Dear Carroll College Community and Friends:
In recent days I, like many of you, have been grieved by George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25th. The pain and the anger unleashed by this injustice has been unlike any I have witnessed in this country.
As a white middle-aged man living in western Montana, I am shielded from the discrimination and fear that many African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, people of color, LGBTQ, and other minority friends and colleagues encounter. While I will never be able to understand the fears and challenges they face, I hope that the Carroll community will, in unity, pledge that we will not tolerate fear, intimidation, racism, discrimination, bigotry, and injustice.
As a Catholic college, we welcome all learners, and we strive to help our students be true Saints: loving and gracious citizens of the world. We stand with the Church in proclaiming that human life is sacred and that the fundamental dignity of every human person is the foundation of a moral vision for the world. We must all dedicate ourselves to making our communities better and more inclusive for our work in them: “not for school, but for life.”
This is a time where each of us can make a difference. Where every one of us can lead with love, grace, and compassion. During this time of great distress and turmoil in this country, I want to invite the Carroll community (far and wide) to join me in a moment of prayer at 8:00 pm this evening (June 2, 2020).
I’d like to ask you to take this occasion to pray for George Floyd, and countless others, pray for the healing of our nation, and pray for inclusivity, justice, and peace.
If we are to be a “beacon to the Church in the Northwest,” as St. John Paul II called us, I hope that we can pray together as a loving community of Saints and reach out with compassion to our broken world.
With sorrow, hope, and prayers,
John E. Cech, Ph.D.
President
Carroll College