Bishop Joseph Perry, chairman of the US bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, has published a reflection marking the upcoming first anniversary of Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis’s encyclical on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.
“Just as the Sacrament of Penance invites physical expressions of contrition—making the sign of the cross, performing a penance, offering restitution—so too do acts of reparation in communal life require gestures of sincerity, and concrete actions,” said the retired Chicago auxiliary bishop, who added:
Authentic reparation demands more than regret or distancing ourselves from past wrongs. It requires communal courage, sincere acknowledgment, and a willingness to ask forgiveness…
To confront racism, we must begin with reparation. We must name the sin, seek forgiveness, and commit to healing, and concrete actions to correct past wrongs and present-day inequities.