“He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.” (Luke 19). Poor Zacchaeus was kept from learning about Jesus because of something over which he had no control. The crowds shoved him aside. He figured out a way to overcome this obstacle but many don’t. How does your parish attend to these subtle “one-up-man-ships” and seek to model to the wider community that privilege – in any form – will be confronted and overcome?

Privilege has been with the Church since the beginning. The Letter of St. James confronts the community about treating a rich person better than a poor one. “This proves,” it says, “that you are making class distinctions in your own mind.” (James 2) Parishes in our own day need to confront their own behaviors, recognizing that inequalities do exist and that they need to addressed.

Establish a PARC
It does no good to talk about privilege. Specific structures need to be formed to deal with it. One option is the creation of a Privilege Awareness and Response Committee (PARC). Its byline might be: “In this parish, we park privilege at the door.” This could be a standing committee associated with the Outreach Commission or Community Life Commission, or even of the Pastoral Council itself. Its membership would shift depending on which area of privilege it was addressing for the year. Taking the top line in the above list of privileges as a starting point, if its initial focus were on White Privilege, then the committee would have a mixture of Caucasians and People of Colour. If the focus were on Male Privilege, then it would have a gender balance. This would be the case for other areas as well.

Focusing On White Privilege
The first step is awareness. People of Colour must have the opportunity to tell their stories of discrimination and humiliation that are part of the fabric of our society. Parishioners begin to realise that White Privilege is embedded in the parish community because it is “hard-wired” into the lives of its members. One example for raising awareness might be a Town Hall gathering that pairs up Anglos with Blacks or Hispanics in a safe environment where people could tell their stories about discrimination and privilege. For the Whites, moving through an airport with few obstructions. For People of Colour, being stopped merely for driving in the wrong part of town. Next comes action. One parish put up a sign that read: The Church of St. Stephen is working on dismantling Racism.” One unintended result was that some Blacks, when they saw the sign, started attending the parish. Unexpected results do come from addressing privilege but it needs a focus and a structure to keep the issue alive.

Tom Sweetser, SJ & Peg Bishop, OSF
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(www.pepparish.org)

Parish Newsletter - December, 2007
A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Reproduced on the OPRFM website with permission