As Baltimore City cleaned up after a night of riots, looting
and fires following the funeral of Freddie Gray Jr.,
Archbishop William E. Lori said the church’s place is to
pray, be a voice for peace, and participate in a wider
community dialogue to solve the systemic issues that led to
the unrest.
Gray, 25, died April 19, one week after being arrested on a
weapons charge and sustaining a severe spinal cord injury in
West Baltimore while in police custody. After his funeral
April 27, peaceful protests turned into unrest later in the
day, leading to damage of buildings and cars, and looting and
fires seen nonstop on national TV news networks.
The next morning, as Archbishop Lori, Bishop Dennis J. Madden
and other archdiocesan leaders toured the West Baltimore
neighborhoods affected, adults and children with brooms and
trash bags were as numerous as the rioters the night before.
Ray Kelly stopped outside St. Peter Claver Church to talk
with the archbishop’s group and Josephite Father Ray P.
Bomberger, the parish pastor. “We’re going to do a cleanup
and bring Sandtown leaders together. We want to make sure
that residents are part of this effort.”
Kelly, who said he has lived in Sandtown-Winchester “forever
– 44 years,” said, “They’ve got to start restructuring. Right
now. Today.”
He said because he has lived here, he could feel it was going
to happen. He and a friend were talking after the weekend
unrest, and he wondered if this was the calm after the storm,
or the calm before it. He said he knew “there’s more to
come.”
Archbishop Lori made stops at St. Peter, St. Gregory the
Great and the senior center next door, and at St. Edward,
before heading to North Avenue to survey looted buildings and
the remains of a burned car.
He said during the unrest he called as many West Baltimore
pastors as he could, and spoke to many of them.
“We will continue to do a lot of work, especially through
Bishop (Denis) Madden and the city pastors, especially on the
west side,” he said.
“First of all, let’s pray. … We need to strengthen our
communities that they might be a force of peace. We need to
participate vigorously in a citywide dialogue on the systemic
issues that have really bubbled up to the surface here,” the
archbishop said. “It seems that’s our role in this.”
Father Donald Sterling, pastor of New All Saints Church in
Liberty Heights, said the violence of April 27 “speaks to me
very loudly that we still have the great divide in this
community, with the haves and have nots. Obviously the
remnants of racism still affect us in tremendous ways. … “I
think it raises opportunity for development of some kind of
ongoing conversation between the city, communities and
church.”
He said the Catholic community could be part of a
constructive call for minority communities to come together.
He hopes that a group of faith and community leaders would be
meeting to discuss the concerns and take action.
“My hope,” Father Sterling said, “is that we do it with
others in the church and community rather than as
individuals.”
About a block from the intersection of Pennsylvania and North
avenues where a CVS Pharmacy was looted and burned, police
stood arm to arm to cordon off the street. Walking with a
broom in her hand, Tracy Strum and friends were helping.
“Everything from last night is getting cleaned up,” she said.
She added that the next thing is that the city needs to clean
the area’s alleys, because that trash has been there well
before the previous night.
“When you live in the gutter,” she said, “you act like it.”
Strum, a resident of Anne Arundel County, grew up and went to
school in the area. “This is my city,” she said, explaining
why she had gotten up at 7 a.m. to be part of the cleanup.
In that same area, with the police line just yards away and a
police helicopter circling overhead, Marvin Jones and
Minister Donald Bebans from First Baptist Church of Pimlico
in Park Heights knelt in prayer beside a five-foot wooden
cross with a crown atop it.
As Jones delivered a nonstop litany, he prayed, “We trust in
the blood of Christ to set souls free. They call them
‘thugs,’ but they are souls to be saved.”
As they prayed, they were joined by neighbors who stopped
their cleanup efforts to kneel with them. Christina Campbell
said, “I just came down here to try to clean up, put it back
together. Otherwise, it’s just another breakdown.”
Cristal Onair, who lives across the street added, “God is
going to fix this.”
Stephen Scott, who lives just around the corner from St.
Gregory the Great, greeted Archbishop Lori when he visited
the Harvey and Jeanette Weinberg Sandtown-Winchester Senior
Center April 28. “It’s sad, so sad when it comes down to this
and it hurts everybody,” Scott said of the violence.
Shirley Washington, who works at the senior center, said she
hopes those who participated in the violence will realize
what they have done. “When it all settles down, you’ll think
about what you did wrong then.”
At St. Bernardine Church, a previously scheduled three-night
revival opened April 27, the night of the riots. Pastor Msgr.
Richard Bozzelli, said, “I think we’re all heartbroken over
what’s happening, but we’re going to keep our faith in God
and keep praying, keep looking for truth and answers, and
look for peace as well.”
He said the revival would continue, with the second night,
April 28, the “youth night” portion of the revival, in
partnership with St. Frances Academy.
“The church is going to be open,” he said. “We’re going to be
praying. Even if there are only three people in the church,
we’re going to pray.”
Deacon B. Curtis Turner, principal of St. Frances Academy,
said the students were committed to the revival’s youth
night. “We’re trying to put as much word out as we can that
this is a place for positive youths to come and pray.
“I guess God saw it coming and set up some healing in a part
of the city,” he said. “And our kids are proud to be a part
of it.”
Catholic
Review Staff Writer Erik Zygmont contributed to this
article.
