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University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. 1325190 Sharps, Ronald LaMarr THE EMERGENCE OF BLACK CULTURAL EXPRESSION IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC LITURGY The American University M.A. 1985 University Microfilms International300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1985 by Sharps, Ronald LaMarr All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. THE EMERGENCE OF BLACK CULTURAL EXPRESSION IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC LITURGY by Ronald LaMarr Sharps submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Performing Arts: Arts Management Signatures of Committee: Chairman 1985 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 IKE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © COPYRIGHT BY RONALD LAMARR SHARPS 1985 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE EMERGENCE OF BLACK CULTURAL EXPRESSION IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC LITURGY by Ronald LaMarr Sharps ABSTRACT This study is a historical analysis of organizational proposals and programs for black artistic and cultural expression in the Roman Catho­ lic liturgy from colonial times to 1985. While the Church has remained theologically consistent, Church responses to slavery, segregation, and racial and cultural integration affected approaches to black expression in liturgy. Organizations primarily included Jesuits, Capuchins, Oblate Sisters of Providence, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Josephites, Divine Word Missionaries, Negro Catholic Congresses, Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver, Federated Colored Catholics, Interracial Council, National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, Dominicans, White Fathers, Liturgical Conference, National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, National Black Sisters Conference, National Black Lay Catholic Caucus, National Office for Black Catholics and Maryknoll Fathers. Proposals relevant to blacks and Catholic worship made during the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore and the Second Vatican Council are treated as significant reference points. i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE Liturgy is an expressive art form. It is ritual action. Dance, drama, music, poetry may be' involved in its composition, but it achieves its own aesthetic— a sacred aesthetic. Aesthetic is not the objective of liturgy. Liturgy is not art for its own sake. The aim of liturgy is dialogue with mystery, with the supernatural, with God.'1' The Roman Catholic Church invites all people of the world to accept her beliefs and approach God through her liturgy. But the people of the world are of diverse races and cultures. Must they deny their race or abandon their cultures to join with a universal humanity and a Catholic culture? There are constraints and inducements for creativity associated with liturgical practice as with any other art form— some social, some aesthetic, some technical. This paper will focus on the social and historical developments of Catholic worship among blacks in America. Rather than concentrate on aspects of other art forms in relation to the liturgy, black expressive culture in general will be considered in relation to the liturgy. Theological, pastoral, and magisterial ■''For developed arguments in this regard see Patrick W. Collins, "Liturgical Renewal, Twenty Years Later: Have We Learned That Liturgy Is a Form of Art?" Commonweal, June 1, 1984, pp. 330-34; Luis Maldonado, "Art in the Liturgy: A Theological Meditation in Response to an Ecumen­ ical Essay by Oliver Clement," in Symbol and Art in Worship, ed. Luis Maldonado and David Power (New York: Seabury Press, 1980), pp. 3-10; and John Tinsley, "Liturgy and Art," in Liturgy in Transition, ed. Herman Schmidt, S.J. (New York: Herder & Herder, 1971), pp. 71-77. i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 conditions will be noted. Programmatic efforts to encourage and properly administer Catholic liturgy to allow a fuller cultural expression among black congregations in the United States are relatively new, but multiplying. Few individ­ uals know how to evaluate black cultural adaptations of liturgy or understand why there needs to be such a liturgy, or even realize what resources are avai lable and the impact that they may be having or have had. I will not attempt to address the full scope of those problems in this paper. Instead, I will attempt to develop historical parameters within which one may begin to view the recent demand by many for black contributions to Catholic liturgy. To my knowledge, there is no study that has attempted to focus more or less comprehensively on the history of blacks and Catholic liturgy. Nor do I know of any effort to record the recent strategies relevant to achieving "black liturgies." This study may not contain anything that is surprising, but it should assist both those who seek affirmation and those who wish to know why these efforts exist at all. It should assist program directors who wish to move beyond the generalization of historical rationales offered on behalf of such efforts to more concrete historical understanding and justification. It should provide a sense of the structures, people and beliefs with which interaction is required to achieve these ends. And it should preserve the record of the beginnings of the black Catholic liturgical movement. The approach to this study is social history. This study will not Magisterial refers to the authority claimed by the Roman Catholic Church as divinely inspired to teach true doctrine. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. focus so much on the actual practice of liturgy in the Catholic parish but rather on the historical opportunities for cultural expression in Catholic liturgy and the factors that both deterred and encouraged this expression. It will be an institutional history focusing on the Catho­ lic Church. Therefore, this paper will consider aspects of Roman Catholic organizational structure. Among them will be the Vatican, national episcopal conferences, dioceses, parishes and parish societies, reli­ gious missionary orders, lay organizations, independent organizations of Catholic laity, religious and clergy. Theological and liturgical impli­ cations of cultural adaptation in relation to the "Universal Church," "Mystical Body of Christ," and the "Incarnate God" and the pastoral implications of slavery, separate Negro churches, segregated pews, and integrated congregations will be considered. Catholic devotions will also be considered in this context. Individual personalities will not be considered per se. Personali­ ties will be treated as spokesmen for the organizations which provide them a forum. Broader church issues or black