A practical and pastoral guide rather than a deep-dive academic book, this slender volume delivers on its promise of its subtitle: “confronting injustice with the eyes of faith.” Citing Aquinas on the nature of the human will to seek “the good,” the author defines sinful structures as the deceptive windows that make racism seem to be an accepted behavior that is “good” for coping with current social values. Noting that Christians willingly work to create incentives in society to make it better, he calls instead for greater recognition that existing structures promote evils such as racism. Kelly cites St. John Paul II who wrote that Christians “must name the root of evil in order to attack it” (p. 38).  

Kelly urges a study of the “cognitive dissonance” between the presumptions secular society makes about normal behavior and the faith demands of the Gospel for justice. Putting those contradictions into focus he suggests (p. 50-52), will help Christians realize which structures are antagonistic to morality. Courage to face such intractable problems is a form of metanoia. He adopts this biblical term as the definition for a radically reformed mindset that enables Christians to combat the enduring racism of the current US society. Rather than present opposition to social injustice as an arbitrary addition to general religious concern, he makes it a core principle of faith.

Repeatedly throughout this short book he warns readers against the temptation to shirk the challenge of confronting social structures by instead focusing exclusively on individual acts of kindness. Without neglecting the latter, he stresses the call at the II Vatican Council for the work of Christians to affect the common good as defined in Gaudium et Spes, (#26): “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” (pp. 2, 52, 99).

With the table set for the task, the remaining chapters of the book sequentially address the areas to be covered: “housing, police, education and health care” (p. 9). Each analysis cautions against treating the symptom rather than the cause of a racist outlook. Much of the explanation is in plain talk, making this theology accessible to a general public. Throughout the text, there are telling citations from conciliar documents, papal encyclicals and pastoral directives from the US bishops. These serve to illustrate that Catholic works to alleviate social ills cannot rest at only an individual level. Rather, writes Kelly, they call on faith to become the mindset required for addressing deep-seated nature of social injustice.  Each of these chapters ends with questions designed to stimulate discussion among groups of readers.

The penultimate chapter of Racism and Structural Sin calls for solidarity and subsidiarity in addressing unjust structures. Kelly suggests that Catholics alone cannot overcome the myriad challenges he has described. Rather, he urges joining organizations which target unjust laws and systemic social inequalities. To guide Christians in the choice of apt organizations, he adds the notion of “subsidiarity.” Kelly wants people in the pews to join local movements and agencies in their neighborhoods whenever possible. It is not required that such movements be specifically Catholic or even religious.
The chapter of conclusions attempts to provide specific examples of both solidarity and subsidiarity to help readers make their own choices.  Black Lives Matter is described as a movement against racism that allows for the faithful to join and show solidarity. Advancing the building of affordable housing for minorities in the suburbs is offered as an example for white middle-class parishes to stay local in opposing structural racism. These final chapters, however, lacked the sharp clarity and persuasive reasoning that I had found in the body of the book.

Those seeking a text to guide pastoral initiatives on a problematic theme will find this slender volume very useful.