A group of white nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, protesting against the removal of a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The march turned violent when one of the white nationalists drove his car into counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman.
President Donald Trump spoke to reporters about the violence, saying: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.” Other politicians, including many Republicans, criticised the President for suggesting there was a moral equivalence between the white nationalists and the counter-protesters. Apparently bowing to political pressure Mr Trump on Monday night explicitly denounced white supremacists and declared that “racism is evil”.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo (pictured), president of the US Bishops’ Conference, issued an early statement that called for peace and unity but which failed to mention racism. It condemned “violence and hatred” but did not specify the source. The cardinal said the bishops “stand with all those oppressed by evil ideology” but did not specify what that ideology was. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago sent out a tweet that directly contradicted President Trump’s early assertion. “When it comes to racism, there is only one side: to stand against it.” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia also issued a powerful statement. “Racism is a poison of the soul,” it began. “It’s the ugly, original sin of our country, an illness that has never fully healed. Blending it with the Nazi salute, the relic of a regime that murdered millions, compounds the obscenity. Thus the wave of public anger about white nationalist events in Charlottesville this weekend is well warranted.”
The following day, Cardinal DiNardo issued a second statement. Signed also by Bishop Frank Dewane, chair of the committee on domestic justice, the statement this time condemned “the evil of racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazism”.
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