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Cover
story
Family gathering
By ROBERT J. McCLORY
Chicago
In a year when the U.S church has been badly battered, some 3,000
of its African-American members met Aug. 24-Sept. 1 and unabashedly proclaimed
their Catholic identity in word, song and dance. Some wore T-shirts that
expressed the unofficial motto of the event: “Black Catholic born, Black
Catholic bred, when I die I’ll be Black Catholic dead.”
The ninth National Black Catholic Congress, held at Chicago’s
Hyatt-Regency Hotel, was marked by a sustained call for new solidarity between
black American Catholics and their brothers and sisters in Africa.
Despite the serious tone and purpose, the congress seemed at times
more like a down-home family reunion, a description Bishop Wilton Gregory
applied in remarks to a reporter. “This is, after all,” he said,
“a family gathering.” People gathered in ever-expanding clusters,
hugging old friends, renewing acquaintances and prompting conveners like Jesuit
Fr. Joseph Brown to good-naturedly scold the crowd for having too good a
time.
But when they got down to the broad issues, people worked. During
eight seminar sessions on two days, participants identified areas most
deserving attention and action during the next five years. Among these were
more aggressive education on racism and its effects on society, an emphasis on
increasing the number of black priests, a renewed assault on poverty at the
local level, and increasing the awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS.
Lively discussions during these sessions frequently criticized the
institutional church and the Catholic community at large. In the seminar
session on racism, Msgr. Leonard Scott, a canon lawyer from Camden, N.J., cited
a host of experts who called racism still the most “virulent national
disease” and “most contagious addiction.” People in this country
are born “with an inclination to white supremacy,” he said, an
especially insidious affliction because it is most often undetected and
unnoticed.
Although the U.S. bishops recognized the problem in their
documents, “Brothers and Sisters To Us” in 1979 and in “What We
Have Seen and Heard” in 1984, Scott said the writings remain “the
best kept secrets” in the church. He called on congress participants to
“shock or shame” priests, bishops, catechists and others to speak
out. Unfortunately, he said, there are still few African-Americans in positions
of influence in U.S. dioceses. And he added, “If in any diocese the Office
of Black Catholic Ministry is the only agency dealing with racism, then
it’s certain racism is not a priority in the diocese. It’s only
window-dressing.” The seminar group was virtually unanimous in urging an
apology by the U.S. bishops for the church’s participation in racism. A
similar apology was presented by the hierarchy to Native Americans in 1992.
Zero tolerance for racism
Comments by participants in the seminar indicated frustration over
a lack of progress. “Priests are not delivering information they should to
the people,” said one man. Declared another, “If we have zero
tolerance on some issues, why not zero tolerance for racism?” A woman who
had returned to the church after a 20-year lapse said she has “noticed an
insidious tendency by priests and other church leaders to marginalize anyone
who questions or challenges anything.” Somehow, said Scott, there must be
“a greater commitment to listening in the whole church.”
The first National Black Catholic Con-gress was held in Washington
in 1889 and attended by 200 delegates. It came about at the insistence of
Daniel Rudd, a layman and son of slaves. He argued that black Catholics must
speak out on the lack of black priests and sisters, the denial of religious
education to black children, and Catholic acceptance of racist bigotry and
segregation. Four more congresses were held in the late 19th century, but none
was convened thereafter until their renewal in 1987. The similarity between the
concerns of 2002 and those of 112 years before was noted in passing by many at
the congress.
Gregory, bishop of Belleville, Ill., and president of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, received a standing ovation when he addressed a
plenary session. He mentioned the failure of “some bishops” to
address the priest abuse phenomenon, adding, “I assure you we are making
every effort to address shortcomings.”
Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, the most visible symbol of the
hierarchy’s failure to curb abuse, received warm applause as his presence
at the congress was officially acknowledged.
“No one should be surprised at that reaction,” Sr. Anita
Baird, president of the National Black Sisters Conference, told NCR.
“Black Catholics have long memories. Law was one priest in the 1960s who
spoke out for us in Mississippi. He has come to all four of our congresses
[held every five years since 1987], and he’s a friend to the black
community.” Baird, a member of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, said
black reaction to Law’s problems is like their reaction to those of former
President Bill Clinton. “It doesn’t mean we condone wrongdoing or
don’t think people should be held accountable,” she said. “But
when Clinton was being clobbered by Congress and by most of the nation, we
remembered all the people he put into positions of authority and the black
leaders who had access to him. As a matter of fact, he is still our
president.”
Besides, she said, the black Catholic community has issues that
are broader. “There’s too many of our boys and women who are dying or
going to prison,” she said. “That’s foremost in our minds as
black Catholics. The aim of this congress is to set an agenda for the next five
years, because no one is going to create an agenda for us but us.”
One item never before addressed became a major subject at this
year’s event: Africa.
It was the main point of Gregory’s speech in which he made an
appeal for black Catholics to reach out in new and creative ways to the peoples
of Africa. The U.S. bishops’ 2001 statement, “A Call for Solidarity
with Africa,” should not be regarded “as just a policy option but as
a moral obligation for black Catholics,” he said.
In a trip to Africa last year, Gregory said he observed how the
bishops of Sudan have stood with the people, seeking to heal the rift among the
ethnic communities during a 20-year civil war “that has consumed 2 million
innocent lives.” He also witnessed, he said, the Catholic response to the
AIDS pandemic in Uganda where great numbers of Catholic caregivers wait
patiently day and night on the sick and dying. “I was moved by the depth
of the faith and the love of the church in Africa,” he said.
Commitment to Africa
Gregory said that as a result of the 9/11 disaster, concern for
homeland security has led Congress to tighten spending for social justice needs
and humanitarian concerns both at home and overseas. He urged black Catholics
to deepen their commitment to their ancestral homeland in a number of practical
ways: through twinning arrangements between American and African parishes or
dioceses, through exchange programs involving students and teachers, by
inviting newly arrived Africans into full parish life, and by pressuring
multinational corporations based in the United States to cease unjust labor
practices in Africa.
Gregory’s appeal was carried forward by Bishop Charles
Palmer-Buckle of Ghana. “Africa is a song of woes and wars, but it is a
continent of hope and good news, too,” he told the congress. Catholicism
is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world, he said, rising
from 54 million members some 25 years ago to 130 million today, from 432
dioceses to 601, from 17,000 priests to 27,000. Nevertheless, Palmer-Buckle
lamented, Africa is still regarded as “an irrelevant appendix on the
world.” Of the 16 richest countries in the world, he said, the United
States gives the least to Africa in development grants. “We don’t
want the crumbs that fall from the table of the rich,” he said. “We
want worldwide co-responsibility.”
Palmer-Buckle became emotional when he discussed the issue of
African priests working in U.S. dioceses. He bowed his head and said, “We
have so many priests, and I don’t think you want them!” There were
murmurs of denial in the assembly, so he asked, “Do you want them?”
There followed a burst of “yes!” from the crowd, but it was not
unanimous.
After his talk, a collection for AIDS victims in the United States
and Africa netted $24,000.
The concentration on Africa was raised several notches by Precious
Blood Fr. Clarence Williams, director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry
in Detroit. Globalization was first experienced in Africa, he said, when the
slave trade in the early 16th century began treating blacks as commerce,
eventually spreading them throughout the New World from Alaska to Argentina.
There are 200 million Catholics of African descent in the world today, Williams
said, and he asked, “What could happen if all those black Catholics,
united in doctrine, devotion and discipline, realized their solidarity in
action?” Of all black Catholics, those in America are without question the
wealthiest, the most educated and the most traveled, said Williams, suggesting
it is they who should take leadership in any united black Catholic initiative.
On the other hand, he noted, “we are black Americans” and thus
inclined “to get all we can and can all we get.” That is the
stumbling block, he said, for all “Ameri-Cans.”
Williams urged assembly members to educate themselves about the
history of black Catholicism, to engage in anti-racism programs, and to preach
openly about the evils of abortion. In the past 30 years, he stated, “17
million black fetuses have been aborted -- that’s more black lives than
were lost in the slave trade.” Perhaps, he suggested, black Catholics
should consider making reparation for such a loss by adopting black orphan
children from Uganda.
Resistance to African priests
Baird, who is an ex officio member of the congress’ board of
trustees, told NCR this striking concentration on solidarity is the
result of new developments since the previous congress in 1997. First, she
said, is the growing number of African priests and sisters in North America.
Baird acknowledged that African priests working in parishes have met some
resistance, since they come from a culture that puts priests on a pedestal and
does not view women as equal. But the problem will be solved by inculturation,
she predicted. The African priests and sisters “will adjust when they
understand that just being black is not enough.”
Secondly, Baird said the idea of a pan-Catholic black solidarity
is a reality that has come of age; this year’s congress was attended by
black Catholics from Britain and Brazil who intend to organize similar
congresses in their own countries. More black Catholics are visiting Africa,
she noted, and they are thereby becoming aware of the their deep ancestral
connections to the continent as well as its place in the world today.
Finally, the Africa emphasis is viewed as a way to help black
Catholics better understand who they are. “We’re still playing
catch-up on our history,” said Baird. Many still think of Catholicism as
an Irish religion, she added, and are unaware that much of Africa was Catholic
centuries before St. Patrick was born.
On the closing day, Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib told the
assembly to carry the ideas and enthusiasm of the congress into their parishes
and communities. “Now comes the homework,” he said.
Robert McClory is a special report writer for
NCR.
Related Web sites
National Black Catholic
Congress
www.nbccongress.org
U.S. bishops’ “A Call
to Solidarity with Africa”
www.usccb.org/sdwp/africa.htm
National Catholic Reporter, September 13,
2002
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