Leadership Team shares LCWR Statement and Congregation commitment

Editor’s Note: Our Leadership Team wanted to share with all of you the following statement from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). In addition, we also offer our recent Chapter Commitment of Racial Equality and Equity.

Violence and White Supremacy Cannot Stand

Our hearts our breaking as we once again come face to face with the racial hatred and gun violence that infect our land. The members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious extend their condolences to the Buffalo community and all who lost loved ones, friends, and neighbors and we say once more violence and white supremacy cannot stand. And we know that is not enough!

Racism is a virus, every bit as deadly as COVID-19, that has infected our nation since its inception and until we address it, people of color will continue to die, and our nation will continue to bleed. Racism, whether the institutional racism which privileges some at the expense of others or the daily acts of hate and discrimination, diminishes us all. It denies that most profound truth, that all of us are created in God’s image and each of us is entitled to lives of dignity and respect.

As women religious in a predominantly white organization, we recognize how we have been privileged. We lament our silence in the face of white supremacist ideology, and we acknowledge our complicity in institutional racism. We ask forgiveness of our sisters and brothers of color, and we pray for our nation’s healing. And we know thatis not enough!

It is time for bold, decisive action. We pledge to raise our voices and to act to end the violence and white supremacy which has cost us dearly. In the wake of the horror of Buffalo, we rededicate ourselves to LCWR’s commitment to dismantle systemic racism and white privilege and effect transformative change in our hearts, our organization, and our society and we pledge anew to build God’s beloved community. We will not permit that violence and white supremacy to stand!

LCWR is an association of leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has nearly 1,300 members, who represent more than 38,800 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, LCWR assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.

We, the Providence Community, choose racial equality and equity as our justice focus for 2021-2026. We commit to partnering with other groups in prayer, education, action and advocacy to:

• Explore the systemic roots of racism in our countries and in our own lives;
• Identify areas of our lives in which we may be complicit with racist attitudes and actions;
• Examine the intersections of racism with other justice issues;
• Make choices to rid ourselves of actions and attitudes that perpetuate racism; and
• Advocate publicly for legislation and policy that promote equality and equity for all.