Catholic bishops shifted resources to white suburban parishes while abandoning black inner-city churches

Evidence

In New York, the response of the Roman Catholic Church, in many instances, was to facilitate the flight from historically Irish and Italian inner-city neighborhoods out to the suburbs, where new churches and schools were built. While the bishops often did not immediately close the original parish churches and schools, now populated by black Catholics, they did shift resources away from them to the new white parishes. Reflecting on his personal experience with these dynamics in 1970, Father Lawrence Lucas, a black Catholic priest, described how these actions left many black Catholics angry and hurt, feeling forsaken by a white Jesus and a white church: When blacks appeared on the scene, the white Christ, after fighting like hell to keep them out, fled and abandoned their buildings to the niggers as one step better than blowing them up. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 197

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects directly to the reader’s interest in the role of religious institutions in maintaining hierarchy; dovetails with the historical pattern of white flight documented in works on American segregation.
• XREF: connects to: Black middle-class suburbanization emptied inner-city churches of their civic function — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 385; White Catholic priests led local campaigns enforcing residential segregation. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 201; White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1055 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures #exemplifies (0.78) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1055
• Anti-Catholic prejudice faded as Catholics joined whites in opposing racial equality #corroborates (0.76) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 38
• Black middle-class suburbanization emptied inner-city churches of their civic function #complicates (0.75) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 385
• White Christian theology adapted to changing times only by shifting to subtler racism #expands (0.75) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 234
• The US Catholic Church practiced racial segregation exceeding all other denominations #corroborates (0.74) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 194
• White Catholic priests led local campaigns enforcing residential segregation. #corroborates (0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 201