Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy. Tonight I went to a local Catholic Church for a memorial service for King. There were many African Americans in Church. This service confirmed my New Year’s resolution to follow through on the essay and research I said I would do after our Catholic church that existed since 1897 was closed in 2011, leaving only one Catholic Church in a wide area of the North side of Milwaukee. This area also happens to be the most segregated area, over 85% African American, of the most segregated city in USA and one of the poorest areas of one of the poorest areas in the City of Milwaukee. See the two census maps below.
Many Catholic churches flourished in the area in the 60’s, now there is one. Churches are flourishing in this area but Catholic Churches have been closed until now there is only one. It is too easy an answer to say Blacks are not Catholics when Black Catholic schools and parishes flourished in other predominately African American neighborhoods like in Chicago or Washington D.C. In the closing of all the Catholic churches, including the one we belonged to, the Catholic Church, in my opinion, made a conscious effort not to reach out to Blacks and based decisions on finances.
Our former church was in a predominately African American community on the North side and although small was surviving with financial income from the rental of the school and the former convent. One day we were told that rental income did not count and we would have to change to stay open. The parish as a whole decided on a more evangelical model of Church but was never given a chance to do it. When a large unsolicited offer was made for the Church property we were told that we were being closed and being ‘merged’ or sent to an even smaller parish with less income but not as north as our parish.
I am afraid that when I look into the closing of all the other Catholic parishes and Catholic social services on the north side I will find a similar pattern. After I moved back to Milwaukee and was attending one of my first vigils for homicide victims an African American pastor told me the best thing the Catholic Church ever did on the north side was to close the churches and schools and sell them to church congregations. I did not understand what he was saying at the time but now I do.
I have hesitated to take on this project since no one wants to hear what I may find, as the African Americans came marching into the North side the Catholic Church came marching out, but the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and my own Roman Catholic faith compels me. As I heard someone say at the service tonight, “Unless we learn from history we are doomed to make the same mistakes.” I see more discrimination today than I did in the 60’s; it is more subtle but with my eyes wide open I can see more.
Census Map with red area
85% plus African-American
Red dots indicate poverty areas
Comments
(:commentboxchrono:)