Roman Catholics believe no one should look down on anybody else because of their status in life and all should be treated equally. For in the bible it says;
(“I now understand that God has no favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him (Acts) 10:34”)
Paul’s letters in the bible rule out racism altogether. He told the Galatians that what matters is faith.
(“It is not the Jews who are Abraham’s true descendants, but those who have faith in Christ. So there is no longer any difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free men, between men and women, you are all one in union with Jesus Christ (Galatians) 3:28”)
(“There is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves and free men (Colossians) 3:11”)
Christians and Roman Catholics alike would say that, there is no distinction either between black and white!
Jesus often taught that Gods kingdom was open to everybody. It did not matter whether or not you were Jewish. What mattered was how you responded to Jesus’ invitation to Gods kingdom. Roman Catholics and Christians would apply this teaching to whether a person was black or white. They believe that everyone is equal as it is said in Pacem in Terris 86 “Truth calls for the elimination of every trace of racial discrimination “.Roman Catholics believe Prejudice and Discrimination is wrong. In 1965 the Roman Catholic Church made a statement saying that Prejudice and Discrimination was wrong, ‘with respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination…is to be contrary to Gods intent’.
What this means is with respect to people, every type of discrimination is to be forgotten
Jesus teaches that everyone is your neighbour. For in the Bible it says;
(“Love your neighbour as you love yourself”)
Love knows no boundaries or distinctions. The story of the Samaritans compassion is a model for everybody. Racial origins were irrelevant in this passage; the test was which one loved his neighbour as himself Roman Catholics believe that Jesus made everyone how he wanted them to be and this in turn means that every single person is equal regardless of their creed, colour, race or gender and because Jesus created us all, we are all children of his. For in the bible it says:
(“Every human being is made in the image of god (Genesis) 1:26-28”)
The most recent example I will be looking at is Martin Luther King’s work in opposing racism.
In his most famous speech, King said (“I have a dream that one day gods children, blacks, whites, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the black peoples old song Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, we are free at last”)
In 1968 a white man called James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King dead in Memphis, he was only 39.
The example of Martin Luther King is a colour issue because as you have read above, black people were treated very badly and were discriminated against in a very bad way just because they have a different colour of skin. You could compare the black people who were treated badly to leprosy sufferers in the time of Jesus. In the bible it says how the lepers were sent away and left on there own in an isolated area where they were cut off from the rest of the world and were treated badly. Jesus went to the leprosy sufferers houses and healed them and this suggests to me that Jesus treated everyone the same and thought as everyone whether a different colour, race or gender completely equal.
