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Alessandra Harris

Alessandra Harris is a writer, author of three novels, wife and mother of four. She earned degrees in comparative religious studies and Middle East Studies. Her first non-fiction title, In the Shadow of Freedom: The Enduring Call for Racial Justice was published by Orbis Books in 2024.

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From left, family members Bernadette Semple (in the background), Toni Ann Semple and Denise Semple pray during Mass Sept. 3, 2023, at St. Peter Claver Church in St. Inigoes, Md. The Mass closed the Southern Maryland GU272 — Jesuit Enslaved Descendant Gathering Aug. 31-Sept. 3. (OSV News/Catholic Standard/ Mihoko Owada)

The Catholic Church has played a shameful role in Black American history

This Black History Month, we must turn our attention to the harmful part played by the U.S. Catholic Church, in actions, rhetoric and silence, from slavery to segregation to Trump 2.0.

A young girl holds a "Black Voters for Harris-Walz" sign outside of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris' election night watch party at Howard University, Tuesday, Nov. 5 in Washington. (AP photo/Terrance Williams)

As a Black Catholic, this election devastated me — but didn't surprise me

Alessandra Harris says she is "devastated but not at all surprised" by this country electing Donald Trump as president for a second term.

Brittany Elmore of Houston poses for a photo with her daughter Brooklyn near a "Black Lives Matter" sign May 23, 2021.

'Struggle for Racial Justice' urges Catholic conversions of hearts and minds

In The Catholic Church and the Struggle for Racial Justice, Mathew Kappadakunnel offers a unique perspective as a first-generation American of South Indian descent who has wrestled with his own call to anti-racism work. 

LaKeith Stanfield as Clarence in "The Book of Clarence" (Moris Puccio)

Black Jesus and his Black followers come to life in 'The Book of Clarence'

The biblical comedy "The Book of Clarence" brings to life East Jerusalem A.D. 33 inhabited by Black people and a colonizing white force of Romans. And it offers much for Catholics to ponder.

In this April 13, 1993, file photo, the body of the seventh prisoner killed in a riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, is removed.

The death penalty in the US is modern-day lynching

The death penalty is morally wrong, according to Catholic teaching. It also disproportionately targets Black people, says Alessandra Harris who has interviewed a man on death row in Ohio. 

Jesuit Fr. Edward Dowling, circa 1940 (Wikimedia Commons/Maryville University Archives)

The Jesuit priest who was a spiritual force behind Alcoholics Anonymous

Book review: Dawn Eden Goldstein's biography of Jesuit Fr. Edward Dowling explores the life of the Jesuit priest who was a spiritual sponsor and dear friend to Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in "The Woman King." (Ilze Kitschoff/© 2022 CTMG, Inc.)

The true Catholic history behind 'The Woman King'

"The Woman King" may be largely fictional, but it has opened the door to learning more about the church's role in the transatlantic slave trade and its toll on people of African descent.

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