HOW CARDINAL GREGORY SAYS JUNETEENTH REMINDS PEOPLE TO WORK FOR JUSTICE TODAY (1717 hits)
For Immediate Release From Catholic Standard!
Celebrating a special Mass on June 18 at Mount Calvary Parish in Forestville to commemorate the next day’s Juneteenth holiday, Cardinal Wilton Gregory said that historic event offers an important reminder to work for freedom and justice today.
Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr. concelebrated the Mass, which in addition to Mount Calvary parishioners was attended by members of the Knights of Peter Claver and its Ladies Auxiliary.
Juneteenth – also known as Freedom Day – occurred on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger reached Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed that all enslaved persons were to be released (two years after President Lincoln issued the proclamation).
