"Racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart," the bishops write. "This evil causes great harm to its victims, and it corrupts the souls of those who harbor racist or prejudicial thoughts."

Despite many promising strides made in our country over the past nearly six decades of my life (roughly the time since the beginning of the civil rights movement), racism still infects our nation, and the church is right to remind its members that our work is far from over. The bishops give us a succinct definition to begin an examination of our consciences, to begin an honest inventory of our personal and institutional deficits.

They write: "Racism arises when -- either consciously or unconsciously -- a person holds that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard. When this conviction or attitude leads individuals or groups to exclude, ridicule, mistreat, or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity, it is sinful. Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice. They reveal a failure to acknowledge the human dignity of the persons offended, to recognize them as the neighbors Christ calls us to love."