Earlier this summer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared today, the feast day of Peter Claver, as a “Day of Prayer for [Racial] Peace in Our Communities.” In so doing, they enlist a long Catholic tradition of exalting Peter Claver, the seventeenth century, Spain born, Jesuit missionary to Colombia, as “the patron saint of racial justice.”
But perhaps it is time to reconsider Claver’s place in our canon.
I have been somewhat obsessed with the sainthood of Peter Claver ever since I first heard about it several years. Proclaimed the “slave of the slaves,” he captured my imagination immediately. I rushed to my campus library and devoured every hagiography about him it held on its shelves. I left the library disappointed: the historical Claver seemed far different than the man proclaimed in Catholic legend.
Rather than a hero of racial justice, Claver qualifies as an accomplice in racial injustice. On this feast day of Peter Claver, I encourage Catholics not to exalt white racial heroes, but to more bravely and forthrightly confront (and confess) its own corporate participation in anti-blackness.
For more on the white supremacist character of Claver’s sainthood, I share with you this article I recently published about him:
WIT 
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has felt discomfort over his sainthood although I’s sure he’s with God. I think we need to think deeply about the Church’s complicity in the maintenance of evil institutions.
Fariba,
What evil institutions do you refer to in your comment ….. how is the church complicitically involved in them ?
Religious orders owned slaves in America. I was referring to the institution of slavery.
St. Peter Claver is an amazing example of Christ like love and heroic virtue. We need more Saints like him.
St. Peter Claver pleas pray for us…….