35. BITESIZE CATECHISM: ST. PETER CLAVER & SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR HUMAN EQUALITY

APPETIZER: Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. 

Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self.'  No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.

Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all people have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine blessedness of Heaven: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity. Human equality rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it.  Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design. 

There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace. (CCC #1930-1938)

MAIN COURSE: The social teaching of the Catholic Church quoted above in our Appetizer is so  vitally important in that I ask you to read it again. Slowly. Ponder it. It truly contains the solution to the racial and economic disparities we are seeing in the USA today.  And the Saint of the Week we are learning about - St. Peter Claver - is an outstanding example of someone who took this teaching to heart and made it the focus of his priestly ministry in  very unjust and oppressive culture.

Pedro (Peter) Claver was born to a prosperous family in Verdu, Spain, and earned his first degree in Barcelona. He entered the Jesuits in 1601. When he was in Majorca studying philosophy, Claver was encouraged by Alphonsus Rodriguez, the saintly doorkeeper of the college, to go to the missions in America. Claver listened, and in 1610 he landed in Cartagena, Colombia. After completing his studies in Bogotá, Peter was ordained a priest in Cartagena in 1616.

Cartagena was one of two ports where slaves from Africa arrived to be sold in South America. Between the years 1616 and 1650, Peter Claver worked daily to minister to the needs of the 10,000 slaves who arrived each year.  He would head for the wharf as soon as a slave ship entered the port. Boarding the ship, he entered the filthy and diseased holds to treat and minister to their badly treated, terrified human cargo, who had survived a voyage of several months under horrible conditions. It was difficult to move around on the ships, because the slave traffickers filled them to capacity. After the slaves were herded from the ship and penned in nearby yards to be scrutinized by crowds of buyers, Claver joined them with medicine, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco.

St. Peter gave short instruction in the Catholic faith and baptized as many as he could. In this way he could prevail on the slave owners to give humane treatment to fellow Christians. He would then follow up on them to ensure that as Christians they received their Christian and civil rights. His mission extended beyond caring for slaves, however. He preached in the city square, to sailors and traders and conducted country missions, returning every spring to visit those he had baptized, ensuring that they were treated humanely. During these missions, whenever possible he avoided the hospitality of planters and overseers; instead, he would lodge in the slave quarters.

St. Peter Claver baptized more than 300,000 slaves by 1651, when he was sickened by the plague.  He stands out for us today as a heroic servant of the sick who ministered to their material and spiritual needs without closeting himself to remain free from infection. Claver's work on behalf of slaves and the sick did not prevent him from ministering to the well-to-do members of society, traders and visitors to Cartagena (including Muslims and English Protestants) and condemned criminals. Through years of unremitting toil and the force of his own unique personality, the slaves' situation slowly improved. In time he became a moral force, being called the "Apostle of Cartagena".

In the last years of his life Peter was too ill to leave his room. The ex-slave who was hired to care for him treated him cruelly, not feeding him many days, and never bathing him. Claver never complained. He was convinced that he deserved this treatment. In 1654 Peter was anointed with the oil of the Sacrament of the Sick. When Cartagenians heard the news, they crowded into his room to see him for the last time. They treated Peter Claver’s room as a shrine, and stripped it of everything but his bedclothes to be treasured as relics and mementos. Claver died September 7, 1654, at the age of 53.

During his trip to Colombia, Pope Francis visited the Shrine of St. Peter Claver in Cartagena. Pope Francis said of him, “Saint Peter Claver was austere and charitable to the point of heroism. After consoling hundreds of thousands of people in their loneliness, he died without honors and was not remembered, having spent the last four years of his life in sickness and confined to his cell which was in a terrible state of neglect. This how the world paid him, yet God paid him in another way.” 

Unlike many of his own countrymen, Claver saw these people as human beings and not animals. He devote his whole life and ministry to advocating that they receive the same respect and dignity that was given to anyone else. He cared deeply about them and the salvation of their souls, believing that each one needed to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, he didn’t simply talk about equality.  Above all, St. Peter Claver shows us clearly how actions speak louder than words and if we want true racial equality in the world, it must first begin with ourselves and how we treat other people we encounter on a daily basis.

Like Peter Claver, as Catholic Christians we are called to act with mercy and treat each other as brothers or sisters in the spirit and practice of human fraternity. We are called to uphold the dignity and equality of all people, no matter who they might be for all, as both Sacred Scripture and the Catechism teach us, are created in the image and likeness of God. 

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take with you for spiritual snacking...

Holy Quotes...

"We must speak to the needy and suffering with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips about God and faith." (St. Peter Claver)

“How I desire that we Christians be more deeply united as witnesses of mercy for the human family so severely tested in these days. Let’s ask the Spirit for the gift of unity, for only if we live as brothers & sisters can we spread the spirit of fraternity.” (Pope Francis, May, 2020)

Prayer in Honor of St. Peter Claver (from the Liturgy for Sept. 9)

O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves 

and strengthened him with charity and patience as he came to their help, 

grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, 

we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth. Amen.

INVOCATIONS IN HONOR OF SAINT PETER CLAVER.

Peter Claver, worthy son of St. Ignatius,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, priest of God and servant to the Church,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, generous imitator of St. Francis Xavier,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, brilliant light of the New Word,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who exchanged the riches of this world for evangelical poverty,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, apostle to blacks brought to the New World,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who by vow made thyself slave of the slaves,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, refuge of the miserable,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, great wonder worker,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who cured the sick and consoled the afflicted,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, Liberator of slaves unto the freedom of the children of God,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, model of evangelical industry,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, tender father of the poor and orphans,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who made thyself all things to all in order to gain them for Christ,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who in all trials of this life didst put thy trust in God,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who wished to be accounted as nothing and forgotten by men,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, who sought no other wisdom but the folly of the Cross,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, shining example of humility and self renunciation,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, perfect example of obedience and subjection,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, intrepid apostle, powerful in word and deed,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, martyr for Christ for the salvation of souls,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, zealous lover of the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, imitator of the suffering Savior,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, powerful protector of all who invoke thee,  pray for us.   

Scripture Quote to Memorize:  "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)