Column Black Catholic history: surviving, against odds, as a people of
faith
By DIANA L. HAYES
There is an irony in situating in
the shortest month of the year the story of a people whose presence in the
United States stretches back to before the Mayflower. Why do we contract a
450-plus-year history of struggle and perseverance into 28 (and occasionally
29) days? At the same time, however, we must realize that this is one of the
few times, nationally or in our church, when that history is presented or
discussed.
Perhaps we need to be reminded of the Halloween party at Auburn
University in Alabama last year where white fraternity and sorority members
thought it would be hilarious to dress up in blackface, wearing
Fubu (a black-owned clothing company favored by urban blacks) shirts and the
shirts of the black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi. They took pictures of themselves
flashing gang signs while putting nooses around their necks and
posing with their fraternity brothers who were dressed as Ku Klux Klan members.
We also need to recall the memory of black men arrested on our nations
highways for driving while black, the ongoing investigations into
racial profiling across this nation, the continuing disparities in employment
and the decline of public schools, which most black children attend.
Last week while watching an international news station, I listened
in amazement as a European announcer commented on the devastating impact of the
recent volcanic eruption near Goma in the Congo. Many of those caught in the
eruption were still recovering from the wars, famine, disease and pestilence
rampaging through this part of the Congo and its neighboring state, Rwanda.
Goma is the crossroads for those fleeing either into or out of Rwanda and the
Congo in search of food, safety and a portion of peace.
The announcer noted the number of apparently orphaned children
present at the refugee camp he was reporting from and speculated on the reasons
for their presence. Their parents, he said, had apparently
abandoned the children. We have to realize that these people [emphasis
mine] have a large number of children, and sometimes they simply lose track of
them. He said nothing about the devastation and chaos the volcano had
caused, the large swaths of land covered in its broad flows of hot lava, or the
lack of an organized plan of evacuation or access to routes of escape.
Just as in the 15th century when the Catholic church affirmed the
legality of enslaving Africans because they were savages, stereotypes of blacks
as irrational, unfeeling and incapable of taking care of themselves still
abound. These assertions are a denial of the community spirit that is at the
core of the African worldview and that enabled many to survive the horrors of
capture, the Middle Passage and centuries of enslavement, colonization and
dehumanization.
The events Ive mentioned may seem quite different and are
located in different parts of the world, yet they are connected. These events
remind us, or should serve to, of how many, nationally and internationally,
continue to be ignorant about the lives of a people who, despite the
dehumanization and degradation of slavery, colonization, apartheid, Jim Crow
and other instances of humanitys callousness toward their fellow human
beings, have managed to survive as a people of faith.
Nor do we often hear of the successes of Africans or
African-Americans with the exception of a few such as Nelson Mandela or Vernon
Jordan or Condoleeza Rice. Many would assert that times have changed as these
and others take well-earned leadership roles in both the political and
corporate world. But we also need to hear about the smaller victories: those
who succeed despite the failures of their public schools; those who achieve the
small everyday victories of feeding and maintaining their families, of working
long hours in often deadening jobs to provide the necessities and maybe a
little extra.
What about the average African or African-American whom we
wont ever see on the TV screen or in the newspapers because they are
simply living their lives as best they can and hoping and working toward a
better future for their children?
Black History Month provides an opportunity for all, regardless of
race or ethnicity, to see not just the paradoxical lives of black folk but
their ordinary lives as well. In the Catholic church, there is still great
ignorance about a people who have been a part of its history since its earliest
beginnings.
Did you know that the fastest-growing Catholic church in the world
is that of Africa, which is now sending its priests and religious as
missionaries to us, where their reception is not always a pleasant one? Were
you aware that in the United States, the black Catholic population of
approximately 3 million is almost as large as that of all three historically
black Methodist churches combined? Are you familiar with the stories of African
saints and teachers in the church, of those persons of African descent who
helped to found some of our major cities (such as Chicago and Los Angeles), or
of those whose inventions paved the way for many of the appliances and other
modern conveniences we today take for granted?
These facts, like much of African and African-American history,
past and present, are still rarely presented in our schools or adult education
programs. Instead, blacks in the United States and throughout the diaspora
still tend to be, with few exceptions, simply faces on the TV screen in crime
shows, degrading music videos, action movies and ridiculous situation comedies.
Many Euro-Americans still attend schools, colleges and churches where they
rarely encounter African-Americans or other persons of color. Often the only
black persons they know are actors and actresses, rap artists, and
athletes.
Black History Month serves to foster greater contact and to
explore common ground. Often it is one of a few opportunities for our young
people, whether of African descent or not, to learn of the rich history of the
African presence in our church, a history that may enable them to hold on to
their faith rather than turning to other blacker ones.
As Catholics, although we may be different as to cultures and
traditions, we are united by our faith in Jesus Christ. We should join in
celebrating our differences and our commonalities in programs and liturgies
that highlight the gifts of the black culture.
Diana Hayes is assistant professor of theology at Georgetown
University in Washington.
National Catholic Reporter, February 15,
2002
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