Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love

The Catholic Church teaches that all are created in the image of God. Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love reflects on the dignity of every human person and establishes the Church’s moral imperative to combat racism as a life issue.

A pastoral letter from the Catholic bishops of the United States, Open Wide Our Hearts seeks to address the sin of racism, personal and institutional, ongoing and in the history of the United States. It calls upon all Catholics to work towards a truly just society and embrace the love of God in treating everyone as a brother or sister of Christ.

This authentically Catholic text:

• Offers a definition of racism and guidance on answering the urgent call to love rather than hate

• Reflects on the current and historical experiences of African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans while acknowledging that many ethnic groups and nationalities have been, and are still affected by, different forms of racial discrimination and hatred

• Draws from Scripture and the writings of the Church to provide encouragement to do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly with God

Open Wide Our Hearts calls clergy and all Catholics to work to uproot racist attitudes and acts from society, and live in the harmony to which God calls us all.

This new edition of Open Wide Our Hearts features:

• A newly designed cover with beautiful sacred art

• Colored tabs with paragraph numbers at the top of each page for easy navigation

• Carefully designed pages to make each page readable, organized, and inviting

• A document summary explaining the intended audience, the document’s origin, and the purpose it seeks to serve within the mission of the Church

• The official text of this work written by the USCCB Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church

This edition is part of The USCCB Collection from Ascension, which features official documents from the United States bishops previously published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).