A Chance Encounter and the Importance of Visibility in the Church
A few weeks ago on Holy Family Sunday after I went back to my home parish to preach for them for the first time a visitor and fellow Black Catholic dude came up to me after Mass as he was leaving. He smiled and wanted to tell me that he wished he saw “someone that…
From All Souls Day: Candle for Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB
I’ve been in seminary for 6.5 years, and each of those years (besides last year when I was doing my pastoral year of service in my diocese) I have laid a candle on this grave during our All Souls candlelight procession to the monks’ cemetery here at Saint Meinrad. This is the grave of Fr.…
170th Anniversary of Fr. Tolton’s Birth!
On April 1 we celebrated 170th Anniversary of the birth of Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton,the first recognized African American Catholic priest in US history. A true pioneer of black history, American history, and Church history all in one. Born into slavery in Missouri on April 1, 1854, and was baptized Catholic. He escaped slavery with…
HUGE NEWS! Mother Mary Lange Declared “Venerable” by Pope Francis!
HUGE NEWS!! Black Catholic Servant of God Mother Mary Lange(d. 1882), who founded the first Catholic order of religious sisters for African American women in US history, has been declared “Venerable” by Pope Francis today! By this declaration she has been recognized as living a life of true extraordinary virtue, one of the key marks…
ARTICLE SHARE: “The first African American woman to be found incorrupt”?? (Catholic News Agency)
People have been BLOWING UP my inbox and my phone about this huge news from the week! I finally got a chance to look over a couple of articles to check it out myself. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend reading up on this developing story of a Black Catholic founderess of a religious…
Interviewed by the St. Thomas More “Cougar Cast” Student Show for Black History Month!
I was recently took part in a brief interview by the student-ran Cougar Cast a live weekly school TV newscast show filmed out of St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, LA. Their show focuses on school announcements, important news, sports and weather, but sometimes that have special themed episodes like the one I…
All Saints of Every Race and Tongue
Today the Church celebrates all Saints known and unknown who fought the well fought fight and entered into heavenly glory. Now they intercede for us before Christ so that we can join them in the same glory they all share together. My apostolate especially celebrates all the Black Catholic saints in heaven both known and…
A Brief Comment on the Church in Africa
In light of the recent consistory and election of new cardinals, of which two were from Africa, the page below has some good figures of the number of cardinals from Africa and, in particular, Nigeria. 27 African cardinals in total, the 3rd largest bloc of cardinals of all the regions of the world. One of…
Black Catholic Saint Feast Day: St. Benedict the Moor, O.F.M., “The Holy Black” (April 4) – Brief Personal Reflection on His Feast Day
Today the Church celebrates the feast day of Black Catholic saint Benedict the Moor (1526-1589), a Sicilian Franciscan friar of slave origin. In his early life Benedict was often ridiculed by others for his humble background and for his skin color, but he bore this suffering patiently in a truly dignified and Christian way. Benedict,…
A Chance Encounter
Yesterday during a break in the part of our program with interfaith chaplains, I met a Black Protestant military chaplain of who told me I was the first African American dude studying for the Catholic priesthood he’s ever met! Glad God arranged things to let this encounter happen.I don’t mind being a unicorn for the…