CARJ Congress 2003 People of Colour, People of God 12-14 September 2003 In recognition of these ongoing objectives, the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ) convened a second national Congress to encourage and support the continuing empowerment of Black and Asian Catholic in England Wales.

Catholic Racial Justice Congress issues Charter for a truly inclusive church
A Catholic Racial Justice Congress, meeting at Southlands College, London, this past weekend (September 12-14), completed its deliberations by issuing a strong Charter for "a truly inclusive church".

Over three days of celebration and debate, delegates had listened to the different perspectives of an English Peer, an African-American theologian and a priest from the Caribbean reflecting on the theme People of Colour, People of God.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor also addressed the ethnically-mixed gathering of Catholics from across the dioceses of England and Wales at the event organised by the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ).

The event was also attended by Archbishop Michael Bowen, Archbishop Peter Smith, Bishop Kieran Conry, who is President of CARJ, Bishop Howard Tripp, Bishop John Hine, Bishop Declan Lang, Bishop Edwin Regan, Bishop Ambrose Griffiths, Bishop Christopher Budd, Bishop Philip Pargeter, Bishop Thomas McMahon and Bishop Brian Noble.

The 300 delegates to the Congress drew up a new Charter in which they committed themselves to "create communities in which strangers are welcomed, where differences can be celebrated, and all people are valued".

A further commitment was “to identify, recognize, and utilize the knowledge, skills, experience and competence of people from black and minority ethnic communities at all levels and to work to remove obstacles that may prevent them from taking on roles of responsibility and leadership in the Church and in society.”

Other points in the Charter included:

To work to ensure that our schools value diversity; that their admission policies and practices reflect the ethnic diversity of their communities; that they are places of real opportunity for excellence for children and young people of all backgrounds and social classes; that the content of the curriculum reflects the contributions that various ethnic groups have made to human achievement worldwide; and that the delivery of the curriculum and assessment procedures and processes promote racial justice.

To strongly encourage that seminary training includes multicultural formation for leadership in our diverse Church.

To influence the Catholic organizations and networks in which we are active to enable people from all backgrounds to be involved and to become part of the leadership.

At the Congress, Baroness Patricia Scotland outlined government attempts to address the race and equality agenda

Baroness Scotland, a minister in the Home Office, described her own experience as a black woman and outlined some of the steps the government is taking to address the race equality agenda.

She pointed to the operation of the Stephen Lawrence Working Group in the Home Office as an example of how seriously the issue is being taken.

Baroness Scotland was also keen to emphasise a new Home Office working group to work with faith groups in the community. “People of faith have a huge contribution to make,” said Baroness Scotland.

She acknowledged that more needs to be done to empower ethnic minority groups across Whitehall.

“More and more across Whitehall there is a focus on how you get inclusion and diversity. Blacks and whites need to join together and say they want change,” said Baroness Scotland.
Dr Diana Hayes, an African American Theologian, claimed that progress in the US has been achieved due to “the perseverance and persistence” of Black Catholics.

Dr Hayes described the progress Black Catholics in America had made. Recently, Bishop Wilton Gregory was elected the first Black President of the US Bishops' Conference.
“There are 13 Black bishops of whom three are heads of dioceses. There are offices of Black Catholics in almost every diocese and a Secretariat in the Bishops' Conference,” said Dr Hayes.

She said Black Catholics had only gained this representation due to “their perseverance and persistence” and went on to emphasis: “Racism still persists in the US, in the UK, throughout the world. It is a mindset that flies in the face of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Christian Church.”

A Caribbean Priest brought theology to bear on the history and structure of racism.
Trinidadian priest Fr Jason Gordon received a standing ovation from the Congress after an address which combined theological reflection with an analysis of the historical and structural complexities of international racism.

Fr Gordon spoke of the inequalities of race, class and gender as a three-headed monster.
"The matrix of race, class and gender are not in keeping with the Kingdom of God," he said.
He warned delegates that if they wanted a truly inclusive society ‘there is a cross to be born’ and that they should not expect success in the short-term.

And Fr Gordon challenged them to work patiently to prepare the soil for a kairos moment when significant change would take place.

He spoke of the desire of some communities to have an outside enemy in order to create internal cohesion, saying that in England, the Irish were once seen as a threat, then overseas immigrants were, and now asylum seekers are.

Fr Gordon, who studied in the UK, said he was appalled that, at least until four years ago when he completed his theological studies, the formation that goes on in the seminaries includes no multicultural education. “Multicultural education has to be part of the education for seminaries and parish life,” he said.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor opened the Congress with a short address and celebrated Mass for the assembly on the closing day.

In his opening talk, the Cardinal acknowledged the importance of tackling institutional racism for all in our society.

He told delegates that they were right in calling for a truly inclusive church and argued that this must begin at the local level.

"This question has to be addressed at all levels of the Church, but frankly most especially at the local level, because that is where the Spirit works most intently. That is where change happens," said Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor.

Please contact our London office on 020 8802 8080 or carj@btconnect.com for a copy of The Congress Charter to be sent to you. The cost is £1 or download it from this link:


Click here to download Congress Charter