DIOCESE—Bishop David Malloy joined bishops around the country in decrying the racism and violence that played a part in the death of George Floyd.

 

Floyd was an unarmed black man pinned down by a police officer kneeling on his neck in Minneapolis May 25. Floyd died in the hospital after the incident.

 

Protests both peaceful and violent broke out almost immediately across the U.S. as video from the incident spread through social media.

 

Just before crowds gathered to protest in many parts of the Rockford Diocese including larger groups in Aurora, Rockford, Freeport and DeKalb, Bishop Malloy issued a statement on May 30.

 

“The Bishops of the United States have issued a statement in wake of death of George Floyd and national protests that have followed. In that statement they state forcefully, ‘This is the latest wake-up call that needs to be answered by each of us in a spirit of determined conversion. Racism is not a thing of the past or simply a throwaway political issue to be bandied about when convenient. It is a real and present danger that must be met head on. ... We plead for an end to the violence in the wake of this tragedy and for the victims of the rioting,” he wrote. 

 

“I join myself to the entirety of the statement of the bishops. Racial injustice and the hatred and anger that ensue have for too long been a part of our society. Based in faith and in our shared humanity we must come to see each other as bearing the dignity that flows from being made in God’s image and likeness,” he continued.

 

“I ask that we all pray for peace, healing and an end to violence in this difficult moment. May we also receive the grace in our own hearts to overcome once and for all any sense of racial hatred or division so that we might become the people and nation that God has made us to be.”

 

The next day, May 31, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles issued his own statement calling the killing of George Floyd “senseless and brutal, a sin that cries out to heaven for justice. How is it possible that in America, a black man’s life can be taken from him while calls for help are not answered, and his killing is recorded as it happens?”

 

While the archbishop called for justice, prayer and “to finally root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society,” he added that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost. Let us keep our eyes on the prize of true and lasting change.” 

 

— For the full statement by the Bishops’ Chairman and Committee on Racism visit http://www.usccb.org/news/2020/20-83.cfm

 

— For Archbishop Gomez’s full statement visit https://www.rockforddiocese.org/pdfs/20164.pdf