From the Indianapolis Star
By Justin L. Mack
Both inside and outside St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church on Sunday, the statement "Black lives matter" was said with conviction and met with opposition.
Outside, it was written on signs and chanted through megaphones by members of the community protesting remarks made late last month by the Rev. Theodore Rothrock calling Black Lives Matter organizers "maggots and parasites."
Those "Black lives matter!" chants were met with chants of "Go Father Ted!" from counter-protesters who oppose the suspension handed down to Rothrock and argue that he was speaking the truth.
Inside, during 9:30 a.m. Mass, "Black lives matter" was said just once by Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana at the end of his opening comments to the more than 150 people attending.
His words prompted one woman to shout "You're a coward" in the bishop's direction multiple times before she was escorted out. More than a dozen other people gathered their belongings and walked out of the church along with her.
Strong words at Carmel church
These tense moments and others unfolded throughout the church campus Sunday during events that started around 7:30 a.m. and continued into the evening.
The primary demonstration outside, called the "Gathering for Equality, Justice and Healing," was organized by the newly formed Carmel Against Racial Injustice group shortly after Rothrock's comments were made public.
The event was originally planned as a protest to push for Rothrock's removal, but in the wake of his suspension, the group worked in tandem with the church to hold the event with a new name and a focus on educating the community.
"We don’t want the situation to occur ever again, especially in this community but also in other communities as well," said Kayla Seymour, one of the founders of Carmel Against Racial Injustice. "We don’t think that that type of leadership is needed anywhere, so we just want to be here to educate people and just hopefully get people to understand and reason with us."
But their presence also attracted counter-protesters like Mark J. Powell, a man who said he was a Lutheran pastor and unsuccessfully ran for Indiana’s 9th Congressional district this year. He chanted in support of Rothrock and verbally sparred with protesters as they stood on Haverstick Road leading up to the church.
"The group Black Lives Matter is a Marxist front organization," he said. "This is a call, as well as what Father Ted was saying, for people to wake up to what Black Lives Matter the organization is doing. They're using race to destabilize and to divide this country over race during the time of a presidential election."
Rothrock's controversial comments
Rothrock on Wednesday was suspended from public ministry by Doherty. In Rothrock's original message posted on June 28, he wrote that the church must oppose Black Lives Matter and Antifa and carry the "message of peace."
"The only lives that matter are their own and the only power they seek is their own," Rothrock wrote of Black Lives Matter organizers. "They are wolves in wolves clothing, masked thieves and bandits, seeking only to devour the life of the poor and profit from the fear of others. They are maggots and parasites at best, feeding off the isolation of addiction and broken families, and offering to replace any current frustration and anxiety with more misery and greater resentment."
The post has since been removed from the church's website. Rothrock also apologized Tuesday in a message sent to parishioners and later posted on the church's website,
"It was not my intention to offend anyone," he wrote, "and I am sorry that my words have caused any hurt to anyone."
Rothrock was slated to become pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He will no longer transition to that role, and Deacon Bill Reid will serve as administrator of St. Elizabeth Seton.
The Catholic Church and Black Lives Matter
Doherty began 9:30 a.m. Mass by directly addressing what was happening outside the church. He referenced an article published by the Catholic News Agency that asks whether Catholics can support the Black Lives Matter movement.
He said the article points out that while organizations such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation promote ideologies that are directly at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church, the phrase itself has outgrown being affiliated with a single organization or individual.
"It is a mistake to say that foundation is the headquarters of a coordinated or very diverse movement," he said. "We can't capture the facts of what's happening across different movements inside and outside of the United States by simply referring to a general 'they' or an 'it.'"
He also asked that those in attendance continue to pray for the church and the good of the diocese.
"Pray for Father Rothrock, who is still a friend to many of us," he said. "And if anyone asks you, you can tell them that this bishop says Black lives matter."
As he spoke, the woman who called him a coward also accused him of having no backbone, saying "they're doing it anyway out there" in reference to the protesters who decided to gather despite Rothrock's suspension.
Another man yelled out, "You're an enemy bishop!" after Doherty said Black lives matter. There was scattered, dueling applause for both Doherty and those making the outbursts.
Protests and counter-protests
By 11 a.m., hundreds of people were mulling around the campus. Some to protest, some to spectate and some simply to attend Mass and return to their cars.
Protesters and counterprotesters went from the church grounds to the public sidewalk and back, doing their best to communicate their respective messages to passing cars and church attendees.
Just outside the front steps of the church, a group organized by Jill Metz gathered and prayed in support of Rothrock. Metz, who is from Fishers, said the goal was to not engage with the other groups but to have a presence on the campus throughout the day.
"We feel that Father Ted spoke out in truth, and we're to peaceably pray in support of all lives," she said. "This should not be about Black lives. All lives matter. All lives."
Kathy Cohenour, an Indianapolis resident who came out in support of Carmel Against Racial Injustice, said she was horrified by Rothrock's remarks.
"I was absolutely stunned. And my first thought was, is that anything that Jesus would say?" she said, while holding a sign that read "Racism is not a Catholic teaching."
Cohenour said the response to Rothrock's comments have been encouraging. She said she has been taking part in social justice movements since the 1960s and is thankful that the next generation continues to fight.
"You go through periods of ups and downs, just thinking it’s never going to change, and it’s discouraging. But I really feel like this time there’s momentum," she said. "It wasn’t just a week or two and people lost interest. It has really been building, and the fact that it has been able to engage a lot more people of all stripes and colors. ... I think that kind of gives me hope that things are really going to change this time."
If this is the best the Catholic Church bishops will do, the church is doing as much as we can expect, given that Bishops are for the most part Marxists themselves. It is way past time for Catholics to shake themselves out of their slumber, stop living in the past, stop clinging to their ideas of Catholicity, and realize these men are no more Catholic than Louis Farrakhan. These men are not bishops in the sense of bishops of days past. These are secular careerists with Catholic covers, that they put on or take off as the need arises.
ReplyDeleteWe have been weekly Mass attending Catholics most of our lives, and we are done with these men. Done with it. It's over. Catholics were able to live in denial for quite a while, but it has become too glaringly obvious. I never expect any of them to say a manly thing or do a Catholic thing, anymore, and I am never disappointed. What we need to do is realize we have Jesus Christ, but the church, is gone. But it's alright, Christ gives us grace that is sufficient. We'll be okay.