In the latest ePistle newsletter for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Deacon Royce Winters, the angriest member of Archbishop Schnurr’s dysfunctional chancery, shares his … anger on the occasion of Nelson Mandela’s death. Here’s a snippet:
In the death of South African President Nelson Mandela, we’ve lost one of the icons of the struggle for Peace and Justice in our world. I can recall as it was yesterday, the anger burning deep within me as I became more aware of the movement against apartheid in South Africa. The anger was the residue of the injustice that shamed and scarred my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents as they attempted to navigate the injustice of America in the “Jim Crow South.” The struggle for justice in South Africa opened the wounds of division that separated people of color and rendered “colored-folk” to a less than human status in America.
Yet, in the later part of the 20th Century stood a man for the ages, his name was Nelson Mandela. A man who overcame the stigma of being a political prisoner for more than twenty-years and upon his release led a movement, a people, and a country to face the sin of their nation. His voice was one of the many advocates for justice in our world who stood above the crowd, as heralds for justice, peace and reconciliation.
It’s unclear from the piece whether he was angered in any way by Mandela’s support for unlimited abortion.
19 December 2013 at 9:30 am
“His voice was one of the many advocates for justice in our world who stood above the crowd, as heralds for justice, peace and reconciliation.” Sounds like Mandela has helped Royce heal some. With our white privilege Rich we can never fully understand the disillusionment felt by our black brothers in Christ.
19 December 2013 at 10:31 am
His voice was an advocate, eh? Were his hands and feet advocates, too? And those “wounds of division,” did they really “render colored-folk to a less than human status”? My goodness me!
When people like Rev. Mr. Winters make earnest attempts at soaring rhetoric, the results can be the opposite of what they intend.
20 December 2013 at 4:03 pm
What Ron said. The man is bitter, angry, and accusatory, and, I’ll say it again, it is scandalous and disgraceful that Archbishop Schnurr keeps these people in charge of his chancery. We are living through the “Being There” episcopate. And Mark S., when you speak of “white privilege,” you speak for yourself.
21 December 2013 at 1:55 pm
“With our white privilege”
OK … I’ll take the bait. Being white, and even more scandalous – male, I have been told my whole life I have been part of a class privileged and responsible for the oppression of others. If you’re told something repeatedly over a long enough period it becomes believable (as in Germany circa 1930’s).
In the early 90’s my white privilege took me to the campus of a regional university where I taught in the ROTC department and so could work on a master degree. One of my fellow students was a black woman – Tracy – who never let pass an opportunity to share her sad, difficult and oppressed path. I took the bait – was appropriately saddened and enraged.
The great day of graduation came – I participated and sat next to Tracy. She was kind enough to introduce me to her husband, an engineer, her father a professor at a university in the south, and her mother another professor at the same university (both Phd). Imagine my confusion as I compared my roots as the son of a machine tool repairman and nurse (do degree) with those of this oppressed and downtrodden woman. Those black roots were nourished with some pricy bottled water. An anecdote to be sure, but very much a part of my personal inventory of comparison criteria.