As a Catholic, it angers me to no end when I see certain (white) Catholics in America dismissing the Black Lives Matter movement, as if the issue of racial justice isn’t something we as Catholics need to worry about. “What about abortion?” many of these folks often retort. I do believe that abortion is an evil, and that we need to work to help women not choose abortion, but being against abortion doesn’t mean we can’t also be against racism. I mean, this isn’t hard, people! Racism = evil. Systematic racism = evil. This is Catholic social teaching 101.

And yet, there are some Catholics in the U.S. who always want to put a stop to any discussion about injustice or oppression by saying, “What about abortion?” As if that’s all we need to worry about. No other problems here, folks! No siree!

The Church’s teachings about the dignity of the human person, it’s teachings about the sanctity of life, it’s teachings about justice: all of these things compel us, as Catholics, to do something about racism, to do something about inequality, to do something about violence perpetrated against marginalized people. If the person in the womb matters, then so do black lives.

Pope’s Francis’s words should be ringing in the ears of every American Catholic today:

“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life,” [the pope] said on Wednesday.

I hope that this moment can be a turning point for my fellow Catholics, especially those who don’t see the need to fight for racial justice. I know that I too need to do more. We are called upon to do this work. And if we don’t, we will be judged for it.