As Black History Month was drawing to a close, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory told members of a Southern Maryland parish that knowledge of that history can help build understanding and respect among this nation’s people.

Speaking after a Feb. 26 Mass that he celebrated at St. John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick, Cardinal Gregory  said, “I think Black history is important not just for African Americans. It’s important for Americans. It’s an opportunity for us to build a nation together.”

The cardinal added, “If Black history can have a positive impact on our kids and on our communities, it’s to draw us together, to make us neighbors, friends and brothers and sisters.” 

Cardinal Gregory, who became the first African American cardinal in 2020 after Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals, noted that earlier in February, he had also spoken about Black History Month at Catholic churches in Brooklyn, New York, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Speaking  at the Prince Frederick church, he said that Black History Month offers “an invitation to us as a nation to respect, honor and recognize the contributions that African Americans have made to our nation.”

The cardinal noted that the month is a time to learn about noted African Americans, and he pointed out, “We have a wonderful African American museum,” the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in the nation’s capital.

Washington’s archbishop emphasized that when people “recognize the gifts and talents and the contributions of people of color to this nation, it doesn’t take away from anyone else’s contributions… What it does is, it says, ‘If we respect one another, and if we respect one another’s history, we’d be a wonderful country, and I think that’s what this is all about.”

Cardinal Gregory noted how as a child attending Catholic school in his native Chicago, the demographics of his neighborhood and school were impacted by the actions of realtors who, when a Black family would move into the neighborhood, they would frighten white families into selling their homes at deflated prices, and then later re-sell those homes to Black families at inflated prices. He noted how as the school year began, his sixth grade class had about six African American children and about 35 white students, and as white families began moving out and Black families began moving into the neighborhood, each Monday he would have a few less white classmates and a few more Black classmates, until by the end of the year, there were only three or four white students remaining in his class, and the rest were African American students.

“That was my first experience of such a transition,” he said, joking that, in the spirit of Dante’s Inferno, perhaps there is a special ring of hell for realtors who acted in that way.

Cardinal Gregory noted the Catholic Church’s own experiences of racism in its history, and how religious orders within what is now The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington once enslaved African Americans. In 1838, 272 enslaved men, women and children were sold by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus to two Louisiana plantation owners, in order to ensure the financial survival of Georgetown College (now Georgetown University) sponsored by the Jesuits.

He also noted recent events, like George Floyd’s death in May 2020 when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and was later found guilty of murder.

Those “sad moments, they challenge us, and they should challenge us,” he said, noting they should make people reflect on “how do we treat one another.”

The cardinal said it’s important to acknowledge racism in the nation’s and the Catholic Church’s history.

“If you don’t teach history, you may repeat it,” he said, adding, “But if you focus only on history, you won’t see the possibility of a better tomorrow.”

Cardinal Gregory said the people of the United States have “a shared history, but we also have a shared future,” and children “have to see a common future together, as brothers and sisters.”

In a question and answer session that followed, the cardinal was asked about systematic racism, and he said that could be seen in how prison populations have a disproportionately large population of people of color. He asked, “Are you saying Black and Brown people are disproportionately more violent and criminal, or is it that the legal system leans toward those who have money and those who have influence?”

Asked about the taking down the statues of Confederate Civil War figures in recent years, Cardinal Gregory noted the example of a famous traitor from the Revolutionary War, “Would we put up a statue of Benedict Arnold? He violated the fundamental values of our nation. We have to understand why those actions (the taking down of those statues) took place.”

Another questioner asked about how to invite more African Americans into the Catholic Church, and the cardinal noted that while he was inspired to become Catholic by the example of the priests and women religious at his parish school, not all African American students have that experience at Catholic schools.

“I challenge our schools to make sure that the kids that are there get a quality education, that we love them to death and help the prepare for life, but we also invite them to be with us in faith,” Cardinal Gregory said. Evangelization into the faith, he said, can be fostered when people offer others “a welcoming experience.”