Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time to reflect on King’s vision and his example for everyone as a Christian leader who engaged in effective social action, said a leader with a historically African-American Catholic fraternity. “The dream that Dr. King so eloquently professed in his ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ was about the bettering of humanity,” Percy J. Marchand, an associate director of the Knights of Peter Claver, told CNA Jan. 17. “As imperfect sons and daughters of the perfect Creator, we must each consistently do our best to live out the principles upon which Dr. King expounded.” Read More

The Knights of Peter Claver and the Ladies Auxillary hosted their first CASTing call in the Lake Charles Sacred Heart Catholic Church, about human trafficking. “The CASTing call is social justice, community awareness summit talks," said Jackie Simien-Guillory, Social Justice and Community Service Captain for the Church. “We’re going to have different talks on different initiatives all year long, but today was the perfect day with Human trafficking, to start off in the blue of things.” At the CASTing call, advocates and law enforcement spoke educating those in attendance about the issue. Read More

Arthur Miller was a young schoolboy growing up in Chicago when 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and murdered in Money, Mississippi, in August 1955. Like other black people, Miller was shocked and horrified over the murder, particularly when pictures of Emmett’s ravaged body appeared in Jet magazine. But Miller had a more than casual connection to the tragedy — he was a schoolmate of the murdered boy. “We didn’t know people got murdered,” Miller said. “As a 10-year-old boy, I didn’t understand how a child could die.” Read More

s darkness fell on Nov. 23, a crowd of people who had gathered for a special ceremony inaugurating the centennial celebration for Holy Redeemer Parish in Washington, D.C., began to process from behind the church, then up to New Jersey Avenue and onto New York Avenue, holding small glow sticks and singing, “We are Marching in the Light of God.” That procession to Holy Redeemer Church, said Deacon Willis Daniels, reflected the walk of faith begun by the parish’s founders 100 years earlier, Black Catholics who had gathered to start a church in that neighborhood where they could worship together freely without experiencing discrimination. Read More

At the Nov. 9 Black Catholic History Mass held at Holy Family Church in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, the archdiocese presented the 2019 award to the local chapter of Sisters in the Spirit, a national organization empowering women to become involved in their parishes. The archdiocesan chapter was founded in 2001 and has grown to 155 members. “This liturgy is meant to celebrate, meant to acknowledge those who have gone before, those who we’ve stood on their shoulders,” said Sandra Coles-Bell, the program director for the archdiocesan Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach. Coles-Bell said Sisters in the Spirit help black women in building up parishes, where she said the real work of the Church begins. Read More

The artistic imagery of Catholicism is that of a deep sadness at the death of Jesus but also contains joy of liberation through His resurrection. For black artists, the symbology of the crucifixion has entirely different meanings. This week, Seattle University welcomed Cecilia Moore, the associate program director of Black Catholic Studies at the University of Dayton to speak at the Black Catholic Lecture. Read More

Shortly after the founding of the U.S.-based National Black Sisters’ Conference (NBSC) in 1968, the executive board members developed the following handshake exchange to greet one another at their regular meetings: First sister: Do you have the strength, Sister? Second sister: I do, if you do. Together in union: Then, we’re strong! In the decade following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, African American members of the nation’s historically black and white Catholic sisterhoods developed a plan of action to rid the U.S. church and wider society of the long-standing scourge of white supremacy. Read More

The Office of Black Catholic Ministry for the Diocese of Providence has announced a Strategic Pastoral Plan of Action for fostering pastoral care and evangelization of black Catholic communities throughout Rhode Island. In response to Pope Francis’ “Call for the Conversion of the Church in our Time,” the Office of Black Catholic Ministry and its Advisory Board developed the “Strategic Plan of Action for the Pastoral Care and Evangelization to the Diaspora of the Black Catholic Community,” offering suggested guidelines for priests, lay ministers and parish assistants in fostering pastoral care to the varied ethnic communities within many unique parishes throughout Rhode Island. Read More