Denver Catholic

person that doesn't have a story. For older African-Americans, it's opening unhealed wounds, and for younger people, I can only imagine what it means for their future. But you know, where I've found hope is that they're undeterred by this and that they are steadfast in their faith. And that's what gives me hope in terms of being steadfast, is looking to the youth and seeing that they are. I'm speaking just strictly in terms of Catholics, not the overall movement, but just in terms of Catholics, that gives me great hope. JANAYE MATTHEWS: I would say it's been pretty difficult for me, honestly. Being 22, I'm at that point in my life where having gone through my religious education in middle and high school, I'm at that point where I really understand what it means to take control my own faith. As I become more aware of how history has played itself out, it has led me to a place of a lot of doubt and really questioning my faith. And so I've been going through that piece of what I was taught and what I was raised on and how I'm actually seeing it play out and how history has seen it play out. And so it's been quite a journey. I know that I have a purpose and I know that God has a plan for each person that that he puts on this earth. For me as an individual, as well as me and what I represent in my community, I see this as an opportunity to continue to play out that role and to take responsibility for myself and then to also help others understand that that's almost literally like that's almost all we can do at this time, is to really just understand that we all have a role. We all have a place in this. And that's what's going to help us get through, is clearly playing our roles and also maintaining our faith that God has a plan and that we'll find a way through it. DUSTIN CALDWELL: I'll say this to start. It's fitting that we're having this chat on first Friday because I'm very, very devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And it's ironic; you see how God works in situations where, ironically, these protests are happening in the month of June, which is essentially the month of the Sacred Heart where the feast falls. I think that's really the answer and solution to the problem. I think that we will find healing and refuge as a people from all races, but particularly I think of my black peers and older people and younger people as black Catholics, that's where we'll find healing, is in the sacred heart of Jesus, because it's a deep wound that runs years and years old. And the best I can describe it is it's like any time you have a sustained wound, it leaves an impression like, "oh, that was so terrible. I never want that experience again." And people tend to react very passionately against having to go back to that direction and understandably so. But I think the only real healing that will be had is if we first turn back to Christ and his most Sacred Heart because he understands the wound and he feels it in his heart. DC: What do you wish non-black Catholics and people of faith knew about what it's like to be black in America? KATERI: All of us are created in God's likeness and image, and any time any one of us anywhere is looked at as less than then, we're not living the mission of the Gospel. And that is painful to sit in. It should often be very painful to sit in a pew or to sit in an office or to sit in a classroom, but especially in a community of people who share the same faith and for When you hold back any one group of people, everyone is being held back. Racism is not a black Catholic issue or a Latino Catholic issue; as it affects us as people God, it's a Catholic issue. KATERI WILLIAMS " 5 DENVER CATHOLIC | JUNE 13-26, 2020

• Cover