Exclusion to a limited mercy. Two ways to live one's Christian faith

Text by Dawn Eden Goldstein published on the blog Where Peter Is (United States) on February 11, 2025. Freely translated by the volunteers of the Gionata project.

On June 9, 1918, in a Catholic chapel of Denver (United States), thousands of people shed silently in front of the body of the first long -lived American Catholic Laica to whom the privilege of being exhibited in the church has ever been granted. This extraordinary woman did not belong to the ruling class of the city.

He was a maid, previously slave, who saw from a single eye and wore the same clothes every day. His name was Julia Greley, and he dedicated himself to the service of the poor of Denver.

Mrs. Grelety, one of the "Six Six" (the "six saints") African American in the canonization phase, came to mind since the US vice president JD Vance - who, like Mrs. Greley (and me), is a converted to Catholicism - started using her charge to rail against Catholic bishops.

According to Vance, vice president of the United States, the attention of the Catholic Church for immigrants would be only a pretext for his economic interests, while the principles of America First would embody a "Christian" idea, which pretext the love for the family to the one for others.

But if it vans, and with him 54% of American Catholics who voted for Trump, needs a concrete example of what it means "A love that builds a fraternity open to all“, He should know the story of Julia Greley. His is an authentic model of how to live the Gospel.

The faith of Julia Greley

Born in slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, in the 1930s or 1940s, Julia did not know with certainty his date of birth. At three, a whiplash of the master struck her to the face, irreparably damaging her right eye. Since then, he was constantly tearing.

Liberated with the proclamation of emancipation, it remained working as a maid. In the 1970s of the nineteenth century, he moved to Denver, employed at William and Julia Gilpin. It was Mrs. Gilpin, devoted Catholic, who inspired her to convert. On June 26, 1880, Julia was baptized in the church of the Sacred Heart of Denver (Sacred Heart Catholic Church) and developed a profound devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus.

Mr. Gilpin, on the other hand, was not Catholic and did not have the link between his wife and Julia. Indeed, he came to fire her with infamous accusations, trying to ruin her reputation to prevent her from finding work elsewhere.

In the meantime, Gilpin's marriage was going into pieces. In 1887, Mr. Gilpin asked for divorce, accusing his wife of having welcomed an "immoral woman" at home - a clear reference to Julia.

Many witnesses sided in defense of Julia, describing her as a person of great morality and virtue. However, the process lasted years and was a torment for her, who saw himself unjustly slandered.

Charity beyond every barrier

Despite everything, Julia did not let bitterness change it. He found comfort in the Sacred Heart and, instead of closing in pain, dedicated himself to others.

Denver, at the time, was a deeply racist city. 98% of the population was white and Ku Klux Klan had infiltrated the institutions. The blacks were marginalized and discriminated everywhere, from restaurants to theaters.

If he had followed the idea of ​​Vance, according to which charity should remain "in the family", Julia would have limited itself to helping the small black neighborhood of the city. But his love knew no boundaries.

When he was not busy cleaning the church to pay the rent of his room, he shot for Denver with a red cart, collecting and distributing clothes to the poor. And he didn't stop in front of the color of the skin: he helped anyone who needed it.

He knew that many white families would have preferred to starve rather than being seen receiving help from a black woman. Thus, to protect them from humiliation, he left at night and left the necessary in front of their doors, without being seen.

Upon his death, Julia Greley received an extraordinary tribute: her coffin was exhibited a Catholic Church, a honor never granted first to a secular in the United States. Thousands of people noticed to give her the last farewell.

His story is a living testimony of what to love like Christ means. Not a love limited by the borders of a nation or a group, but a love without exception.

*Dawn Eden Goldstein is a theologian and canonist. He studied the life of Julia Greley that he told in his book "The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times“. Follow it on bluesky @dawnofmercy

Original text: To this of Two Converts