An American Catholic order has pledged to raise $100 million for the descendants of the African slaves it once owned and sold by establishing a foundation.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the Jesuit priests’ foundation referred to the move as “one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery”.
“In a landmark undertaking in the pursuit of racial healing and justice, descendants of ancestors enslaved and sold by the Jesuits and the Jesuits of the United States have declared a partnership to create the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation,” the Jesuit priests stated.
“Our shameful history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back,” said Fr. Tim Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the US.
“Racism will endure in America if we continue to turn our heads away from the truth of the past and how it affects us all today. The lasting effects of slavery call each of us to do the work of truth and reconciliation,” said Kesicki.
“Without this joining of hearts and hands in true unity, the cycle of hatred and inequality in America will never end,” he added.
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