[Pacg] Anti-Racism Workshop March 10th

[Carolina 1961]

*Pax Christi Anti-Racism Workshop*
* *
*From Father Marv Mottet   MARV422 at aol.com

The below email from Father Marvin Mottet, a longtime activist for social
justice, is sent to you because of your involvement in social action
causes.  The event will take place on Saturday, March 10, 2007 at Lady of
Lourdes Church in Bettendorf, Iowa.  Please share this with anyone you think
may be interested.  The workshops will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Pax
Christi the sponsor of the event is known world-wide as and advocate of
peace.  Here is its Statement of Purpose.

Statement of Purpose:

Pax Christi USA strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ
by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian
nonviolence. This work begins in personal life and extends to communities of
reflection and action to transform structures of society. Pax Christi USA
rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and
domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice,
and respect for creation.

Pax Christi USA commits itself to peace education and, with the help of its
bishop members, promotes the gospel imperative of peacemaking as a priority
in the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the efforts of all its
members and in cooperation with other groups, Pax Christi USA works toward a
more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.


Introduction:*
* *
*Demographic changes in the United States indicate that in the next 50 years
those Communities of Color now considered minorities may become the new
majority. Within the U.S. Catholic Church these trends are even more
pronounced. While the Church is making greater efforts to celebrate the
richness of its growing multi-cultural diversity, one of the biggest
challenges continues to be the issue of racism. Catholic social justice
institutions have been in the forefront of including People of Color,
however many that have been working to increase diversity in their
organizations often find that People of Color leave frustrated and
disheartened. *
* *
*Increasingly more Catholic institutions are beginning to understand that
being multi-cultural does not necessarily mean that all members of the
“rainbow� are equal or have access to the power and resources they need
to fully participate.  A key challenge for us as a multi-cultural church is
to transform our institutional structures in a way that not only includes
People of Color but makes institutions more accountable to People of Color *
* *
*A growing number of Catholic institutions are beginning to organize
anti-racism transformation teams to help them dismantle racism within our
own institutions. These teams are mandated, trained and commissioned by
their leadership to do this work based on three principles: 1) In order to
dismantle racism within institutions you need to have a common analysis; 2)
Racism cannot simply be educated way, it need to be supplemented by an
organizing strategy that addresses institutional structures and power; 3) To
be an anti-racist institution means moving from taking account of People of
Color to being accountable to People of Color.*
* *
*What is the Brothers & Sisters All Pax Christi Initiative?*
* *
*Brothers & Sisters All is a 20-year initiative to transform Pax Christi
into an anti-racist, multi-cultural Catholic peace movement. Pax Christi
seeks to embrace this new identity and do all its work from an anti-racist
perspective in the conviction that personal and systemic racism continues to
perpetrate deep spiritual and social brokenness and endangers creation. Pax
Christi is committed to establishing strong, honest, caring relationships,
both personal and institutional, across racial lines in order that together
with the whole Body of Christ we can transform structures and cultures of
violence and domination. To accomplish this transformation, Pax Christi is
committed to transforming its organizational structures, policies,
practices, and forms of decision-making to include participation of, and
accountability to, people of color.*
* *
*What is this one-day (7 hour) workshop?*
* *
*Part of the process of transforming Pax Christi includes developing a
common analysis of racism that will enable us to move forward together in
dismantling racism within our movement and in the world. This workshop
introduces Pax Christi members to the key components of this analysis and
provides concrete ways to begin operating out of this new understanding at
the local level in order to effectively challenge the war on terrorism at
home and around the world*
* *
*The workshop is also an opportunity to learn from and with People of Color
in developing a common analysis about racism. While the focus of the
workshop is on transforming Pax Christi, the basic analysis and reflection
on institutional, cultural and individual racism provides important
anti-racism tools for any community that is seriously interested in
dismantling racism.*
* *
*What are the goals of the workshop?*
* *
*To introduce a definition of racism that enables us to dismantle it in Pax
Christi’s structures and culture.*
*To explore a faith-based understanding of anti-racism rooted in Scripture
and Catholic Social Teaching.*
*To explain why Pax Christi has made a commitment to becoming an anti-racist
multi-cultural peace and justice movement.*
*To provide some concrete ways of beginning to build an anti-racist,
multi-cultural Catholic peace movement at the local level.*
* *
*What goes on during the workshop?*
* *
*The workshop is led by two members of the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team (one
White, the other a Person of Color) who engage participants in a series of
interactive small group and large group exercises including input,
discussion and questions & answers. *
* *
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