Catholic-Jewish leaders visit civil rights sites in Alabama

By SAMANTHA SMITH 
For The Catholic Week
ATLANTA — Leaders of the Catholic and Jewish faith communities gathered for fellowship and to find ways to heal the hatred of racism in a three-day journey to civil rights landmarks. 
From May 9-11, representatives of the National Council of Synagogues and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other leaders met to discuss the history and impact of racism in society, their respective faiths and to find solutions to create a better world.  
The journey began in Atlanta,  the then moved to Alabama, where the group visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the Rosa Parks Museum, the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice by Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery and 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
Archdiocese of Mobile Vicar General Msgr. William Skoneki joined the tour in Montgomery and remarked the visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice was "sad and powerful."
“Visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice made it clear to me that lynching in America did not occur on the national or state level, but at the local level, and not just in the Deep South.  Seeing all the names of those lynched listed county by county in so many U.S. states was both sad and powerful.   I was not the only one on the tour who felt that way – one of the Jewish rabbis remarked that it was the most effective memorial he had ever visited," he said.
While in Montgomery, Msgr. Skoneki also informed the group of the importance of the City of St. Jude in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. The City of St. Jude allowed Dr. Martin Luther King and 2,000 participants of the march to camp onsite before they reached the state capitol.
"I was privileged to give a brief talk during the tour on the Catholic contribution to the civil rights movement in Alabama, focusing on the 1963 Selma March and the role the City of St. Jude in Montgomery played in that event.  Allowing the marchers to stay there cost the City of St. Jude much local and even national support, but it was definitely the right thing to do, and a great witness to our Catholic faith in a difficult situation,” Msgr. Skoneki said.
Co-chairs of the council are Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. and Rabbi David Straus, executive director of the National Council of Synagogues.  
According to its website, the National Council of Synagogues is a partnership of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements in Judaism dealing with interreligious affairs on a national level. The council believes religions should dialogue with one another to build a better society and world.  
A goal for this group and the three-day event is to create a high school curriculum for Catholic and Jewish schools to learn about one another’s faith traditions and explore the issues of racism in America.   
Cardinal Gregory has worked in Catholic Jewish relations for many years. His work includes the 2015 jubilee celebration of Nostra Aetate in the Atlanta archdiocese and the annual following events that encouraged discussion and fellowship between the two faith traditions. Nostra Aetate was the Second Vatican Council document that transformed the church’s approach to Judaism after centuries of troubled relations. 
“We are so divided as a society—racially divided, religiously divided, politically divided,” said Cardinal Gregory. “We need to take whatever opportunities come our way to work together as an example of how people should be neighbors, friends, brothers and sisters.” 
Interreligious and interfaith dialogue have been a passion for Rabbi Straus, who has been executive director of the National Council of Synagogues for about eight years.  
“When you get seriously engaged in this work, you not only learn about other people of faith and what they believe and how they live their lives,” said Rabbi Straus. “But it forces you to really look inward at your own faith tradition. And I think it actually strengthens your faith and strengthens your commitment because you have to ask really important questions.”   
The meeting began in Atlanta at Lyke House, which serves students from Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and Georgia State University. Council members were greeted by student ambassadors from Our Lady of Mercy High School in Fayetteville.  
After lunch, members were able to tour the Lyke House gallery, which honors the late Archbishop James P. Lyke and the history and contributions of Black Catholics. 
“We’re here in a facility that is dedicated to the formation and education of young people,” said Cardinal Gregory, who has been a member of the council sporadically over the past nine years. “Any time our young people can reach out across religious, cultural, language differences, it bodes very well for our future.” 
The first day concluded with a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Park, which included the King Center, the crypt of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, and the original and new Ebenezer Baptist churches.  
 — Samantha Smith is a Staff Writer at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta. The Catholic Week editor Rob Herbst contributed to this story.