There's coming up short and then there's...whew, there's coming up short:
A prominent order of Catholic priests vowed last year to raise $100 million to atone for its participation in the American slave trade. At the time, church leaders and historians said it would be the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the buying, selling and enslavement of Black people in the United States.
But 16 months later, cash is only trickling in.
The Jesuit priest leading the fund-raising efforts said he had hoped that his order would have secured several multimillion-dollar donations by now, in addition to an initial $15 million investment made by the order. Instead, only about $180,000 in small donations has flowed into the trust the Jesuits created in partnership with a group of descendants whose ancestors were enslaved by the Catholic priests.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what happened here?
How about this: It is impossible for the living to "atone" for sins, even terrible sins, that were undertaken by the dead. It cannot be done. It is always an exercise in performative charity more than anything else.
If the SJ were serious about amelioration and reparation for terrible sins, after all, then the order would be establishing a $100,000,000 fund for the many living victims of Jesuit sexual abuse. There are, you know, many more people alive today who have been sexually abused by Jesuit priests than there are people alive who have been enslaved by them.
Most people recognize the unworkability of it all. Hence, beyond the $15 million the Jesuits put up themselves. the utter lack of donations.
Call me crazy, but I doubt the Society is going to raise the remaining $84,820,000 anytime soon.
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