Priests told to face up to racial justice

PARISH priests have been criticised for failing to denounce racism from the pulpit for fear of losing white members of their congregation. Priests were reminded of their duty "to preach fearlessly on the subject of racial harmony" and told "not to refrain'from naming racism as a grave sin" in a resolution passed by a cent con ference on the sub of the parish as a multi-ra com munity.
The conference, was attended by about 40 delegates from parishes all over South London, was launched by Bishop Howard Tripp, bishop for the South West London area of the Southwark diocese, at the Emmaus retreat and Conference Centre, West Wickham, Kent, on Friday, March 12.
The delegates were critical of the Catholic Church's record on race relations, and several challenging resolutions were passsed. The conference called for an independent inquiry into the "widely held" feeling that Catholic schools were treating ethnic minority groups unfairly. It called upon the bishops to make clear their policy towards race relations in the parishes. But the delegates were not entirely uncritical about the apparent lack of will from some of the West Indian community to work for racial integration. The complete absence of vocations from the British-born black community was discussed at length, and it was felt that young black people needed to be shown black priests operating in English parishes as a means of dispelling their fears that "such a way of life was impossible for them."