News - Racial Justice

This summer, the ARC at St. Ignatius Parish (Anti-Racism Committee) joyously invites the entire parish community to join us in reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2020), a New York Times and a Washington Post bestseller: "As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise."

Summer has arrived! And the ARC (Anti-Racism Committee) joyously invites the entire parish community to join us in reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2020). Summer invites us to slow down, notice the beauty of Creation, and become more aware of our relationship with the natural world.

On the weekend of July 17 – 19 , we celebrate “Good Trouble”, a concept introduced to us by the late Representative John Lewis. Standing at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 2020, Lewis called on us to “get in good trouble, necessary trouble and redeem the soul of America”. He wanted us to act, reach out to help, make a difference. He would have known all about that. Born in Troy, Alabama, his father was a sharecropper. Growing up, John Lewis attended racially segregated schools, suffered harassment and was the recipient of racial epithets. But as a young man, he was inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. According to John Lewis, it was Rosa Parks who, in his words, wanted “to find a way, to get in the way, to get in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.” He went on to say, “And for people if you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, do something. We cannot afford to be quiet.” John Lewis knew when to speak out and when to act out.

Greetings, St. Ignatius community. You might know me. I’m Jen and you’ll often find me greeting at the Saturday 5pm Mass at the Parker Avenue door. My other half, Becky, and I have been members of the Parish for about four years. In addition to my greeter duties, I serve on the Worship Commission and Becky is part of the Liturgical Environment Committee. We love being part of this parish and participating in these ways, but we also acknowledge that it’s still quite surprising to us. We never thought we’d be so involved in a church. When we were asked to contribute our thoughts during Pride month, we had to really consider whether or not we had anything to say. June is no different to us than any other month as we’re long past the days of parades and parties. But then we thought about our Parish asking us about Pride Month, and our minds were blown. Our Catholic Parish was asking us to speak about our experience! It was nearly unbelievable.

In the spirit of Catholic Social Teaching, which asserts that we are one family created in God’s image, we are called to extend respect and courtesy to all faith traditions. As Pope Leo recently reminded us, hope calls on us to put our trust in God, just as Moses did and as our Muslim friends do as they celebrate Muharram starting on June 16.

The St. Ignatius Parish Anti-Racism Committee is proud to sponsor this year's St. Ignatius Parish summer read. Join us as we embark on this annual parish tradition! This year our reading will bring us wisdom from our Indigenous Sisters and Brothers that pertains to our natural world. This summer we’ll be reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, and discussing it on Sunday, September 20, following hospitality after the 10 am Mass.

The parish’s Anti-Racism Committee invites all, including faithful from outside St. Ignatius, to join us in praying an “Asian American Pacific Islander Rosary” together, in-person and/or on Zoom, during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, on the following dates...

Kali sarakosti (Καλή σαρακοστή)! This literally means “Good 40-days” in Greek. In Greece, there are many greetings specifically for the beginning of an event. There are also specific greetings for religious occasions in addition to the common ordinary greetings you hear all year round, such as good day, good week or good month. Since our arrival in Greece, we have been greeted by a vibrant Catholic community. Among those who greeted us are Maronites, Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins, and priests from all over the world now residing in the cradle of western civilization. Within the Catholic Greece we have visited, we saw a generally thriving church scene.

Irish immigration to the United States began early in the 17th century. Many of the immigrants worked as indentured servants or sought refuge from political and religious persecution. The largest wave of immigration occurred during the 19th century, particularly during and after the Great Famine (1845–1852). Over one million Irish persons fled starvation and poverty. Many Irish immigrants landed in major US port cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

It’s always fun to discover a new saint to contemplate and engage with them, and it was a joy when, sometime back, my fellow Anti-Racism Committee member Angie Vuong introduced the Parish to St. Andrew Dung-Lac, a Saint of whom I had not been aware. I now include him in my Litany rotation. (Far and away my favorite prayer is the Litany of the Saints. I love asking for the intercession of the Saints and the sweet rhythms of this prayer.) Recently, I’ve been meditating on important aspects of the lives of several ancient saints that de-centers their often pre-supposed “whiteness.”

This Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let us remember his radical advocacy of love as expressed in the Gospels. This love extends to everyone, even under the harshest structural injustices, which he sought to help us all change so we could be closer to God. And let us remember his heterodox Christian martyrdom and nonviolent civil disobedience. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Read a summary of the Catholic and interfaith commemoration of the person whose faith in action we honor this weekend.

If you’ve ever walked into Saint Ignatius Church through the Parker Avenue doors, look to your left—you’ll see her. The Virgen de Guadalupe, standing on the moon, wrapped in stars and golden rays. It’s not just a pretty image. For many, she’s a source of strength, comfort, and belonging.

In your mind's eye, picture an old stone church in a small barrio decorated with lights and parols (star-shaped lanterns). Now imagine the scent of steaming puto (rice cake) and baked bibingka filling the air as many gather to attend the first day of “Simbang Gabi”. Simbang gabi, which directly translates to “Night Mass”, is also called Misa de Gallo (meaning "Mass of the Rooster") or Misa de Aguinaldo (meaning "Mass of the Gifts”). It is a Filipino tradition, a nine-day series of masses leading up to Christmas where we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as she prepares to give birth to the baby Jesus. These Masses are usually held at dawn and after mass comes a delicious breakfast of Filipino delicacies with hot tsolokate (chocolate).

November invites us to pause and reflect. It begins with All Saints’ Day, when many Catholics remember loved ones who have passed away. It’s also the season of Thanksgiving, marked by family gatherings, recipes, and a spirit of gratitude. And while our grocery stores are full year-round, November once marked harvest time—a moment to celebrate the gifts of the earth and prepare for winter. This makes it the perfect time to rethink the Thanksgiving story, which often overlooks or misrepresents native voices. That’s why Native American Heritage Month is so important. Officially established in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, it’s a chance to listen to Indigenous voices, honor living cultures, and learn the deeper history of this land.

The signs of the season are all around us, Halloween witches, skeletons, jack o’lanterns, celebrating one of the happiest days of the year, especially for the young ones. In San Francisco, particularly in the Mission District, more signs of autumn appear, papel picado (cut out colorful paper streamers) Catrinas (elegantly dressed skeletons), sugar skulls and bundles of marigolds – all in preparation for the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which takes place this year on Saturday, November 1 – Sunday, November 2.

Every day when we watch the news, we see stories of war, famine, civil unrest, and global climate change forcing people to leave their homes and seek refuge in other lands. Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. On Sunday, October 5, the Church observes the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, an opportunity to reflect on the connections between hope, migration and mission. It began in 1914 to support the high numbers of people from the rural portion of southern Italy and the island of Sicily who were departing because of economic hardship with little hope of ever improving their lives.

“Our response to the arrival of migrating persons can be summarized by four words: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.” - Pope Francis. Today, this response to a migrating person – welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating them into the United States – also needs to include migrants who may have been here for years or even decades. One way to offer protection is to share information about certain rights and protections that all people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have under the Constitution. That's where red cards come in. Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s (ILRC) red cards give examples of how people can exercise these rights, for instance when interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other law enforcement agencies.

My first exposure to the slave trade outside of something I read in a textbook was a visceral experience I had when I visited the Slavery Memorial at the Christiansted National Historic site when I lived on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. St. Croix was a Danish territory from 1733 to 1917 and one of the centers of slave trading in the Caribbean. There are records of more than 100,000 slaves that were brought, confined, auctioned and sold in St. Croix from 1734 to 1803. The Danish West India Company kept meticulous records of the origin, family composition and disposition of each slave which were mostly sourced from what is now modern Ghana in West Africa which was also a Danish colony.

My mother and I met in Romania this summer to prepare a memorial service for my uncle’s one year death anniversary and to put the home I grew up in for sale. I was not able to attend the funeral, so it was a particularly solemn visit for me. We wanted the presence of an elder, Mihai, the last surviving sibling of my grandmother at the memorial, so we went to our ancestral village to pick him up. At 85, he was jovially riding his bicycle on the unpaved medieval road.

It’s scary, but imagine being the target of that behavior simply because of your gender, race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, perhaps on the street, MUNI or BART. We can reach out and offer support, even help, and as interested and socially-responsible citizens, we are called to help when we see people in need. In particular, as Catholics, we are called on to promote the dignity of all persons, leaving no one outside our circle of compassion. Everyone — older adults, children, people with special needs, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation— has the right to be treated with dignity, compassion and humanity.