About 24% of all Americans identify themselves as Catholic, but in the black community, the percentage is far lower. According to a CARA Catholic Poll, just 3% of American Catholics, or 3 million Americans, identify themselves as both black and Catholic.
Further, just 250 of America’s 40,000 priests and only 16 of the 434 bishops in the United States are black.
In conjunction with Martin Luther King Day, the following is a profile of three black members of the clergy, who also shared their thoughts on evangelizing the black community.
Bishop Joseph Perry, 63, is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He grew up in an observant Catholic home in Chicago. His father was a laborer for the city in the sanitation department, and he also worked on the railroad.
Bishop Perry was one of six children. He attended various Catholic schools in Chicago and from a young age “had an affinity to the Church.”
At age 9, he told his mother he wanted to be a priest. At 15, he entered the high school seminary and was eventually ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1975. He became a bishop in 1998 and today serves a region of Chicago that includes many poor, inner-city blacks.
“In the 19th century, Irish and German bishops focused on evangelizing in those communities, but little attention was paid to African-Americans,” he remarked. “Historically, the Church in America has suffered from a lack of outreach to blacks, and the consequences are still with us today.”
He noted that 37 of Chicago’s parishes are predominantly black and that the archdiocese is engaging in a “Catholics Come Home” campaign to persuade more to come to church. The Church’s efforts are hampered, he said, by an “aging and crumbling urban infrastructure,” which has led wealthier residents to flee the city for the suburbs.
He continued, “What is left in the city are people who are poor (in many areas), so the Church is lacking in resources and has difficulty in keeping open parish schools.”
The parish schools, he added, historically provided black children with an introduction to the faith, which many would practice throughout their lives.
The recession of the past few years has been particularly painful in the inner city, he continued: “People have been out of work for years and are desperate. In their frustration they resort to crime, including domestic violence. They cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
He noted that when Catholic Charities distributes food or clothing in the inner-city neighborhoods, long lines of the needy form to receive them.
When he preaches in the community, he encourages the people to be hopeful: “I tell them to keep searching for what they need, but to continue to pray and not forget about God.”
Misperception
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, 45, serves the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore. He was born in Barbados in the Caribbean and brought to the United States as a small child. He grew up in Hillsdale, N.J.
His father was an unchurched calypso singer; his mother a Methodist who converted to Catholicism. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother encouraged Deacon Burke-Sivers and his three siblings in the practice of the Catholic faith. He served as an altar boy and was attracted to the priesthood: “I watched priests celebrate Mass, and I thought, I could do this.”
He spent four years in a Benedictine monastery in Newark, N.J., and was attracted to the “wonderful combination” of the Benedictines’ life of prayer and work. His mother was delighted to have a son in the monastery, but his worldly father was not.
Deacon Burke-Sivers opted for the married life instead, and today he works in university security and is the father of four children. He is also active as a deacon at Immaculate Heart Church, a featured speaker at many Catholic conferences and has an apostolate, Aurem Cordis, which promotes the faith. He hosted an EWTN series and has been featured on such Catholic radio programs as Catholic Answers Live. He travels 100,000 miles per year to speak, including international trips.
He’s saddened that more black Americans are not Catholics and believes it’s due to the perception that the Church is “a white man’s Church and a religion of slavery.” But, he added, “That’s completely untrue.”
His personal heroes include Father Augustus Tolton (1854-97), a former slave who is believed to be the first American black man ordained a priest, and whose cause for canonization was formally opened last year. In fact, he penned a new foreword to From Slave to Priest, a 1973 biography of Father Tolton by Sister Caroline Hemesath.
Deacon Burke-Sivers commented, “Father Tolton was rejected by every seminary in America because he was black and ultimately had to be trained in Rome. People would ask him why he stayed in a Church that persecuted him, and he’d reply, ‘What the Church teaches is still true, even if there are many sinners in it.’”
The deacon also likes to point out that 701 canonized saints are black. And, when it comes to evangelization of black people, the saints remind us that what is most important is not one’s color, but living the faith. He explained, “I need to be true to who I am. I’m Catholic first. And, oh yeah, I’m black, too.”
In the Big Easy
Josephite Father Anthony Bozeman, pastor of St. Raymond-St. Leo Parish in New Orleans, is president of the National Black Clergy Caucus, part of The National Black Catholic Congress. Father Bozeman grew up in a traditional Catholic home in Philadelphia. The family prayed together at home, and he attended Catholic schools and served as an altar boy.
One of the priests who served his parish was Msgr. James Daly (1913-2006), a World War II Army chaplain who served the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for many decades. The priest was an inspiration to him and led the future Father Bozeman to enter the seminary: “He was a good man and had a great desire to share God’s love with others. I wanted to be like him.”
Father Bozeman was ordained for the archdiocese in 2000. In 2009, he joined the Josephite Society of the Sacred Heart, the only community of priests and brothers in the United States exclusively engaged in advancing the teachings of the Church in the black community. He was assigned to his current parish, which is predominantly black and poor.
He describes New Orleans as “a tale of two cities.” While the city has a strong Catholic history, it is also “The Big Easy,” known for its worldly ways. A larger portion of the city’s blacks are Catholic than in any other city in the country, with perhaps the exception of St. Augustine, Fla., he noted. He believes more black Americans have gravitated to Protestant religions because of a more aggressive evangelizing effort on the part of Protestant churches. But, he said, there are examples of blacks, who, after receiving the Catholic faith, tenaciously held on to it despite adverse circumstances. One black community he visited in a remote area outside of Houston, for example, was without a priest for a century. It held onto the faith through such practices as faithful recitation of the Rosary, he said.
To those in this parish who would consider leaving the Church for non-Catholic religions, he likes to remind them, “We have the seven sacraments. We need all the graces we get through them.”
His personal heroes in the faith include Father Tolton (“I pray my ministry could be as fruitful as his”), Franciscan Sister Thea Bowman and his own aunt, Daisy Davenport. Of Aunt Daisy, he observed, “She experienced racism as an African-American Catholic but was able to look beyond it. She was very devoted to the Eucharist and knew that Christ was the center of the Catholic Church.”
Register correspondent Jim Graves writes from Newport Beach, California.
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If we look at society through ‘colorless’ eyes, then we can see how important it is to catechize black Americans…I believe this is in the spirit of what Dr. Martin Luther King preached…
Further, Sister Thea encouraged the Catholic Bishops to ‘enter a room, see who’s missing, then go out and invite them in’ (my paraphrase)...She got it…!!!
Thanks, Fran
In theory, there should be a proportionate number of black priests to black Catholics. But I will leave the formalized version of the Church if suddenly affirmative action is thrust upon my parish. In the event of affirmative action priests, we will enjoy rap liturgy and sagging vestments. For whatever reason, black and white do not mix when forcibly shaken. Best to leave this thing to itself to be slowly stirred by natural forces.
In my parish in Sugar Land, Texas,a suburb of Houston, we have a large percentage of blacks. Many of them are from Nigeria and other African countries, where Catholicism is growing in leaps and bounds. We’ve had a number of visiting black priests from Africa as well. The archdiocese of Galveston-Houston promotes African-American Catholicism with special events and focus to build up the community.
We don’t hear much about St. Katherine Drexel’s work with blacks in Louisiana, but she is certainly a role model for evangelization to that community. Isn’t there also a society of St. Peter Claver that celebrates black Catholicism?
Another point worth making is that more high-profile blacks are Catholic: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former U.S. ambassador Alan Keyes are just two examples.
When I hear of a parish closing in the inner city, it seems like a loss of a opportunity - why are these not our new missions?
I’m an African American convert to the Catholic Church, and I must say that becoming a Catholic was a bit of a culture shock. However, I have found our Church to be an incredibly warm and welcoming place for African Americans. I also think, however, that the Church needs to beef up her outreach efforts to African Americans, first by listening to current Black members of the Church, and second by equipping our own to share their faith with others. The first step in evangelization is to ensure that the Gospel message has permeated your own life so that you can be an effective missionary yourself. The second step to pray for open hearts to receive the Gospel message. Many African Americans hold to strong myths and misperceptions about the Church, and in order for our evangelization efforts to be fruitful we must debunk those myths. I think that if Blacks would come and see who we are as Catholics, they would be very pleased with what they encounter.
What wonderful examples of devout Catholics. Thank you for sharing!
Good piece. I especially like Deacon Harold.
Bishop Perry for Bishop of Rochester in 2012!
Great article! We’ve been blessed to have saints here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
@Lucy (Monday, Jan 16, 2012 11:01 AM): What an offensive post! As a Catholic priest of 17 years who is an African-American, I have served faithfully in predominately white parishes, a university campus ministry, and a seminary. I received these assignments because simply because I was a priest and they had confidence in my ability.. Hopefully any person of any background who is considering joining the Catholic Church will read the other posts here and see that your comment is not indicative of Catholic Christians in the USA.
I am a Black Catholic. I converted from Protestantism this year. I love the Church and I feel at home. I belong to a predominately and historically Black Catholic parish that includes my culture, gospel music, and history within the celebration of the liturgy. I encourage converts to find parishes that authentically embrace the Catholic faith and their own culture.
May The Holy Spirit Work Through Us All To Bring About A New Evangelization!
I find this a little hard to believe! I haven’t been keeping track, but it seems like I’ve seen more black priests than I should be expected to with these numbers. Then again, now that I think of it, many of these priests were black, but not American.
Thank you Father RH, I, too, found Lucy’s comment to be offensive. Surely she continues to need our prayer. The only thing we should be “thrusting” on one another is the love of the risen Christ. It’s obvious that even within Catholic communities there are those who have yet to allow the love of Christ guide their minds, hearts and tongues.
just 3%, or 3 million Americans, identify themselves as both black and Catholic. Further, just 250 of America’s 40,000 priests and only 16 of the 434 bishops in the United States are black.
16 Black bishops are 3.6% of the total number of Catholic Bishops, for the record.
@ Lucy I have had the pleasure of witnessing the service of a number of black priests. Our own predominantly white parish has a black parochial vicar, and we recently had to say goodbye to an Hispanic parochial vicar who was sent to another parish. We have had two black seminarians serve at our parish in the last 3 years. And the nearby parish which hosts our Latin Mass society currently has a black pastor. I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. They have been nothing but a blessing to our family. I can’t imagine what you are even talking about with the “affirmative action” priest comment. Surely there is enough room under the roof of the Catholic Church for all of us.
Most of the black priests I’ve ever met were visiting missionaries from foreign countries. American ones do seem very rare.
I second, “Bishop Perry for Bishop of Rochester in 2012!”
I’m puzzled by the math. There are about 300 million Americans. 3% of that would be 9 million. Which is wrong? That 3% of Americans identify themselves as black Catholics, or that 3 million Americans identify themselves as black Catholics?
@Lucy: That was mean-spirited and ignorant. In the spirit of fraternal correction: if you are a Catholic, I hope you make a good examination of conscience this evening and a good confession this week.
Lucy, please stop calling yourself Catholic. Thank you.
Whoever monitors this blog for NCR needs to “kick out” Lucy. Freedom of expression doesn’t mean license to use this platform for bigoted, offensive, rants. Lucy, spend time with the Gospels and not on blogs.
And God bless the other commentators as your witness inspires me in your fidelity to Truth despite the despicable comments of people such as Lucy.
Lucy, you just added to something I’ve been mulling over for a long time. I’ve often wondered why the parishioners in the suburbs were so unfriendly to my family. I guess they think like you do.
I don’t think like that, Daisy, and it is my hope and prayer that I am in good company. God bless you!
The comments posted by Lucy are racist and offensive. I am disturbed that this post has not been removed. I strongly suggest that she finds her way to aconfessional and work on purifying her mind from her racist sentiments, which are sinful.
Peace in Christ,
Carolyn Hyppolite
Okay, let’s play the numbers game. It is unclear what the general population numbers being reported mean. The numbers of priests and bishops are more specific. 250 out of 40,000 priests is 0.62%, and 16 out of 434 bishops is 3.7%. What I find noteworthy is that the proportion of bishops exceeds that of the priests from whom they are drawn by 600%. What does that say?
if 3% classify themselves as black and catholic and this represents 3 million people. That means that there are 100 million blacks in the US. Please check your numbers
My parish is Blessed Sacrament St Charles Borromeo, Newark, NJ which is predominantly black. Our pastor, Msgr. Anselm Nwaorgu, is the first black immigrant to be made a Monsignor in the US and we are all devout proud Catholics. We even have a Mass in Igbo which is a dialect from Nigeria. The Catholic Church has a rich arrary of gifts to offer everyone including blacks. As a matter of fact, my son goes to school at the Benedictine Monastry mentioned in the article and it is predominantly black.The Church,I believe though,could intensify its efforts to reach out to Blacks in the US,who could really benefit from these gifts. Take all aspirations to Jesus in the Blessed sacrament and he will definitly come through for us. May God be praised and adored at all times.
Of course the Catholic church isn’t just a White man’s church. It’s also a Hispanic man’s, a Black man’s, and Asian man’s and even a Pacific Islander man’s church. Glad we could sort that out for all you ladies out there.
Lucy’s comments are not rare. The Catholic church/school near my home is not very welcoming to African American students or parishioners. But we are allowed to work in the daycare and be janitors.
It saddens me to hear that, mrsceecee. I hope that MLK, Mother Henriette Delille, and St. Martin de Porres are praying hard for us. We obviously have much work still to do.
Good news. Christ died for all who were created in the Father’s image, not just the black folk or white folk. Comments reflect a reality - All have sinned and fallen short of the glory (Romans 3:23). I find comfort and hope in the fact that people who have experienced rejection, maltreatment and other unwelcome expressions from people in our Church, continue to profess and live their Catholic faith.
I am one of the Romans for pursposes of this conversation. I have not always done what God called me to do, but I am thankful that he keeps the door opened and continues to invite me in. Keeping the door open to the one who is different from me and looking for Christ in him/her is what Christ would do. So I would “Try Christ” because the hymn says “He will make it better.”
There is still much work to be done, but remember Christmas, the coming of Emmanuel - God is still with us; we could be a bit more consistent in our walk with him. The challenges to be overcome re: race and the other isms that negatively impact life here can be overcome when we practice Christmas (celebrating that God is with us) during ordinary time.
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