Bi-monthly e-newsletter giving witness to our Precious Blood Spirituality, grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and Gospel values
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Supporting our community
The Sisters of the Precious Blood are proud sponsors of a variety of events and organizations across the country throughout the year. Here are just two events held recently in the Dayton area:
On Sept. 11, the first Green Expo and Car Cruise-In, held in Trotwood, showcased green energy technologies, especially electric vehicles. The event host and planner was Rap Hankins, a former Trotwood city councilor who became interested in clean energy solutions following the devastation and extended power outages caused by the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes. Hankins is also an advocate for the installation of electric charging stations in Trotwood. Expo attendees learned more about, and took test rides in, electric vehicles owned by members of the group Drive Electric Dayton. Read More
On Sept. 26, Matt Maher — contemporary Catholic Christian music artist, songwriter and worship leader — held a free concert in downtown Dayton. Sponsors also included the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and the Marianists. Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the concert had been scheduled for fall 2020 as a gift of encouragement and hope to the Dayton community in the wake of the Memorial Day tornadoes, KKK rally, and Oregon District mass shooting, all of which occurred in the area in 2019.
Catholicism and Racial Justice webinar
On Sept. 28, Sister Mumbi Kigutha moderated the second webinar in the Catholicism and Racial Justice series, a project of the Congregation’s Racial Reconciliation Working Group. Dr. Tia Noelle Pratt’s presentation, titled “The Call is Coming From Inside the House: Anti-Blackness and Critical Race Theory in the Church,” examined the intersection of Critical Race Theory with Catholic Social Teaching. The webinar is available on our Facebook page. Read More
Pratt has also developed a Black Catholics Syllabus, a collection of resources accessible to everyone from academics and educators to parishes and the general public. The syllabus is available on her website. Pratt is a sociologist of religion specializing in systemic racism in the Catholic Church. She is currently director of mission engagement and strategic initiatives, courtesy assistant professor of sociology, and editor-elect of the Journal of Catholic Social Thought at Villanova University.
Conversations that matter
Sister Donna Liette recently served as a moderator during Conversations that Matter, a live webinar series presented by the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago. On Oct. 18, Sister Donna sat down with four women who have lost children to violence and/or incarceration, who shared their stories of pain and perseverance, as well as their ideas about what they need to protect and care for their families. Sister Donna is the Family Forward Program Coordinator at PBMR, where a community of women works together to heal from the traumas of violence and incarceration.
In other Conversations that Matter panel discussions, on Oct. 11, four people shared their experience of being personally impacted by incarceration, and on Oct. 25, young people shared their experience about growing up on the South Side of Chicago. The conversations are available on PBMR’s YouTube channel.
A few small steps to save our planet
I live in an apartment at which I pay my own utilities, including gas and electric. Periodically I have the opportunity to choose which companies supply my electricity and gas that are delivered to me by my utility companies.
On each of my separate monthly utility bills for electricity and gas is the name of the supplier I chose to supply the energy. In my case, one company, Direct Energy, supplies both of my utilities. When I became aware of a different supplier that offered clean energy, I considered changing to that supplier. But first, I needed to know the source of energy my present supplier uses. Read More
Here are the steps I took:
1. I looked on each electric and gas bill to see the name of the energy supplier.
2. I then called my supplier, Direct Energy, and asked if they are presently using Green/Clean resources for the energy they are supplying.
3. If not, I asked if they have available the Green/Clean/renewable energy resource.
4. Since Direct Energy does have a clean energy source, I asked them to change to it.
5. Of course the cost increased (for electrical energy it cost 6 cents more per kWh); I thought the increase was worth accepting to save our planet.
6. I learned my gas was natural gas and need not change it.
7. If Direct Energy did not have a green energy resource, I would look for another company that does supply Green/Clean energy.
By Sister Nancy Kinross, C.PP.S.
Photo in slider and above by RawFilm on Unsplash
Critical Race Theory
Racism was a topic all of us Precious Blood Sisters reflected on during the last year, and the recent Leadership Conference of Women Religious Virtual 2021 Assembly also discussed it. This complex topic continues to need attention, so this short piece continues our conversation about race.
On conservative media, a current “hot topic” is CRT, critical race theory. In September 2020, President Trump issued an executive order excluding CRT from funding in diversity and inclusion training in federal contracts. He said it is divisive. So what is CRT? Read More
According to an article entitled “A Lesson on Critical Race Theory,” published in Human Rights Magazine, it’s a question used to analyze (“critical” really means analytical). That question is: How have race and racism shaped the telling of our history and the practices of our legal systems, financial institutions, housing and education? CRT analysis understands “race” as a culturally given classification. It understands racism not as the bad actions of bad actors, like personal bigotry and bias, but as systemic: that is, embedded in our culture and institutions.
When CRT says race is cultural (not biological or genetic), it means that race is an inferior category of worth attributed to people based on factors like skin color (Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans), or eye shape and country of origin (Asians). When CRT says racism is systemic, examples would be redlining in real estate; loan inequity in financial institutions; unequal application of arrests, convictions, sentencing and executions in our criminal justice system; and white privilege as part of our culture.
If this sounds reasonable, then what is all the uproar about? Why is it divisive? Why should it not be in textbooks? And why are teachers pushing back? CRT seems to denigrate our positive image of U.S. history, some believe. Some parents are concerned it might lead their children to hate their country instead of loving it and being willing, if needed, to die for it.
Perhaps those fears are because for so long we learned U.S. history as stories of heroic figures, like Paul Revere and George Washington, and stories of the U.S. representing the “good guys” in battles against evil (the Indians, the slave owners, Nazism, Communism, terrorism). But it is much more complex that that. What happens in real time is multi-causational. Militarism, colonialism, nationalism, industrialism, materialism, individualism and secularism, and even geography — they all shape history. And even when historical action leads to outcomes that seem good, there are dark sides to the story. When we study history in college, we begin to learn how complex and “gray” history really is. What’s new about CRT is that it adds race and racism to the list of complex causes that must be considered to understand and learn from history.
Those of us who have taught school do recognize a legitimate concern. When do learners develop the ability to handle the kind of thinking that is more nuanced than heroes and good guys against bad guys? When can they handle knowing about their country’s blind spots and missteps without concluding it is always totally wrong?
It will take a while for our educators to incorporate analysis of race and racism into the teaching of history in age-appropriate ways. But understanding what CRT really is and properly explaining it is important whenever we are discussing it!
Supporting our community
On Sept. 26, Matt Maher — contemporary Catholic Christian music artist, songwriter and worship leader — held a free concert in downtown Dayton. Sponsors also included the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and the Marianists. Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the concert had been scheduled for fall 2020 as a gift of encouragement and hope to the Dayton community in the wake of the Memorial Day tornadoes, KKK rally, and Oregon District mass shooting, all of which occurred in the area in 2019. 
Catholicism and Racial Justice webinar
Critical Race Theory