New Encounters: Catholics Confronting Racism was founded in 2020 by four Philadelphia-area Catholics: Dr Mary Laver, Stacy Williams, Marcelle McGuirk and Fr Stephen Thorne. We welcome Catholics of all ethnicities and generations into our year-round online and in-person.

New Encounters collaborates often with the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing and other offices of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia when invited, including the Office for Black Catholics, the Office for Clergy, and the Office for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees. We are a proud partner of Cranaleith Spiritual Center, an apostolic work of the Sisters of Mercy.

A primarily volunteer-led organization, we receive program funding from a donor-advised fund at the Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia. We also welcome donations to support our work through Cranaleith Spiritual Center. If you feel so inclined, please donate here‍. (Select “New Encounters” from the dropdown menu)

New Encounters offer prayerful, informative, interactive sessions that challenge participants to respond to the movements of the Holy Spirit in the journey toward racial justice and healing.

In all of our offerings to date, we combine prayer, Scripture, presentation, group reflection/ discussion, and action.

Guided by the Holy Spirit, these truths inform our work:

• Looking at racism as Catholics involves facing uncomfortable facts about our history.

• The Church offers abundant channels of grace, conversion and repentance/reparation that can equip and strengthen us in becoming Catholic racial healers through the sacraments, the saints, and in community.

We offer ongoing mentoring for our participants in order to build a network of Catholics, who can encourage and challenge each other as they continue on the faith-journey of encountering ALL people as the beloved bearers of the Divine Image that they are.

Seasonal Series:

• Each Advent and Lent, we offer a weekly online series linking themes of that sacred season with our call to respect the full dignity of persons of every race and ethnicity.

• We also offer an on online annual Pentecost Novena featuring holy men and women of many cultures.

Interparish Community-Building:

• Members of 10-14 parishes across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia come together four times a year to build community and discern ways respond boldly to “We Are One Body,” Archbishop Nelson Pérez’ 2023 pastoral letter on racism. We provide lunch and Spanish interpretation at each gathering. Contact us if you’d like your parish to participate!

Outreach to Educators:

• Through a pilot “Pilgrimage of Courage,” educators from selected diocesan, private and Independence Mission Schools as well as Education students at LaSalle University participated in a prayerful day of visiting sites of racial wounding or healing around our region in 2025.

In the fall of the Semiquincentennial year (2026), New Encounters will host a symposium at Saint Joseph’s University “America at 250: Catholic Schools, Racial Justice and the Courage to Teach ‘All Are Created Equal.’

Contact us for more information.

Past events include:

• Workshop on the USCCB’s pastoral letter Open Wide Our Hearts for the Permanent Deacons of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

• Monthly “Mass & Meet Ups”

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