New section on racism and discrimination added to CCCB website

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

The world is now midway in the 2015-2024 International Decade for People of African descent: recognition, justice and development which the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in December 2014. This halfway point offers an opportune moment to become more acquainted with the scope of Catholic teaching on racism and the various forms of racial as well as ethnic discrimination and exclusion, however manifested. The ever-timely teaching of the Church reminds us: “The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it: ‘Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1935, citing the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, #29 §2).

The Justice and Peace page of the website of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) now has a new section on racism and discrimination. This section will be updated from time to time with links to previous and current Church documents on racism and discrimination.