New Orleans archbishop apologizes to St. Augustine’s, assails church racism

At a Dec. 8 press conference to release a pastoral letter against racism and the system of white privilege in New Orleans, Archbishop Alfred Hughes apologized to the people of St. Augustine’s, the historic African American parish he tried to close last spring after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Hughes said at first he saw the closure as a sensible pastoral policy for a struggling parish. But the people’s angry reaction in defense of their treasured parish taught him there was a deeper, unfaced racial issue at work in the community.

Call To Action helped the people of St. Augustine’s in the protests last spring, and continues to work with them as part of the new CTA JustChurch Project (story, pages 1-2). The Hughes pastoral letter is very good news for the project and for CTA’s Antiracism Team. (For full text, visit www.arch-no.org)