Black Catholics celebrate their contributions to church, society

In a celebration exuding energy and excitement the Black Catholic community affirmed that Black Catholic history is U.S. history during the Diocese of Baton Rouge's African American Mass Nov. 4 at St. Gerard Majella Church in Baton Rouge.

The Mass, themed “Celebrating Saints of African Ancestry: Black Catholic History Month,” was sponsored by the Office of Black Catholics of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

Bishop Michael G. Duca was celebrant and Father Tom Clark SSJ, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Baton Rouge, was the homilist.


Top, right: The celebration of Black Catholic history began with a processional to the tune, "When the Saints Go Marching In." Pictured are students from Redemptorist | St. Gerard School.

Above: Bishop Michael G. Duca was joined by priests and deacons from the Diocese of Baton Rouge at the altar for the African American Mass. Photos by Debbie Shelley | The Catholic Commentator


Before Mass, the Diocesan Gospel Choir sang the upbeat song, “When the Saints Go marching In” as the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, liturgical dancers and Redemptorist St. Gerard School students dressed as canonized saints and the six African Americans on the path to sainthood proceeded down the aisle. Each student gave a presentation on the saintly person they represented.

Father Clark gave an impassioned homily about Black Catholic history and the holy men and women who were “uncommonly faithful in their service of God and of his truth.”

“We’re not talking about a separate book, we’re not talking about another chapter, we’re talking about one story, one history interwoven, just as there is one shepherd and one flock,” said Father Clark.

He emphasized that on All Saints’ Day the church celebrated not only the canonized saints, but countless men and women who were everyday saints.

“Saints who, despite their quiet lives, are nonetheless saints with God in love.

They are our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, classmates, neighbors and many others … who make sacrifices for others and put others first and kept the faith, said Father Clark.
His homily focused on Black women who entered predominately white religious orders in the 1950s and 60s. They are featured in the book “Subversive Habits” by Shannen Dee Williams.


Father Tom Clark gave a passionate homily about the sacrifices made by Black Catholics in integrating churches, institutions and society.

Father Clark highlighted Black women religious congregations who impacted American and Catholic Church history.

He highlighted the Sisters of the Holy Family, who were founded in New Orleans by sainthood candidate Mother Henrietta Delille and have served at St. Francis Xavier Parrish (Baton Rouge) and St. Mary’s Academy (New Orleans). Other black religious orders Father Clark touched upon were the Oblate Sisters of Providence, founded by sainthood candidate Mother Mary Lange, whom led the way in the teaching of Black history and arts and curriculum; and the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, founded by Mother Mary Theodore Williams, a Baton Rouge native; and the Notre Dame Sisters de Namur, who teach children and adults on five continents.

“But we cannot forget those young women, many of them no older than 18 or 19 years old, who, inspired by the brutal death of children and the fledgling civil rights movement if the 1950s and 1960s, set out on a journey of liberation and yes, indeed, they were instruments of God’s grace to save and redeem the church from the sin of racism,” Father Clark said.

“Many of them became the first Black students in predominately white Catholic high schools. As they desegregated these schools, they also felt the call to religious life. They felt the call from God to join the religious orders. They went to integrate those religious orders.”

These women went into the schools and hospitals and were the first to integrate into those institutions and the towns in which they were located, Father Clark pointed out.


Liturgical dancers gave an inspirational expression of worship through dance.

“For them it was a constant struggle. ­­Some were turned down two or three times before being accepted. Some had to abandon their desire to join a particular order and they entered another order who would accept them.”

Sadly, these women faced racism and discrimination and “outright hostility” and were received with indifference and misunderstanding, stated Father Clark.


“I place these brave women alongside the Freedom Riders who rode from Washington to New Orleans. I place them together with those who integrated lunch counters throughout the south. I could place them with those who faced the fire as they marched for the right to register. They constituted another wing of the civil rights movement,” he said.
 
Often, they were the only Black person in their initial formation classes or religious order in the continent in which they lived.

“They were alone,” said Father Clark. “There were no news reporters and cameras to document their struggle to gain support. They could not go home to their families and their community at night. They (were permitted) one visit from their family a year, certainly no telephone calls and just the letter written, no email for them. They placed the letter in the mailbox and waited for a reply.


The Diocesan Gospel Choir performed upbeat music during the Mass.

“Just think of their isolation, their pain. As one sister told me, ‘All you can do was cry in your pillow at  night,’ ” Father Clark said.

Father Clark signaled out Sister Mary Antona Ebo FSM, who was the first Black woman to head a Catholic hospital and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King at Selma, Alabama in 1965, one week after “Bloody Sunday.”


“These women rose to the life God was calling them to. They fiercely believed that they were called by God to consecrated life. They believed by the virtue of their baptism they head a right to live out their God-given vocation. They had the mission to make the church what it was supposed to be,” said Father Clark.

The concluding part of the Mass included an inspiring and graceful liturgical dance.

Deacon Alfred Adams, Director of the Office of Black Catholics, urged attendees to share the gifts God has given them with the church, to build each other up and not be ashamed of who they are.

“You are Catholic and you are African American and we want people to know that we are Black and Catholic and we know how to celebrate our God and our culture. If you don’t do it, no one else will do it, so we have to do it,” said Deacon Adams, at which the assembly applauded.

Bishop Michael Duca urged the assembly to walk with the church and world in achieving peace through unity, starting with their families and communities and let Christ be the center of everything they do.

“I always say the biggest evangelization tool for the church is going to be charity … “And they said, ‘See how they love one another,’  ” Bishop Duca said.


The artwork around the altar included a portrait of Jesus.