open wide our hearts

by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The document Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism was developed by the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). It was approved by the full body of bishops as a formal statement of the same at its November 2018 General Meeting and has been authorized for publication by the undersigned.
Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield
General Secretary, USCCB

32 pages, ebook

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy (i.e., diocesan, coadjutor, and auxiliary bishops and the ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter) in the United States and the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses form their own episcopal conference, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference (Spanish, Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña). The bishops in U.S. insular areas in the Pacific Ocean – the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of American Samoa, and the Territory of Guam – are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Latin, Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici).

The USCCB adopted its current name in July 2001. The organization is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the recognitio, or approval of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope.

Reviews

[Mariela · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice.”

“Every racist act -every such comment, every joke, every disparaging look as a reaction to the color of skin, ethnicity, or place of origin- is a failure to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God.”

“These examples from the experiences of Native, African, and Hispanic Americans demonstrate how, as a nation, we have never sufficiently contended with the impact of overt racism.”

“Racism is a moral problem that requires a moral remedy—a transformation of the human heart—that impels us to act.”

“As bishops, we unequivocally state that racism is a life issue.”

“We are called to that great life, to the communion of heaven where “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue [stand] before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev 7:9).”

[John Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this pastoral letter as part of a study group on Zoom at my parish. There is also a study guide that goes along with the document that gives helpful discussion questions.