Register for (De)Facing White Supremacy: A webinar with Pax Christi USA

Tuesday June 7, 7-8:30 pm Eastern time 

“Weaving threads of peace” is the theme for Pax Christi USA’s 50th anniversary year. As milestones are a cause for celebration, they also provide opportunities for assessment, reflection and contemplation.

“(De)Facing White Supremacy” is a webinar intended to create space for deep reflection and discussion about the identity of Pax Christi USA as a Catholic institution that aspires to be anti-racist. We have invited Pax Christi members to consider the weaving of a tapestry as a metaphor for our identity with the weft being our peace and justice work and the warp our principles and spirituality. 

REGISTER HERE

However, as a Catholic organization in the United States we must also reflect on the flaws in the warp that make up our identity as a largely white organization in a human institution that has yet to reflect on its historical sins toward Black and Indigenous peoples and its continued role in supporting white supremacy. 

This webinar is directed specifically at white members of Pax Christi USA (and other white Catholics), with the intention of providing a starting point to begin to do the work of facing, confessing and dismantling white supremacy, and working toward the goal of racial solidarity. Even though it is directed to white Catholics, all are welcome to participate.

The webinar will address three questions:

1) How do we name the point the Catholic Church in the United States is in, in regards to anti-black supremacy?

2) How did we get here historically, socially, politically, economically, and ecclesially?

3) What is our work going forward to undo anti-black white supremacy in Pax Christi USA and our church and world?

Please join us on Tuesday June 7, 7-8:30 pm Eastern time: REGISTER HERE

Speakers:

Jeannine Hill Fletcher is a theologian at Fordham University. Her most recent book, The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism and Religious Diversity in America (Orbis, 2017), emerged from various anti-racism initiatives on campus and her work as the faculty director of the service-learning program. Her training has also included work with the grassroots social justice organization, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, an inter-generational, multi-racial, multi-religious group organizing to address social justice issues in New York City and beyond. Her current work (tentatively titled Grace of the Ghosts: A Theology of Institutional Accountability) looks at college campuses as the site of illicitly received benefits (from the sins of white supremacy) and asks how our institutions can be locations for social change. 

Alex Mikulich is a Catholic theologian and social ethicist who has devoted his scholarship and activism to addressing white supremacy in the Roman Catholic Church and society. His Unlearning White Supremacy: A Spirituality for Racial Liberation is forthcoming from Orbis Books June 15. Alex served the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team (PCART) from 2008 to 2015.

Margaret R. Pfeil holds a joint appointment in the Theology Department and in the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame. She is a Faculty Fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion. Her research interests include Catholic social thought, racial justice, ecological ethics, ecumenical dialogue, and peace studies. She has co-authored and co-edited several volumes. She is also a founder and resident of the St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker Community in South Bend, Indiana.