Currently, seven African American men and women are on the path toward sainthood in the United States.
Currently, seven African American men and women are on the path toward sainthood in the United States.
A little more than 60 years ago – March 7, 1965 – approximately 600 peaceful demonstrators approached the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
In 1915, a group of black Catholics met at a home on Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, across from what is today the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. The Spanish Colonial-style church with two bell towers was completed just three years earlier to replace the previous parish church, which was built in 1861, the same year the American Civil War began.
African American Catholics plan to visit the Vatican in November to promote the cause for Mother Mary Lange, one of six African American Catholics who are candidates for sainthood.
About 3,000 Black Catholics from around the country attended the National Black Catholic Congress July 20-23 in the Washington D.C., area where they examined their role in the Church, how to share their unique gifts and rise above ongoing challenges.
Marc Guess, a parishioner at St. Monica Catholic Church in Indianapolis, attended the first National Black Catholic Men’s Conference in Memphis 20 years ago. He has been to almost every one of the annual events since and plans to attend this year’s conference in October in Louisville, Kentucky.
Black Catholic religious vocations emerge from a long tradition of faith, nurtured by silence and prayer within the life of the church, said a religious sister at an event dedicated to those vocations.
Black Catholics in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island have concerns about how they are treated by the Church, and they’re preparing to voice those concerns at a national convocation this summer.
On Oct. 29, 1853, Harriet Thompson took pen to paper, wrote a letter to the pope, and started a fight for equality for blacks in the Catholic Church. Thompson was unhappy with the treatment she and her fellow African Americans were receiving not only from society but from the Church as well.
The diocese’s annual prayer service commemorating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held at noon on Monday, Jan. 16, at St. Kevin Church, located at 45-21 194th Street in Flushing.