Racism has been a problem in our country almost since its founding. Of late there have been key points that show how bad things still are today.  This gives rise to the need to respond, of course in this diocese, in a loving way.  We provide here in the next few paragraphs background to the history of responses within the diocese including what brings us to this event series this year. Our hope is that we instantiate part of a regular response for years to come to address racism.

Locally in our diocese in 2018 changes were made that reduced the scope of the AAMEN(African Ancestry Ministry and Evanglization Network) office however when national issues arose in 2020 showing how bad things still are in this country Bishop Zarama re-established the AAMEN office similar to its prior scope. Then the Bishop’s staff started racism training with a consultant from Georgia. While the programming was good the participation didn’t reach the folks that the staff had hoped it would reach. Further that training only lasted a year or so. Fast forward to 2024 and we had gone years without any programming to address racism. So a request was made early in the year to have the diocese do regular annual bias based awareness activities that could over years lead to training that really addresses racism. The suggestion was to have each parish in the diocese utilize the USCCB(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) Stations of the Cross - Overcoming Racism document on Fridays during lent. Bishop Zarama suggested we start at Holy Cross and utilize the Diocesan Communications Office to reach the rest of the diocese.   That lands us where we are today our first year conducting Stations of the Cross - Overcoming Racism for the diocese. Holy Cross and other parishes in the diocese have utilized this document to conduct stations of the cross before. We are happy this year to be offering this to the diocese! 

So why do this bias awareness regularly? Simply to help us overcome the sin. We can’t be the best diocese in the world and continuously perpetuate this sin. Pope Francis called racism out as a sin. So we are doing our part to help each individual in the diocese take a positive step on their journey to heaven. If we can eradicate this sin we help everyone take a step closer to the ultimate goal of heaven! 

So what led to this Stations of the Cross - Overcoming Racism document being approved by the US Bishops? Well as stated Racism has been a problem and the US Bishops a year before the Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism document was approved launched an initiative called Open Wide Our Hearts. There is more detail about both of these resources on the USCCB website. Our hope is that not only will we adopt this stations of the cross document throughout the diocese but that we will also embrace the OWOH document. This is a journey and we have to start and continue taking steps to improve in order to reach our ultimate goal. Given we as Catholics believe in community, let’s all work together to change how we treat this difference! At its beginning Christianity was extended beyond just the Jews to all races! So as Christians we are called to embrace each other without this sin! 

How can you start this journey at your parish? Well you are taking the first step - attending one of the events at Holy Cross. We have taken this opportunity to embrace several races in this inaugural year of conducting this version of stations for the diocesan. Our hope is that in future years your parish will do the same and conduct stations of the cross for all races on Fridays during lent. When you attend one of our events this year be sure to check-in(scroll down and use the 2nd column in the table to check-in for the specific event you are about to attend/view if you haven't already)  so Bishop Zarama can see who all is attending. After attending/viewing be sure to give us feedback(for each event you attend/view use column 3 in the table below to provide feedback)  so we can also provide insight to Bishop Zarama as to how to best move forward with our diocesan journey.  Below in the table are the communities that we have invited to Holy Cross for the 6 Fridays of Lent for 2025.