In one of the devotionals I was looking at for today’s mass, I saw a reflection on Father John LaFarge Jr, a Jesuit priest who died in 1963. His father John LaFarge Sr was a famous artist in New England. His mother was a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin and the famous 19th century naval commander Oliver Perry. Coming from a very affluent upbringing, LaFarge was a ordained a Jesuit priest after his graduation from Harvard. His first assignment as a priest was as chaplain of the notorious Blackwell’s island prison in New York City, which awaken him to the Church’s Gospel of social justice. After having served as pastor of an historic African American parish in Maryland, his writings on racial justice gained prominence as a writer for the Jesuit publication America Magazine. Pope Pius XI asked him to write the draft of an encyclical on racism in 1938. LaFarge put forth racism as a sin and a heresy. However, the Pope died before the encyclical was published. He continued to be a voice for racial justice in the Church and in the beginning stages of the Second Vatican Council. He died several months after he participated in the Civil Rights March in Washington, DC with Dr Martin Luther King in 1963.
Our psalm today declared that the Lord comes to judge the earth.that he shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy. We human beings, however, often fall very short of the ideal of justice. God sends us prophets like Father John LaFarge to proclaim God’s justice and to call us back to right relationship with the Lord. We need prophets like Father LaFarge.
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