1 African American Catholics and “The Black Church”

African American Catholics and “The Black Church”

(A presentation for the Berkley Forum on “the Black Church” in American Public Life)

The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.

Are African American Catholics considered part of what is popularly called “the Black Church”? In most instances, it would seem we are not. When you hear about the leadership of “the Black Church” impressing for racial and social justice, you are likely to think of the Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock, until recently the Pastor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and now, the first African American Senator from Georgia. And when you think of African American Catholic parishes, you are more likely to think of parishes served by White Priests. “The Black Church” is not a single Christian community. The expression usually describes a collective of African American Christians in certain Protestant Christian communities. (An African American “high church” Episcopalian, for example, is quite different from an African American “low church” Jehovah’s Witness.) Because the 3 million African American Catholics are a very small number of the 68-million-member Roman Catholic Church in the United States, we seem invisible to many who speak about “the Black Church.” Most African American Christians are Baptists (though not Southern Baptists). Many are members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The AME has about 2.5 to 3 million members including a significant number of communities in Africa. Many African American Protestants would be surprised to learn that the approximately 3 million African American Catholics is equal to and possibly larger than the AME membership in this country. And yet, African American Catholics are often not mentioned in conversations about “the Black Church.” Is this because the Catholic Church is such a large world-wide community of faith? Is it because of the Church’s shameful past history of racial discrimination in this country? Is it because some Catholic beliefs are not compatible with the positions held by some Christians who identify with “the Black Church”? Or, is it because the Euro-centric style of Catholic liturgy is so starkly different from the Afro-centric style worship experienced in African American Protestant churches? These difficult questions are not easily answered.

According to the eminent African American Catholic historian, Father Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., the first Catholic of African descent to enter the territory now known as the United States was probably a Spanish speaking enslaved African man named Esteban, a form of the Christian name, Stephen, who arrived in 1536. This fact of history reminds us that Catholics of African descent were in this country long before the establishment of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Baptists, now considered the traditional home of “the Black Church.” By Father Davis’s account, Esteban “was a resourceful, intrepid explorer who survived shipwreck, disease, captivity, and physical hardship as much by his wits as by his personal courage. (See: Cyprian Davis, The History of Black Catholics in the United States, p. 28) These qualities are an apt description of the African American Catholics who have enriched and challenged the Catholic Church and this country through the centuries.

These challenges were particularly forceful during the period of the African American Catholic Congresses. Between 1889 and 1894, five Congresses of Colored Catholics were held, inspired by Daniel A. Rudd of Cincinnati, Ohio, editor of The American Catholic Tribune, a paper published by and for African American Catholics. Significantly, the 1889 Washington, D.C. Congress passed a resolution expressing sympathy for the plight of the people of Ireland, “our brethren of the Emerald Isle, who, like ourselves, are struggling for justice.” In an “Address to Their Catholic Fellow Citizens,” African

American Catholics complained that “the sacred rights of justice and humanity are still sadly wounded.” They pleaded for African American Catholic schools and societies, as well as for help in eliminating discrimination by labor unions, employers, landlords and real estate agents.

Despite Catholic Congresses and Daniel Rudd’s newspaper, African American Catholics remained a small minority. There were about seven million African Americans in 1883, and an estimated hundred thousand were Catholics. Most European American church leaders were not outspoken in their zeal for African American evangelization and racial justice. Archbishop Ireland, in 1891, insisted that efforts be made to “blot out the color lines.” He advocated equal political rights, equal education, and equal opportunity for employment. Further, the urban nature of American Catholicism minimized its contact with the greater part of the African American population, still predominantly rural. In 1900, African Americans were only two percent of New York City.

In 1987, The National Black Catholic Congress movement emerged as the spiritual successor to Daniel Rudd's Colored Catholic Congress movement of the late 19th century. The next gathering of the Congress is scheduled for 2023. If we are going to speak about leadership among African American Christians, the long history of The National Black Catholic Congress should be counted as an important component of “the Black Church.” There are other important leadership groups among African American Catholics that should be heralded when talking about “the Black Church.” These include: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ sub-committee on African American Affairs, The National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (African American clergy, religious, and seminarians), The National Association of Black Catholic Deacons, The National Black Sisters Conference, and The National Association of Black Catholic Administrators.

The Catholic voice in “the Black Church” can be heard in landmark pastoral letters: "What We Have Seen and Heard: A Pastoral Letter on Evangelization from the Black Bishops of the United States” (released by the African American Catholic Bishops) and “Brothers and Sisters to Us” (1979) and “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love” (2018) (both published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, with important critical input from the African American Catholic Bishops and other representatives of the African American Catholic community).

“The Black Church” is impoverished if it ignores the outstanding African American Catholic clergy, religious, and laity who, through the centuries, have exemplified heroic virtue in their love for God, their discipleship of Jesus Christ, concern for the needy and the oppressed, and commitment to the authentic teachings of the Church, even when the Church was marred by the sin of systemic prejudice and racism. Fortunately, in recent decades, some of their extraordinary stories have been carefully studied and they are now under consideration for canonization as saints by the Catholic Church. They are: Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1776-1853), Servant of God Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (1784-1882), Venerable Henriette Delille (1813-1862), Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), Servant of God Julia Greeley (c.1833 / 1848-1918), and Sr. Thea Bowman, FSPA (1937-1990).

Many African American Catholics are converts from Protestant traditions. Guided by the impetus of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1964), they have incorporated elements of the Black Church’s worship style into African American Catholic liturgical celebrations that are “authentically Black and truly Catholic.” Mr. Joseph M. Stewart, an African American Catholic layman and a descendant of the enslaved free human beings sold by the Jesuit order to cover expenses of Georgetown University, is the President of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation. This foundation, an initiative of Jesuit leadership, is committed to raising at least $100 million to benefit the descendants of those who ere enslaved. With an African American Catholic at the helm, this foundation is one of the most ambitious efforts at “reparations,” an issue of growing concern in “the Black Church.”

In the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth, drawing from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, teaches us to love God with our whole being and love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:37-39, Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18). Jesus asks, “Who was the true neighbor to a man who is violently attacked?” When we respond, “The one who showed compassion.” Jesus tells us, “Go and do likewise!” (Luke 10, 25- 37). African American Catholics pondering this parable with their sisters and brothers in “the Black Church” know well that Black Lives Matter because All Lives Matter to God who so loved the world that He sent His only Son to be the Savior of all (John 3:16). Unfortunately, there are many reasons to believe that in the coming decades it is unlikely that there will be significant growth in the size of the African American Catholic communities. This lamentable fact should not lead us to conclude that African American Catholics cannot be considered to be, in a certain sense, associated with “the Black Church,” while maintaining their uniquely Catholic identity.

When 23 year old Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, proclaimed her remarkable “The Hill We Climb” at the Inauguration of Joseph Biden, the second Catholic President in American history, commentators took note of her Harvard education, her prefect diction, her exquisite beauty, her poise, and her radiant yellow Miuccia Prada coat. But very few took note that she was a member of St. Brigid Catholic Church in Los Angeles. Few took note that she was an African American Catholic woman giving voice to “the Black Church” when she proclaimed:

“Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade. But in all the bridges we've made, that is the promise to glade, the hill we climb. If only we dare.”