The 50th anniversary of the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom calls people to
address poverty, racism and class inequality, said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on
Cultural Diversity.
The committee, which is chaired by Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, issued its statement
August 13, as the nation prepares to commemorate the event at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave
his “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall.
“We join our voices to those who call for and foster continued dialogue and non-violence among people
of different races and cultures, and who work tirelessly for the transformative, constructive actions that
are always the fruit of such authentic dialogue,” the bishops said. “We rejoice in the advances that have
occurred over the past 50 years, and sadly acknowledge that much today remains to be accomplished.
However, we must always view the task that remains from the perspective of the continued call to hope
and in the light of faith.”
The bishops cited both Dr. King, who said “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite
hope,” and Pope Francis, who in his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, declared that “Faith teaches us to see
that every man and woman represents a blessing for me, that the light of God’s face shines on me
through the faces of my brothers and sisters.”