Mission Reflection: 'Solidarity Stand: A Prayer Vigil for Black Lives'

07/10/2020

As citizens around the country rise in solidarity with people of color who have been marginalized and, in some tragic cases, brutalized by racial injustice, Jesuits in formation residing at Bellarmine House in St. Louis have joined those seeking social justice and change through prayer and a weekly vigil of solidarity on the steps of St. Francis Xavier College Church.

Ángel Flores-Fontánez, S.J., a Jesuit Scholastic and student at Saint Louis University, is one of those standing on the church's steps each Tuesday. He writes about the call he and others from the Jesuit and SLU communities have answered to stand, pray, and reflect in union with those advocating on behalf of Black lives and other people impacted by racism.

Ángel's Reflection

Since the June 2 “Black out Tuesday,” Jesuits in formation from Bellarmine House of Studies in Saint Louis have been coordinating a prayer-demonstration for racial justice. The vigil-like event takes place every Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. on the front steps of Saint Francis Xavier College Church, at the corner of Lindell and Grand Boulevards. This demonstration began in part as a response to a photo-op by President Trump on June 1 at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., the day before. The president used police violence against Black Lives Matter demonstrators to clear the area and took a photo of himself holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church.

As Jesuits, guided by the principle in our Constitutions that the “service of faith and the promotion of justice constitute one and the same mission,” we join our voices, actions, and prayers to the universal movement demanding justice for the Black community (Complementary Norms of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus #4).

This display of state-sponsored oppression against activists, inappropriately using religious symbols and seeming to imply that faith stands against racial justice, produced an explosion of indignation around the country, and moved many religious leaders to speak against the act. Also, on June 1, Bishop Joseph Seitz from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso in Texas, participated in a rally alongside parishioners and publicly took a knee at El Paso’s Memorial Park while holding a Black Lives Matter sign. Inspired by these events, joining our voices in solidarity to all those around the world denouncing white supremacy,we at Bellarmine decided to make our own stand.

We are all children of God. But this must not be just a catchy phrase; it must be practiced.

Our prayer-demonstration consists of two hours of prayer, meditation and silent public testimony of solidarity with the Black community. From 6 to 6:45 p.m., we pray in silence with our thought-provoking signs. After this, and with enough quorum, we recite a litany of victims of racist police brutality among the Black community, to remember the names of the people we are fighting for and continue to be aware of the racial privilege that protects white lives while harming lives of color, especially Black Lives. 

After the litany, we kneel in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds remembering George Floyd. From 7:15 to 7:50 p.m., we publicly read  an antiracist document or listen to an exposition on the subject, and we continue our silent prayer accompanied by “Freedom Songs” that have historically accompanied the Black Freedom Movement or new compositions inspired by this historical current. From 7:50 to 8 p.m., we close with hymns and a final prayer. 

We are all children of God. But this must not be just a catchy phrase; it must be practiced."

Ángel Flores-Fontánez, S.J., Jesuit Scholastic and SLU student

I am well aware that our prayer-demonstration is just a drop of water in the immense ocean of things that can be done and are being done. Being an antiracist is a life-long commitment. It is also a process in which we slowly become more and more aware.

But coming together every week to pray and educate ourselves for the end of racist police brutality; joining people from a parish who formerly owned slaves but now has integrated antiracism to its program; and seeing the gestures of joy by Black people who drive in front of us when they see our support to them, gives me hope that we are going in the right direction and contributing to the bigger movement for Freedom.

As a Black Puerto Rican, it’s an honor to join the historical universal fight for the rights of the African diaspora. I also hope that liberation from colonialism comes to Puerto Rico very soon.

As you collaborate with the struggle for Black Lives from different “trenches,” we invite you to join us in our vigils, as we ask God to grant us perseverance and strength while collaborating in the building of his Kingdom of justice.

Until further notice, our Tuesday prayer-demonstration will be ongoing. If we want to exhort the country to face its history of racism, admit its sins, and be responsible in amending these mistakes, we must begin with ourselves. See you there!