Twinning Relationship: St. Martin de Porres and Good Shepherd
When we formed our racial justice ministry a little over a year ago, Tony Burns had the idea of developing a relationship with a central city Catholic parish. We decided to reach out to St. Martin de Porres, located at 2nd & Burleigh in Milwaukee. After the pastors gave us their blessing we visited three times in October, January, and May. We always started with Mass. On the last two visits we ate lunch together and introduced ourselves. On May 22 we held a prayer service to honor the African Americans who were killed in the racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. We also had caring conversations sharing stories of our experiences around race. It was a moving and meaningful day.
Because we have gotten to know Black people at St. Martin, I feel the pain of Buffalo more deeply. Developing these kinds of relationships is part of the solution to tackling racism in our society. We are planning to have members of St. Martin de Porres come to Good Shepherd. I invite you to welcome them and strike up a conversation. May God bless our twinning relationship abundantly!
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Racial Justice Ministry Team, contact Joan Plumley: EMAIL