Creating a World
of Greater Unity and Justice

Q U I C K S C A N

Respecting each other’s religious views
Memories of a civil rights march
led by Martin Luther King
Gestures of collaboration and solidarity

January and February are months when we Americans look at themes important to Christians: Christian Unity (January) and black history (February).

The two observances fit rather naturally together. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was very ecumenical in spirit. He was joined, over the years, by a variety of admirers from other denominations and faith communities who supported his struggle for justice on behalf of black brothers and sisters whose rights were being ignored or crassly trampled. The realization of Christian unity—of Christ’s desire that “All may be one” (John 17:21)—is a sublime goal and noble object of prayer and something we all need to devote more attention to. But each year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity seeks to accomplish more than simply praying. Earnest prayer for unity naturally leads to compassionate action—to the healing of divisions, to working together for the common good of the human family and to the creating of a world of greater love, justice and unity.

Respecting each other’s religious views

This is not easy work, but we are greatly encouraged when we see people from different religious backgrounds collaborating side by side on projects that advance the human cause. This is especially true when the men and women so engaged show respect in dramatic ways for the religious beliefs, goals and prayer styles of brothers and sisters belonging to faith communities other than their own.

I recently read an account of a speech given last November at the University of Dayton (Ohio) by Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who, as a young man, was a close aide to Dr. King. In his address Young spoke of being deeply moved by a poignant personal encounter between Martin Luther King and Paul Hallinan, the late Roman Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta. Young, an ordained minister who had walked alongside King in the civil rights movement and later became mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, recalled that Archbishop Hallinan came to visit Dr. King in the hospital after King had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. With obvious emotion, Young described how Archbishop Hallinan gave a blessing to King, knelt down in front of the civil rights leader and humbly asked, “May I receive yours?”

“To see that kind of religious reconciliation was one of those moments that will always give me hope,” Young told the large, racially mixed audience. “In spite of all our differences, we are all God’s children. The greatest among us never forget that.”

Memories of a civil rights march
led by Martin Luther King

I have a memory of my own to share. It was a cold, drizzly March day in 1964. I was a young Franciscan priest ordained only eight months and, with other friars of my class, was receiving some additional pastoral training in Louisville, Kentucky. Father Silas Oleksinski, O.F.M., was one of the Franciscan mentors living in our friary. Silas, an energetic, outgoing type, organized a group of friars and lay Franciscans to take part in a civil rights march led by Martin Luther King, Jr., in Frankfort, Kentucky, 50 miles away. Some of the lay Franciscans who joined the march were from the little African American Catholic Church of St. Peter Claver in Louisville, which was then served by the Franciscan friars.

The civil rights demonstration ended with a speech delivered by Dr. King to a large crowd, which stood patiently in a misty rain on the capitol lawn. I still have a photo of Dr. King giving his talk while an aide is holding an umbrella over his head. One of the people standing near the speaker’s platform and looking toward my camera was Jackie Robinson, the first African American major league baseball player to break the color barrier in the United States.

One of the comments that King made in that speech was this: “The law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.” According to King, it was not enough to preach a message of love that assured the oppressed that God would set them free in the next life. It was also necessary to join the struggle to bring about changes in those laws and practices that dehumanize our sisters and brothers on this earth and hold them in bondage. Martin Luther King and his supporters could no longer tolerate the social structures, laws and customs that forced black citizens to sit in the back of buses or to stay away from “whites only” drinking fountains, swimming pools, lunch counters, schools and so on. Our Christian and human task, he insisted, must include the elimination of all forms of social evil that affront the dignity of human beings created in God’s image.

Gestures of collaboration and solidarity

A crisp memory I’ll always treasure from that Frankfort march is that of Father Silas in his brown Franciscan habit running after Dr. King as he and his aides walked briskly away from the speaker’s platform. When Silas eventually caught up with Dr. King, he threw his arm around his shoulder and enthusiastically shared words of encouragement and support.

Gestures of solidarity and partnership, such as were shown by Silas—or by Archbishop Hallinan in the earlier example—communicate much more than can be put into words. Such gestures convey support on many levels: on the level of Christian unity, on the level of advancing the unity of the whole human family and on the level of building a more just world. In our own day we need to find new ways of joining other men and women of good will in carrying out the mission of Jesus and promoting the common good of humanity.

[Read more about Martin Luther King, Jr., in 8 Spiritual Heroes: Their Search for God by Brennan R. Hill.]

Friar Jim’s Inbox

Readers respond to Friar Jim’s “What Is the Sacrament of the Eucharist?”

Dear Friar Jim: What truly astounds me is how many people are like scientists. If they cannot explain it, touch it or feel it, it cannot exist. Those who believe in the Eucharist or in anything these people cannot accept must be wrong or ill-informed. I think we need to pray for them in hopes our Lord will shine his everlasting light on them. Thank you for your e-mails and God bless you. Bill

Dear Bill: Even for ourselves, Eucharist is not something we figured out; rather it is God’s gift to us. Adult converts make an act of faith that most “cradle Catholics” never had to make. It’s just in our bones, as we say. But what a moment of grace for us when you see tears in the eyes of new Catholics at the Easter Vigil as they approach their First Holy Communion. Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: Please explain the significance of putting a particle of the host into the chalice at the Consecration. Arthur

Dear Arthur: We know that each species, bread and wine, is truly the whole of Jesus: body and blood, soul and divinity. Yet visually it is easy, almost automatically, for us to think the bread=body and the wine=blood. The particle in the wine is only symbolic of uniting the body and blood even though Jesus is totally present in each species. Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: Thank you for your column on the Eucharist. I found it most inspiring. You pointed out quite correctly that when we receive and say our “Amen,” we acknowledge that we believe that we are indeed taking the true body and blood of our savior. I have always felt that our “Amen” is meant also to confirm our responsibility to leave the table of the Lord’s Supper and to go forth into our daily lives and be like Jesus to others. The “Amen” says, “I believe that Jesus is present and is asking me to say yes to his teachings and follow them.” The Eucharist makes us one with our brother Jesus and gives us the courage to try our very best to carry out his love of all. Thank you so much for your inspiration. Tom

Dear Tom: Your reflection on the “Amen” is right on target. It’s an “Amen” that has consequences that carry us through the day. Thanks. Friar Jim

Send your feedback to friarjack@americancatholic.org.

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