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Bishop Murry Echoes King's Message of Peace, Equality
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. espoused a society governed by peace, equality and justice. However, it’s incumbent upon communities such as the Mahoning Valley to help make that vision a reality, Bishop George V. Murry told residents at Park Vista Retirement Community Monday.
Murry, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, was the featured speaker at Park Vista's Martin Luther King Day program, where he spoke to more than 60.
“The task of bringing peace and justice into our society has not ended,” Murry said. “Dr. Martin Luther King and others started that process, but we have to keep working on that so all human beings can be free.”
While King’s legacy is felt throughout the region and world, Murry noted, much work remains. “When I visit students in Catholic schools, they talk about the life and legacy of Dr. King, but there's much, much more that needs to be done.”
The world is filled with prejudice and misunderstandings that can be overcome only by viewing others the way King advocated, Murry said, and that's by “looking at the heart, not the externals.”
King, he continued, wanted the world to remember what is written in the Gospels, that “every single one of us is created in the image and likeness of God, that every single one of us is valuable as we are.”
The key to overcoming prejudice is to respect others as they are and shed the self-centered approach to life that all people harbor at one time or other, Murry told the audience.
“We forget that there are other people who have similar needs,” he remarked. “Sometimes we can forget and think that what we want is so important that everything else should be pushed aside.”
Beth Ann Tabak, communications and media specialist at Park Vista, said that the senior care and assisted living center commemorates Martin Luther King Day every year.
“We were lucky enough to have Bishop Murry this year,” she said. The program also included Nancy Hensley, a vocalist who sang a selection of patriotic and inspirational songs for residents.
Murry, the first black bishop to serve the Diocese of Youngstown, also noted that the symbolism of President Barack Obama taking his second oath of office on the King holiday stands as an example of how far this country has come in terms of race relations.
“In a country that began by making African- Americans slaves, an African-American has become the president of the United States,” he remarked. “That shows progress.”
While progress has been made, the bishop cautioned that millions of Americans of diverse backgrounds and origins -- black, European, Hispanic – languish in poverty. “They're trapped in a cycle of lack of education, lack of good housing, lack of health care,” he remarked. “Those are some of the areas that we have to work on.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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