A New York priest said his parish added a “pledge for racial justice” to Masses as part of its anti-racism initiatives, and that no one at the parish is required to participate in it. While video of the pledge has been the subject of criticism in the media and from some Catholics, the Archdiocese of New York has not commented on the matter.
“Under the sponsorship of the Pastoral Council, we held a prayer service for the victims of racism and commissioned our Sacred Space ministry to produce a display so that there would be heightened awareness. In that context, someone found a version of the pledge from a Unitarian Church in Texas,” Fr. Kenneth Boller, SJ, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in New York City, told CNA Sept. 2.
“We invite people to take the pledge after the post communion prayer and before the final blessing-a time when many churches have announcements. People are invited to respond yes to each question. Some choose not to. That's fine,” Boller added.
Liturgical law prohibits the addition of any components to Mass that are not prescribed by Church rubrics.
The General Instruction for the Roman Missal directs that each priest “must remember that he is the servant of the sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not permitted, on his own initiative, to add, to remove, or to change anything in the celebration of Mass.”
Similarly, the Second Vatican Council’s apostolic constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium, says that no person, “even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”
For his part, Boller told CNA that the pledge is part of a broader effort in the parish to be attentive to racial justice.
“After the death of George Floyd our parish wished to be more pro-actively anti-racist. There had been a book discussion group on racism for 18 months and there was a recent history of dialog with an African-American Catholic parish in Harlem,” the priest said.
The pledge asks whether Catholics “support justice, equity, and compassion,” and affirm that “white privilege and the culture of white supremacy must be dismantled wherever it is present.” It also asks whether Catholics commit “to help transform our church culture to one that is actively engaged in seeking racial justice and equity for everyone,” and affirm “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”
The pledge gained attention earlier this week, when a redacted video of its recitation began circulating online. On Sept. 2, Fox News television host Tucker Carlson erroneously reported that the pledge, which he called “talking points from BLM” had “replaced the Nicene Creed” at the parish. In the same segment, commentator Eric Metaxas said that if the parish “had a swastika on the altar, it would be no different.”
“The people who are using these new terms — systemic racism or white privilege — these are Marxists,” Metaxas added. “If you do not reject this with everything you have, you are bringing about the death of Christian faith in America,” he said.
In June, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, who is Black, wrote that “Prejudiced and racist attitudes of individuals also infiltrate institutional structures and organizations, thus forming the foundation for systemic racism….The residual effects of these attitudes are still felt by many Catholics of color today.”
The Archdiocese of New York told CNA it had no comment on the pledge and the controversy that surrounded its recitation during Mass.
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John Paul the Great Catholic University is a Catholic liberal arts college located in the northern suburbs of San Diego. The school features hands-on creative programs in film, animation, design, music, and acting, as well as business entreprene… […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 8, 2021 / 23:00 pm (CNA).
Paul Brown, co-founder of American Life League, died Thursday, the pro-life group has announced. “Husband, father, grandfather, and pro-life hero, Paul Brown passed away o… […]
Anna Lulis from Moneta, Virginia, (left) who works for the pro-life group Students for Life of America, stands beside an abortion rights demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022, after the court’s decision in the Dobbs abortion case was announced. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 5, 2022 / 13:31 pm (CNA).
U.S. Catholic voters are split on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but a majority agrees that abortion should be restricted and that there should be at least some protections for the unborn child in the womb, according to a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll.
The court’s June 24 ruling in the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization upended 49 years of nationwide legalized abortion and freed states to regulate abortion as they see fit.
When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with Roe being overturned, 46.2% agreed, 47.8% disagreed, and 6% said they weren’t sure.
Catholic voters were similarly split on whether they are more or less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe’s dismantling: 42% said they were more likely, 41.9% said they were less likely, and 16.1% were unsure.
At the same time, the poll results point to apparent inconsistencies in Catholic voters’ positions on abortion.
While nearly half of Catholic voters in the poll said they disagreed with Roe being overturned, a large majority (86.5%) said they support some kind of limit on abortion, even though Roe and related abortion cases allowed only narrow regulation at the state level. The breakdown is as follows:
26.8% said abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother;
19.8% said abortion should be allowed until 15 weeks when the baby can feel pain;
13.1% said that abortion should be allowed only during the first six months of pregnancy;
9.9% said that abortion should be allowed only until a heartbeat can be detected, and
9.1% said that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
Of special note for Catholic pro-life leaders, only a small minority of Catholic voters — 7.8% — were aligned with the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church that abortion should never be allowed.
On the other end of the spectrum of abortion views, 13.4% of Catholic voters said that abortion should be available to a woman at any time during her pregnancy.
The poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group from Sept. 12–19, surveyed 1,581 Catholic voters and has a margin of error of 2.5%. The questionnaire was administered using a mix of six different methods, including phone calls, text messages, and email.
The poll’s results echo surveys of the general U.S. population on abortion. A Pew Research Center survey from March found that 19% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all cases, while 8% said it should be illegal in all cases. More recent Gallup data from May found that 35% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal under any circumstances while 13% said it should be illegal in all circumstances.
The Pew Research Center data also looked at Catholic adults. Thirteen percent said abortion should be legal in all cases, while 10% said it should be illegal in all cases.
A previous EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll released in July found that 9% of Catholic likely voters said abortion should never be permitted and 18% said that abortion should be available at any time. The poll similarly showed that a majority of Catholic voters (82%) support some kind of restriction on abortion.
Confused about what Roe said?
The poll’s results came as little surprise to Catholic pro-life public policy experts such as Elizabeth R. Kirk.
“This study confirms a phenomenon we have known for some time, i.e., that there is an enormous disconnect between the scope of abortion practices permitted by the Roe regime and what abortion practices Americans actually support,” Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person at The Catholic University of America, told CNA.
Kirk, who also serves as a faculty fellow for the Institute for Human Ecology and research associate and lecturer at the Columbus School of Law, noted the finding that nearly 42% of Catholic voters said they are less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe being overturned.
“At first glance that suggests that many Catholic voters wanted to keep Roe in place,” she said. “Yet, the study also reveals that 86.5% of Catholic voters want some type of restriction on abortion access.”
Why the inconsistency? “Most people do not realize that Roe allowed states to permit unlimited abortion access throughout the entire pregnancy and made it difficult, or even impossible, to enact commonsense restrictions supported by the majority of Americans,” Kirk observed.
“Many people who ‘support Roe’ actually disagree, unknowingly, with what it permitted,” she added. “All Dobbs has done is return abortion policy to the legislative process so that the people may enact laws which reflect the public consensus.”
Mass-goers more strongly pro-life
The new poll, the second of three surveys of Catholic voters tied to the midterm elections on Nov. 8, shows that the opinions of Catholic voters on abortion and other issues vary depending on how often respondents attend Mass.
Only a small portion of those who attend Mass at least once a week said that abortion should be allowed at any time: 0% of those who attend Mass daily, 1% who attend more than once a week, and 8% of those who attend weekly support abortion without restrictions. In contrast, 57.5% of Catholic voters who attend Mass daily, 21.5% of those who attend more than once a week, and 15.6% of those who attend weekly say abortion should never be permitted.
In addition to respondents’ apparent confusion about what Roe stipulated, the poll suggests that many Catholic voters don’t fully understand what their Church teaches about abortion.
Less than one-third of Catholic voters who said they accept all Church teachings (31.1%) said that abortion should never be permitted, and 5% who profess to fully accept the Church’s teachings said abortion should be permitted at any time.
Overall, 32.8% of respondents reported attending Mass at least once a week, with another 30.7% attending once a year or less. Only 15% agreed that they accept all of the Church’s teachings and live their lives accordingly, with another 34.5% saying they generally accept most of the Church’s teachings and try to live accordingly.
Pew Research Center also looked at how Mass attendance factors into Catholics’ views on abortion. Among those who attend Mass at least once a week: 4% said abortion should be legal in all cases, and 24% said it should be illegal in all cases, Pew found.
Strong support for pregnancy centers
The poll asked Catholic voters about a variety of other topics including abortion limits, Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians, conscience protections for health care workers, and pro-life pregnancy centers.
EWTN
Among the findings:
Catholic voters are prioritizing other issues above abortion. Only 10.1% of Catholic voters identified abortion as the most important issue facing the nation, falling behind inflation (34.2%) and the economy/jobs (19.7%) and tying with immigration. At the same time, a higher percentage of Catholic voters chose abortion than crime (8.7%), climate change (8.1% ), health care (6.8%), K–12 education (1.7%), or religious freedom (0.8%).
About half of Catholic voters (49.3%) disagreed that Catholic political leaders who support abortion publicly and promote policies that increase abortion access should refrain from taking Communion, while 36.7% said they should refrain.
A majority (67.4%) of Catholic voters said they support public funding for pro-life pregnancy centers that offer pregnant women life-affirming alternatives to abortion, while 18.3% said they did not favor using tax dollars for this purpose.
A comparable majority (61.8%) said that political and church leaders should be speaking out against the recent attacks and acts of vandalism on pregnancy resource centers.
When asked about conscience protections for health care workers that would allow them to opt out of providing “services” such as abortion, a majority of Catholic voters (60.7%) said that health care workers should not be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds. Conversely, 25.3% said that health care workers should be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds.
Work to be done
What is the takeaway from the latest poll, where abortion is concerned?
“This polling shows that Catholics, like the overwhelming majority of Americans, support commonsense protections for women and the unborn,” Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, told CNA.
“It also affirms other recent polling that found Americans by strong numbers support the work of pregnancy resource centers in providing women facing crisis pregnancies with a real choice and the chance to thrive as mothers despite difficult circumstances,” she noted.
EWTN
At the same time, McGuire added, “This new polling is also a reminder that more work needs to be done in catechizing Catholics on foundational Church teaching in support of vulnerable life in all stages — an effort that is continually undermined by Catholic politicians in the highest echelons of power who use their platforms to advocate for extreme abortion policies in direct violation of Church teaching.”
Nearly all of those surveyed (99.2%) said they plan to vote in the midterm elections on Nov. 8.
No comment from the archdiocese? Dolan is worthless. This screams for disciplinary action and a swift condemnation. The Mass is not an ideological plaything, most especially not for the woke fake Catholics who misuse worship as an opportunity to virtue signal to their friends and to brainwash or coerce people into compliance with their preferred political positions that have no relevance to Catholic faith nor the purpose of the Mass. What that Jesuit pastor did to the liturgy is analogous to what rioters and looters have done to businesses. The pastor looted the Mass of its holiness and rioted with words to make congregants who disagree with him feel unsafe.
The term “systemic racism” is accurate in so far as it describes disparate treatment sanctioned in law be it the old, long repealed “Jim Crow” laws, or there modern day equivalent of court mandated racial set asides and quotas, or publicly or privately mandated”sensitivity training” and the like. The imposed notion that only certain racial groups can be “racist” but not others is a like manifestation. It is a term that should be discarded altogether.
It is my belief that the term “white privilege” is a negative term as it portrays an entire group of humans with a negative brush. Any time a groups is singled out like this priest did with a negative term that its intention is to coerce a capture audience to comply to a belief that they nay not agree with is right out of the Marxist or Nazi play book.
I believe the priest changed the Mass and that is not allowed by Church doctrine. He needs to be disciplined or at severally admonished. I for one go to Mass for the grace, not to hear a priest perform a political rally.
If the Priest want to hold a political rally, let him do it off Church grounds. This kind of behavior can drive parishioners to relocate to another parish.
I agree with you 1,000%. Do not tamper with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We already renew our baptismal vows each year. We know right from wrong. We do not need or want adherence to Marxist playbook or their divisive name-calling. This priest had better not be the new role model. The parishioners should be wary not complicit.
On his program on Fox News on September 2, Tucker Carlson (a protestant) thought it worthwhile to express his dismay, right before he interviewed Eric Metaxas.
I am a catholic, a eucharistic minister and Confirmation PSR teacher at my local parish and this sickens me. This church is straying off the lesson plan of Jesus. To back a group that will not recognize that all life matters is a disgrace. I listened to the video of this pledge and it was like hearing lambs going off to slaughter.
Even if white privilege was a real word it would be those hard working white people that risked their lives to hide slaves, free slaves, created affirmative action bills to be passed in congress and make up the 90% of monies donated to black communities, programs and lives today. Separate church and state!
This is disgraceful and a very bad idea in a church that is already struggling for it’s life due to the damage it’s clergy has caused in the past. I wrote to the Archdiocese…didn’t get a response yet.
Thank you for having the courage to soeak up. As a devout Catholic and former President of a Boston A.O.H. division #6 I was sickened and shocked by that phony clerics abomination of Mass. He needs to take an oath and a stand against his own prejudices. Is white privilege working 2 jobs to support my family? Missing kids events to give my world of family and friends a better life? An absolute disgrace. Do they wonder why families like mine are going to Real Christian churches in droves. It is so uplifting and truly spiritual. They librralism and their pedophilia culture have destroyed a BEAUTIFUL 2000 and 20 year religion. They have the audacity and contempt to cajole some innocent believers into an oath. When they take an oath against pedophilia and acknowledge they destroyed our lovely faith with their cover-up..Then ask your hypocritical oath of us…
No comment from the archdiocese? Dolan is worthless. This screams for disciplinary action and a swift condemnation. The Mass is not an ideological plaything, most especially not for the woke fake Catholics who misuse worship as an opportunity to virtue signal to their friends and to brainwash or coerce people into compliance with their preferred political positions that have no relevance to Catholic faith nor the purpose of the Mass. What that Jesuit pastor did to the liturgy is analogous to what rioters and looters have done to businesses. The pastor looted the Mass of its holiness and rioted with words to make congregants who disagree with him feel unsafe.
The term “systemic racism” is accurate in so far as it describes disparate treatment sanctioned in law be it the old, long repealed “Jim Crow” laws, or there modern day equivalent of court mandated racial set asides and quotas, or publicly or privately mandated”sensitivity training” and the like. The imposed notion that only certain racial groups can be “racist” but not others is a like manifestation. It is a term that should be discarded altogether.
It is my belief that the term “white privilege” is a negative term as it portrays an entire group of humans with a negative brush. Any time a groups is singled out like this priest did with a negative term that its intention is to coerce a capture audience to comply to a belief that they nay not agree with is right out of the Marxist or Nazi play book.
I believe the priest changed the Mass and that is not allowed by Church doctrine. He needs to be disciplined or at severally admonished. I for one go to Mass for the grace, not to hear a priest perform a political rally.
If the Priest want to hold a political rally, let him do it off Church grounds. This kind of behavior can drive parishioners to relocate to another parish.
M. Rose
M. Rose
I agree with you 1,000%. Do not tamper with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We already renew our baptismal vows each year. We know right from wrong. We do not need or want adherence to Marxist playbook or their divisive name-calling. This priest had better not be the new role model. The parishioners should be wary not complicit.
I will never apologize for how god made me. Shame on my Catholic Church.
I’m of mixed race
Am I require to recite this pray
Maybe half of it?
Father Z has a posting about this incident, complete with video (1 min. 32 sec.) and a transcript of the travesty:
Wacko New York City Jesuits
On his program on Fox News on September 2, Tucker Carlson (a protestant) thought it worthwhile to express his dismay, right before he interviewed Eric Metaxas.
A Catholic priest gets a pledge from a Unitarian Church and has everyone recite it at Mass. Any more brilliant ideas where this one came from?
I am a catholic, a eucharistic minister and Confirmation PSR teacher at my local parish and this sickens me. This church is straying off the lesson plan of Jesus. To back a group that will not recognize that all life matters is a disgrace. I listened to the video of this pledge and it was like hearing lambs going off to slaughter.
Even if white privilege was a real word it would be those hard working white people that risked their lives to hide slaves, free slaves, created affirmative action bills to be passed in congress and make up the 90% of monies donated to black communities, programs and lives today. Separate church and state!
This is disgraceful and a very bad idea in a church that is already struggling for it’s life due to the damage it’s clergy has caused in the past. I wrote to the Archdiocese…didn’t get a response yet.
Thank you for having the courage to soeak up. As a devout Catholic and former President of a Boston A.O.H. division #6 I was sickened and shocked by that phony clerics abomination of Mass. He needs to take an oath and a stand against his own prejudices. Is white privilege working 2 jobs to support my family? Missing kids events to give my world of family and friends a better life? An absolute disgrace. Do they wonder why families like mine are going to Real Christian churches in droves. It is so uplifting and truly spiritual. They librralism and their pedophilia culture have destroyed a BEAUTIFUL 2000 and 20 year religion. They have the audacity and contempt to cajole some innocent believers into an oath. When they take an oath against pedophilia and acknowledge they destroyed our lovely faith with their cover-up..Then ask your hypocritical oath of us…
Today is 10/3. Has there been any corrective action taken by our Catholic leaders? Of not, why not. Shame on the church for letting this go untouched!