Bishop Edward K. Braxton, Bishop Emeritus, is scheduled to deliver the Keynote Address at the Call from the Mountain: A Pilgrimage for Racial Justice gathering hosted by the Archdiocese of Louisville and Modern Catholic Pilgrim on Saturday, October 17, 2020. The event, sponsored by the Archdiocese’s Office of Multicultural Ministry will be held at Thomas Merton's hermitage on the grounds of the trappiest monastery, the Abbey of Gethsemani. The day-long gathering will be focused on racial and racial harmony in American society and in the Catholic Church.
Catholic leaders in the greater Louisville area who are striving for racial justice will participate in the Conference, which, due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be live streamed to a larger audience. The Bishop will lead the dialogues during the meeting using the short stories of Flannery O’Connor and his forthcoming book, The Church and the Racial Divide in the United States.
The Bishop’s address is particularly timely because of recent events in Louisville. In March Ms. Breonna Taylor, an African American medical worker was shot and killed by Louisville police officers during a raid on her apartment. The police with a no knock warrant fired thirty shots into her apartment after being first shot at by her boyfriend, who said he thought the officers were intruders. Ms. Taylor died in the raid that was seeking illegal drugs. However, no drugs were found in the apartment. These events led to ongoing nationwide protests against what many believed to be excessive force on the part of the police. Demonstrations continued into the spring and summer as the case drew more attention. The situation was made more volatile when a grand jury recently ruled that no police officer would be charged for causing Ms. Taylor’s death.
Speaking about the conference, Bishop Braxton said, “I do not go to events like this presuming to make definitive judgments about who is right and who is wrong in the face of complex situations about which I have only partial knowledge. I go to listen and learn. I go in to hope of contributing, in some small way, to an ongoing, difficult process in an atmosphere of prayerful concern for the value and dignity of the lives of everyone involved. My writings and addresses are intended to invite individuals and groups of different racial backgrounds to enter with open minds and hearts into conversations about an important and sensitive subject without hastily judging others. The goal is to attain a greater understanding and mutual respect, and to make realistic efforts to bridge the racial divide. This can only come about by a deep interior conversion of hearts made possible by an openness to the Holy Spirit. It is, in truth, a high and distant goal.”