with violent, anti-Black ideology.
The NETWORK community grieves with the families of the victims and the residents of Buffalo. We grieve also for all of us, our country, who have somehow given permission for this evil to exist and grow in our midst. We will continue working to dismantle long-standing racist systems and structures and build a truly representative, multi-racial democracy where every person can thrive. As Pope Francis said on June 3, 2020: “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form.” We commit to continue denouncing and fighting against white supremacy and replacement theory and call on all elected officials, public figures, and faith leaders to do the same.
###
NETWORK – advocates for justice inspired by Catholic sisters – educates, organizes, and lobbies for economic and social transformation. They have a nearly 50-year track record of lobbying for critical federal programs that support those at the margins and prioritize the common good. www.networklobby.org