MENU

January 16, 2017

USCCB president urges encounters of the heart in Martin Luther King Jr. Day message

NATIONAL
Staff report

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is pictured in an undated file photo. The nation honors the legacy of the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate with a national holiday, observed Jan. 18 this year. (CNS file photo)

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is pictured in an undated file photo. The nation honors the legacy of the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate with a national holiday, observed Jan. 16 this year. (CNS file photo)

WASHINGTON — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, issued the following statement in relation to the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Full statement follows:

A Statement from Cardinal Daniel DiNardo
President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Since the time of the founding fathers, our country has been blessed with citizens who have had the courage to rise above the challenges of their day and call their fellow citizens forward in the unending task of building an ever more just nation. Today, we celebrate such a citizen, Martin Luther King, Jr. His inspiration guides us as we seek to build peace in our communities under the recent strain of division and violence. Recently, USCCB’s Task Force for Peace in Our Communities has examined and reported on how the bishops of the United States may improve their own contribution to this ongoing national effort.

While there have been real gains in our country, we must not deny the work before us to heal both old rifts and new wounds, including those created by the evil of racism and related mistrust and violence. Society cannot continue this work if its members are unwilling to engage in encounters of the heart that honestly immerse them in one another’s lives. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday provides a wonderful opportunity to examine how well each of us is doing in walking together with others in true encounter and solidarity.

A painting of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is seen on a piece of art  in Selma, Ala., Jan. 8. The town was the scene of a major civil rights confrontation in March, 1965, in which police beat protesters who were marching to demand voting rights for African-Americans. (CNS photo/Jim Young, Reuters)

A painting of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is seen on a piece of art in Selma, Ala., Jan. 8. The town was the scene of a major civil rights confrontation in March, 1965, in which police beat protesters who were marching to demand voting rights for African-Americans. (CNS photo/Jim Young, Reuters)

Dr. King reminded us that our obligations to one another “concern inner attitudes, genuine person-to-person relations, and expressions of compassion which law books cannot regulate and jails cannot rectify. Such obligations are met by one’s commitment to an inner law, written on the heart. Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love.” On this national holiday, may we think prayerfully about the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. King who directed his work toward both the structural and personal causes of racism. As he urged the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, ‘no, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream’” (Amos 5:24).

print