June 17, 2023
Dear Friends in Christ,
When word of freedom finally reached enslaved African Americans in Texas, the Emancipation Proclamation had already been signed by President Abraham Lincoln for two and a half years. After a lifetime of waiting, the enslaved African American population in Texas had to endure another two and half years of slavery before hearing of slavery’s abolition. Our brothers and sisters in Christ did finally receive the announcement of the abolition of slavery when it reached the Confederate South on June 19, 1865, or Juneteenth. This celebration of freedom is our country’s second Independence Day.
Now, 158 years later, the sin of slavery still greatly influences the world we live in. We are called by God to recognize these detrimental influences and to create lasting change for the benefit of all. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out, God bestows his love upon us and this love “unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one until in the end, God is ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28).”
As you may know, our local Church is undergoing a period of self-assessment, which includes the creation of the Commission on Slavery. This Commission will oversee a historical study that will prayerfully examine the Archdiocese’s connection to slavery. At the same time, I would ask each of us to continue to understand and address the ways that racism destroys human dignity, shatters the unity of the human family, and rejects the Good News of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Together as brothers and sisters of Christ may we strive for true and lasting freedom, freedom from the power of sin which alienates us from God and estranges us from one another. In Christ, may we ever discover and rejoice in the One who sets us free and who makes us sisters and brothers to one another.
Faithfully in Christ
Most Reverend William E. Lori
Archbishop of Baltimore