Catholic Charities USA will launch a national website to engage persons of faith in the discussion of its groundbreaking document, “Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good” on Monday, January 19, the national holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The website will provide a focus, format and structure for faith-based groups to connect the legacy of the faith of Dr. King with the appeal of President Elect Barack Obama to engage faith in God and faith in our fellow Americans to form “a more perfect union.” The website www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/povertyandracism/epluribusunum, is open to the public and Catholic Charities USA invites America to join them in this essential dialogue.
“A year ago we promulgated our race and poverty paper in Detroit, Michigan at Detroit’s annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament,” comments Rev. Larry Snyder, President of Catholic Charities USA, in Alexandria, VA. “We are leading this national faith-based conversation by launching this website, E Pluribus Unum. It is CCUSA’s urgent response to fulfill our role in faith-filled citizenship and our advocacy for the poor.”
Rev. Clarence Williams, CPPS, explains that Catholic Charities USA has demonstrated its commitment to persons of all races during its 99 year history. It has called national attention to the intersection of poverty and racism. “Last year we launched the poverty and racism paper in Detroit not knowing the economic crisis would occur. The content of the paper is more timely today than then. We hope to begin healing our racial woundedness through dialogue circles and to lead America in a united resolve to reduce poverty and end racism.” Fr. Williams is the Senior Director of Racial Equality and Diversity Initiatives for the national office of CCUSA.
The E Pluribus Unum website provides a free download of the poverty and racism paper. It also offers the format for the dialogue circles and outlines the roles and responsibilities for participants in dialogue circles. Topics for dialogue sessions are based on the chapters of Poverty and Racism, Overlapping Threats to the Common Good.. Each session begins with a spiritual exercise and proceeds with a focused discussion on the history, sociology and policy insights of poverty and racism.
In April, 2008 CCUSA convened over one hundred sites across the country through a broadcast webcast in a national, interactive, live discussion on poverty and racism. In May the webcast was re-broadcast around the world to English speaking countries as CCUSA’s contribution to Racial Sobriety Month. These national and global broadcasts contributed to the structure and format of the dialogue circles on the web site.
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