Let us pray. Communities of color and those on the margin, we are tired, tired of the racism in our streets and structures, an open against you, taking the lives and denying the dignity of your children. We are called to mourn, to , and made the dead rest. May our acts of solidarity and justice with the living be a died. Al to those who have lord, bless our hurting nation. Bless and give peace to the families of george floyd and lost a son, ae daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, friend. Those who take to our streets to protest injustice. Give him encourage, wisdom, and respect for others. Bless all those who seek justice and peace when we have too little of both. Bless those called upon to protest. Give those in Law Enforcement eight commitment to equal justice for all, respect for the lives and dignity of all those who serve and protect from harm. Bless our leaders, give them wisdom, compassion, a thirst for justice. Help them bring us together to. Dvance bless all who are participating in the dialogue, give us strength and courage, open our eyes, fill our hearts with faith, hope and love in this time of testing. Send forth your holy spirit lord and renew the face of the earth, amen. Thank you, archbishop. We are honored to have the president of Georgetown University offer some opening reflections and then we will turn to what will be a lively and challenging discussion. Thank you, john. Over these past few months, as we have grappled with the impacts of covid19 in our andunity, our colleagues our initiative on catholic social thought and life led by john have helped six virtual gatherings to ensure that the resources of catholic social ,hought are present to us conversations on the Global Dimensions of the pandemic and moral challenges, policy issues, leadership of pope francis and the responses of our religious communities, reflections on the responsibility we have to one another and to the environment. I wish to express my appreciation to everyone who has gathered with us today for this important conversation. To our panelists, we are deeply grateful to you and to archbishop gregory, thank you for helping to open our gathering and for the wisdom, faith and commitment to service that you share with all of us. Privilege ofthe welcoming archbishop gregory to our campus three years ago when he was serving as archbishop of atlanta. This was a time during which our community had begun to focus our onention more intentionally issues of Racial Injustice and the perspectives and experiences being shared with us by members of our black community and the responsibility we have as a catholic and just with institution, as an institution with direct ties to the institution of slavery, to grapple with issues not only of social justice but Racial Justice. Joined byshop was another of todays panelists, shacklin, andha their moderator and john lewis. Together, they provided an extraordinary reflection on the responsibility we all have and the realities we face in confronting racism. In this moment, as we gather today with additional colleagues, Ralph Macleod and gloria purvis, we remain grateful for their insights and their leadership in raising issues of importance to all of thend helping us imagine community we hope to become and that we are striving to be. In recent weeks, we have witnessed many injustices. In recent weeks, we have witnessed many injustices. The killing of george floyd, breonna taylor, ahmaud arbery. We have seen instances of violence by police. We have been reminded of the impact of Health Disparities and the additional challenges that people of color face as part of their everyday lives. In these moments, we are reminded of the necessary work, urgent and important work of building a more just, fair and equitable society. This is a responsibility that all of us share. We share it here at georgetown. We share it because of our deep belief in the dignity of each person. We share because of our deep commitment to the common good, a belief that there is a good that we can achieve together, that we can never possibly achieve alone. It is a belief that we are all interconnected and that each one of us deserves to live in communities that enable the development of our full humanity. I offer these words of welcome and gratitude to our panelists and to all the members of our community who seek with us to embrace our responsibilities to one another and to the common good. Thank you. Thank you, president degioia. I would like to ask the thousands of people on this call to take a second and recall what you thought when you first saw the video of george floyd on the street in minneapolis. What went through your mind as you saw that . Lets take a second, each of us, and take a moment to think what did we see and how did we respond . What i have learned in these tough days is i need to listen and learn more. I am trying to think of who could help me learn. Who should i listen to . Who are the leaders in our Catholic Community . I am so pleased that we have archbishop gregory, the archbishop of washington, the professor in georgetown who has been a leader in so many respects, Ralph Macleod, gloria purvis, i would like to ask each of you to tell us what went through your heart and mind when you saw that video . Lets begin with ralph. Thank you you for the question. I recall becoming physically sick, almost to the point of fainting and passing out. As i thought about it, it occurred to me that this was a deja vu moment, a moment where we saw one more time where a person at the hands of Law Enforcement for no other reason but being black was being killed and murdered. It appeared the person did not fear any consequences because he did it in the light of day and did it in front of his colleagues who were also in Law Enforcement who did not assist. It kind of affirmed in a way for me the protection that the system has for those persons who abuse folks for no other reason than because of their race. I remember feeling angry and frustrated and feeling an alltoofamiliar feeling ive been feeling for the last 1520 years and it was painful, very painful. Gloria, could you unmute yourself and tell us what went through your heart and head . Reliving a trauma right now, talking about it. When i watched it, i remember saying stop in the name of god, stop. Because this was so grievous to do this to another human being. I just thought the image of god is being abused right here in front of me. When he called out for his mama, that nearly broke me. It broke me to see a man call out in desperation. I felt like i could have pushed him off. I wanted to physically push him off and i felt my hands pushing but to no avail. That kind of helplessness, that kind of crippling helplessness in the face of such a brutal act against another human being has greatly disturbed me and i dont think i will ever forget it. For people who are prolife and dont yet understand it, let me put it to you like this its like watching an abortion being performed and you can do nothing. That should be horrifying and upsetting to anybody. I prayed to god. I said what have we become, please have mercy on us. Archbishop gregory . To tell you the truth, john, when i saw the event, i had a collage of feelings. One of which brought me back to my own childhood when, as a youngster, i was taken to the viewing of emmett till. As a youngster, being overwhelmed by the awful event and also, it was one of those moments that, as a young, black man, now black person, really, parents had to give you the talk. How do you perform, how do you respond, how do you behave when you are in such a precarious situation . I thought also of the other events that have taken the lives mr. Fricanamericans arbery, obviously mr. Floyd, we know that Michael Brown it brings back a whole collage of individuals who have been assassinated and assassinated for no other reason than the color of their skin. Marcia. I have not watch the entire video. Because we are broadcasting to thousands of people i dont know, i dont feel comfortable sharing a complex trauma with them, but this is what i do know i think a lot about people like sister Helen Prejean talk about the Death Penalty and their decision to bear witness to victims of state sanctioned violence. I think about the fact that we are living in an era where everyday people at any moment, just because they are in the presence of a person of color, may witness someones last day of life. As someone who has lost family members recently, i think about the beauty and power of bearing witness to the end of someones journey on earth, and i think about how we are all able to witness that, and at the same time witness being indifferent to allow death to come that way. I think that in this moment i recognize the power of people who are actually with someone on that journey when the state has determined that they are disposable and they should die in a spectacular way because that means that was on that mans neck was weighted by all of the systems that have sanctioned that behavior and all of the people who depend on that behavior in order to secure their own personal property as well as their status in society. Thank you for those personal and powerful feelings. Painful thoughts. I grew up about a mile and a half from where george floyd died. I was struck by archbishop gregorys comment. My parents never thought they had to tell me how to protect myself. We may live in the same city but we dont live in the same world. Let me turn to archbishop gregory. Everybody knows archbishop gregory. He is our archbishop in washington, we are so blessed to have him. Its been a tough time in washington in lots of ways. He was archbishop of atlanta. He grew up in illinois, he wanted to be a priest before he was actually a catholic. You know lots of these stories. One thing you may not know is the new letter on racism was archbishop gregorys idea, and he fought for that. Apparently, you made a statement sometime over the last couple of days thats gotten a lot of attention, and a journalist friend of mine came to me and said, why did he make this statement . We will talk about that in a minute, but what i said to her was you have to read the two other statements he made about the murder of the young man in georgia and the death of the man in minneapolis. In those statements, in the middle of a global pandemic, you called racism a virus. When you were at georgetown for the session, you said we have to learn to talk about the r word. Why do you describe racism as a virus which we need to confront and talk about . I use that phrase because obviously, throughout the world, we are grappling with a virus. Its a good image to remind us that there are things that impact our lives that frighten us, but also come in silent and oftentimes undiscoverable ways. We are very much concerned, as well we should, with the coronavirus. How did it develop . How is it passed on . Is there a response that will protect us . Those are exactly the same questions that we need to ask about racism. How is racism this silent but this silent but deadly virus passed on to other people . Is it learned at home . Is it transmitted through our structures . Is it a part of the air that we breathe . And, how do we find a vaccine . How can we protect ourselves . How can we render it ineffective . I think its an apropos image in a moment when we are all thinking about a virus that threatens us. Lets talk about your statement. You were disturbed by President Trumps visit to the john paul center. People might ask why and what roles were you speaking . Why did you take that step . To be perfectly honest, when i saw the event take place at st. Johns, and the preparatory activity, i said this is awful. This is the use of a sacred place, a sacred, symbolic place to be used as a political ploy. I didnt think it was appropriate especially at the pope john ii, Pope John Paul ii shrine because he was a man of incredible concern about the dignity of human beings. His whole life, long before he became the supreme pontiff, he was battling systems that were intended to destroy, weaken or certainly deny human dignity. That shrine is a holy place because of the man that it honors, and it should never have been used as a place for a political statement. John . The five most common words in washington are, you need to unmute yourself. You were there when Pope John Paul ii in st. Louis called all of us to confront the plague of racism. And peaceful protest is how he and his allies brought down communism. Let me turn to marcia if i could. Marcia, you are a professor here at georgetown and youre one of the most popular professors. You are in the History Department and the africanamerican studies department. You wrote a wonderful book, you have a new book, a fascinating book called franchise, about mcdonalds and the black community. You were on the slavery memory and Reconciliation Committee to help georgetown begin to confront our complicity in racism. You, with others created resources let me get this right the ferguson syllabus and worked on a project after the death of freddie gray. You are one of the people that helped me know what i dont know. My question is, what are we missing in the commentary . What you talk about as far as Economic Life in the black community and the focus on black men but you focus on black women. What is it about this crisis that we dont understand and that conventional wisdom misses . I think what we are failing to recognize is that what is happening in america isnt simply about racism because racism needs other counterparts in order to grow and feed itself. This is also a referendum on capitalism. The fact that people in the middle of the pandemic are without the resources they need. Its about the economic inequality, its about the fact that we have allowed a certain segment of the population to brutalize others without accountability. What we are seeing in all 50 states and around the globe is a referendum about capitalism, colonialism and White Supremacy. These conversations about things like Police Reform or people just need businesses and their committee and they will be fine, misses the point. This is about a series of interconnected systems and the fact that our Public Resources go toward a group of people that terrorize others in order for people to feel safe or to protect their own resources is the fundamental problem. The Catholic Church in the United States knows everything that needs to happen to solve this problem, but there is no political will and no desire because racism allows for some peoples Property Values remain high, it allows some schools to remain prestigious and others to remain under resourced. In this moment, the idea that there is something new to learn is exasperating because if you think about it this way, if you are 6. 5 years old in the United States, you have already lived through two major racial uprisings. What happens when you are 30 and 40 and 50 . If there is no real reckoning with all of the systems that has that allow this to happen, and there is a large portion of this population that depends on moments like this to continue in order to keep their power. I am at a loss right now of how much more sophisticated this discourse can get. My last book was about the past 50 years of state failure in black communities. If you go back 100 years and you look at the Riot Commission of 1919, what are black people saying . Police brutality, not enough jobs, poor schools for kids, lack of health care, terrorism by our White Brothers and sisters. If weve had a hundred years to learn this lesson, i dont know what will make this moment different. Thank you. Very much for that powerful indictment, really. Ralph, youre director of the Catholic Campaign for human development, which was born in response to what people would call the riots in 1968. It tries to help people lift themselves up and defend their own dignity in their own communities. You have been a City Council Person and i believe mayor pro tem of fort worth. You have gotten lots of awards. I want to ask you how the coronavirus, how covid19 reflects the kinds of things that marcia was talking about. Everything we know says this virus has exacerbated the inequality and injustice in our society, and this is personal for you. I especially want to thank you for participating in this dialogue. You are recovering from covid19. You live in a house that have lost four priests that have died from covid19. Two of them in their 20s and 30s. If anybody thinks this is a hoax, they ought to talk to you and what you have been through. How are you feeling . Please convey our condolences to the paulists. And the josephites. In what ways does the coronavirus reveal the structures of injustice we are trying to focus on . Thank you, john. It is a pleasure to be with all of you this afternoon. In a way, it is too simple to say that the coronavirus is on coronavirus impacted in the health care facility, that health care is the only system that is impacted by it. Racism in and of itself does not operate in a vacuum. It operates in systems and structures that are contributing to a lot of the illness and a lot of the problems that we see in the Africanamerican Community. It is too simple to assume its just health care. Health care in the Africanamerican Community has been wellchronicled and discussed as being both unaffordable and inaccessible. Even when they were able to have testing, it was clearly africanamerican communities that were one of the last communities to have testing. They found testing for zoo animals and star athletes long before they were able to get equitable testing for africanamerican communities. Neighborhood housing in africanamerican communities would often times be overcrowded where social distancing will be impossible. It is extremely difficult. Racism and redlining has contributed to that