(Brett Hondow/Pixabay)
By Gina Christian • Posted April 8, 2021
Philadelphia’s soaring rates of homicide and gun violence are down to deep-rooted causes – and the solution ultimately lies in the hope offered by the Gospel, along with concrete action, say several archdiocesan clergy.
Since January, the city has seen a 33% increase in homicides over 2020, with at least 129 victims. As of April 6, there were 96 fatal shootings, with another 418 nonfatal gun attacks.
Last year was its own grim milestone, marking a 30-year high in Philadelphia’s murder rate, and exceeding the 2019 homicide total by 40%.
Those wounded or killed have included pregnant women and children as young as 11 months. One 55-year-old man, a member of a video production team, was shot dead March 31 in the city’s Strawberry Mansion section while filming an anti-violence documentary for Netflix.
16.00 12 Mar 2021
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Black priest a model for racial healing in church, society, says pastor
Father Augustine Tolton, also known as Augustus, is pictured in a photo from an undated portrait card. Born into slavery in Missouri, he was ordained a priest and is now on the path to sainthood. (CNS photo/courtesy of Archdiocese of Chicago Archives and Records Center)
By Gina Christian • Posted February 14, 2021
A Black priest on the path to sainthood is a model for racial healing in the Catholic Church and American society, said a Philadelphia pastor and educator.
In a Feb. 10 webinar, Father Stephen Thorne of St. Martin de Porres Parish surveyed the life and legacy of Father Augustus Tolton, the first African American priest to be ordained in the United States. Chicago Cardinal Francis George (now deceased) announced the cause for Father Tolton’s canonization in 2010; nine years later, Pope Francis declared Father Tolton “Venerable.”
New commission invites personal encounter in work of racial healing
After prayer for healing and kneeling in silence for George Floyd at an event in Philadelphia June 9, 2020, Tori Reid from Christlike Church is the first young person of the group to offer hugs to Philadelphia police officers. (Photo by Sarah Webb)
By Matthew Gambino • Posted January 22, 2021
Last year as marches for racial justice proliferated across the United States in the wake of the killing of Black people – especially of George Floyd – by police, Catholics joined many other people of good will to address the injustice and seek racial healing.
The ongoing work “to build a beloved community,” in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., took a new step this week in the form of the Commission on Racial Healing in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which Archbishop Nelson Perez announced Jan. 18, King’s birthday.