Statement from Archbishop Charles C. Thompson in Wake of Death of George Floyd

May 30, 2020

The Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis grieves over the death of an African American man in Minneapolis on May 25 as well as several other recent incidents of racial hatred across our country, including the violence directed at a mosque in Indianapolis last Sunday on Eid al-Fir, one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar.

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has set off a wave of protests. As Christians we cannot turn a blind eye to acts of racial violence and hatred. We are called to do what we can to end this injustice.

As I wrote in my 2018 pastoral letter, We Are One in Christ, “Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. … No one is ‘better’ than anyone else. All deserve respect. All share basic human rights. No one is exempt from the responsibility to support and assist fellow human beings—whether they are from the same family/community, or they are strangers who are foreign to us in some way. Every human person, as created in the image of God, is a member of God’s family. For Christians, this also means that we are sisters and brothers of Christ and each other.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on everyone to seek greater understanding and to listen to the stories of those who have been the victims of racial injustice so that we can find substantive ways to enact systemic change.

As we celebrate Pentecost this weekend, I call upon all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to heal the brokenness that has so deeply wounded our society. Let us also pray for peaceful protests that truly seek healing against the evil of racism.