When Father Simon Kim spoke Thursday at Cortelyou Commons about racism within the Catholic Church, the campus climate had changed from the last time he spoke at the university in 2015.

DePaul’s Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) sponsored Racism and the Catholic Church to discuss ongoing racial tensions in the Catholic community.

After last year’s speaker series and in the midst of a polarizing election, Kim was addressing a crowd eager to hear his thoughts and plans for how to identify racism and to alleviate it, specifically within the Catholic Church.

Kim, an assistant professor at Holy Cross College in New Orleans and Korean-American scholar, said he has used his own experience feeling underrepresented within the church to push forward-thinking ideas to make faith more culturally relevant today.

Forty years ago, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released a landmark document on racism called “Brothers and Sisters in Us.”

By 2018, the USCCB plans to  release their most important document on racism since.

As the church prepares to address racism in the United States, Kim discussed how and when the church did not effectively address racism.

During his lecture, one of the many issues regarding race relations Kim recognized was the lack of initiative from bishops across the United States when speaking out against racism.

As an example, he explained how the Second Vatican Council in 1962 was a missed opportunity to address specific racial issues in a unified way.

“Only 12 U.S. bishops, or 8.1 percent of the episcopacy, mentioned racism as a concern of the church before moving into a dialogue with the secular world, other religions, and those of different denominations,” he said.

Kim continued to support his claim by referring to a 2004 USCCB study that found only 18 percent of the episcopal had individually issued a statement on racism or collaborated on one since 1979 and a 2003 survey that showed only 36 percent of parishioners saying racism was brought up during mass.

Kim also addressed misconceptions of the church’s involvement in the civil rights movement.

In response to the chairman of the subcommittee on African-American Affairs, Bishop John Richards, said “the Church had a lot to bring to the table” regarding its history of speaking up for civil rights.

“The Catholic Church’s involvement in the civil rights movements was scattered at best,” he said. “It’s not always supportive and unified when it came to the civil rights movement.”

DePaul junior Nathaniel Ladwig praised Kim for bringing attention to a prominent societal issue.

“It’s keeping discourse relevant to current political issues,” he said.

As the lectured continued, Kim became more optimistic of the progress and potential for the church’s involvement in combatting racism.

During his speech he praised recognition of the evils of racism and who it affects in “Brothers and Sisters in Us.”

“Racism obscures the evils of the past and denies the burdens that history has placed upon the shoulders of our black, Hispanic, Native Americans, and Asian brothers and sisters,” he said. “An honest look at the past makes plain the need for restitution wherever possible –- makes evident the justice of restoration and redistribution.”

Kim said he believes it moved the Catholic church to the “right side of the civil rights movement.”

The document also clarifies how each person engages with racism. Richards said we are collectively guilty of racism as a sin.

“The absence of personal fault for an evil does not absolve one of all responsibility,” he said. “We must seek to resist and undo injustices we have not ceased, lest we become bystanders who tacitly endorse evil and so share in guilt in it.”

Kim acknowledged and supported the bishops taking a more assertive stance on racism and its severity, but still stressed the amount of work left for the church today.

DePaul junior Thomas Byrne applauded the event for covering racial dialogue in a way “the media does not cover.”

To conclude his lecture, Kim took time to propose his ideas for the steps the church and individuals should take to mend race relations. Recognizing subtle racism and calls for a new, updated document addressing racism was a common theme.