Through a Glass Darkly: Georgetown, Jesuits and Beyond the Legacy of Slavery

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Through a Glass Darkly: Georgetown, Jesuits and Beyond the Legacy of Slavery

Dr. Onita Estes-Hicks is a retired CUNY English prof and New Orleans-reared black Catholic who has been involved in and monitoring progress toward the harm Jesuits have admitted causing by using 272 slaved blacks as the capital to fund the building and development of Georgetown University. Dr. Estes-Hicks is a descendant of the original 272 and offers steps the priesthood can take to model their stated values as she believes more progress toward repair is possible.
Through a Glass Darkly: Georgetown, Jesuits and Beyond the Legacy of Slavery by Onita Estes-Hicks | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
In a deeply moving ceremony held on the Georgetown campus in 2017, over 100 descendants of the 272 enslaved persons the Jesuits sold to Louisiana in 1838 joined Georgetown University administrators, students and Jesuit priesthood members, also known as the Society, as the university sought forgiveness for engaging in the slave trade, now recognized as “America’s original sin.” In this historic “Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope,” Jesuits asked forgiveness “for the participation of our predecessors in the national tragedy of slavery, for the failure of moral imagination and conviction to call into question the perpetuated evil, and for the privilege and benefit accrued from their complicity.” A ripe example of “privilege and benefit” from the Jesuits complicity in slavery, Georgetown, speaking through its president, John J. DeGioia, acknowledged it owed its continued existence to proceeds from the sale, and promised to continue the groundbreaking work it had instituted in 2015 following discovery that the infamous sale had rescued Georgetown University from bankruptcy. Executing recommendations from a student-faculty task force, Georgetown has renamed two buildings, formerly dedicated to the two Jesuits who had negotiated the sale; instituted an African-American Studies Program; conferred “legacy” status on descendants giving them preferential admissions to the university. Indeed, four descendants are enrolled there this semester. Both the Provincial of the Maryland Province, from which the enslaved had been taken in a surprise raid, and the president of the Jesuit Conference in the United States and Canada, rendered heartfelt and moving speeches. Yet as the consolation of the liturgy fades into the background, descendants still await concrete action from the Society of Jesus to match the grand strides made at Georgetown. What then can be done? For this descendant, a cradle Catholic from New Orleans, America’s most Catholic City, the “Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope,” helped ease the pain and disappointment that came with the shocking revelation the Catholic Church that helped African-American sustain dignity in the old apartheid South was also involved in the slavery that sent her ancestors to Louisiana. If the Jesuits wish to move forward in its stated quest for reconciliation, they can play a leading role in the racial crisis we face today as toxic forces strive to return to the oppressive racial conditions of the past. What can be done involves the church, the schools, and the community —all areas of Jesuit expertise. The Society of Jesus can expand its confessed need for atonement, acknowledging the society’s role in slavery in Jesuit parishes by asking congregants to join in penitential prayer. This dissemination of a penitential prayer can follow the example set by the archdiocese of New Orleans. In recognition of the power of prayer and its obligation to alleviate racism, the archdiocese of New Orleans created a Family Prayer, with focus on violence and racism. The prayer is said at weekly Mass throughout the diocese. A designated Jesuit prayer against racism could join the company of exalted prayers already in the Jesuit prayer book. World-famous educators, Jesuits operate schools that rank among the

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Published on November 19, 2018 14:12

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