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Ministries Aiming to let their light shine
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff Greenville, Miss.
It was Southern hospitality with
that extra serving of African-American all-embracing cordiality. The Jackson,
Miss., diocese Black Catholic Ministries subcommittee was meeting in the Sacred
Heart Church hall here. The hovering question, not yet posed, was how could
Jackson dioceses black Catholics better take ownership of their parish
lives.
Its not an easy question to answer. First the distances.
Jackson is the largest Catholic diocese in the east. Thirty-eight thousand
square miles, with 45,000 Catholics (2.2 percent of the population) and only 10
percent of those, 4,500, black Catholics.
There are 17 majority black parishes, five of them large, with 400
or more families. Next, theres what Catholic leaders such as Josephine
Calloway call the cultural history. She means not only past racial
divisions but the downside of being a mission church: people from elsewhere
often in charge.
Joyce Hart, executive director of the Office of Black Ministry,
was guiding this local gathering and kept the conversation going and flowing.
The air was festive. In the kitchen, volunteers prepared lunch. Around the
table, the dozen-and-a-half attendees told little stories about themselves by
way of introduction. The only two-generation family present was the Humes from
St. Marys, Vicksburg, Willie and Mary and their daughter Sharon.
Many were converts. Convert and Sacred Heart parishioner Birta
Jones described how, when she was a young teacher in Hattiesburg, each day as
she walked to her first school shed encounter a priest clearing junk out
of his yard. One day she asked what he was doing. He said he was going to start
a parish. Come over and talk to me sometime, he invited, and when
she did, he asked her if shed teach the first catechism class. She taught
the first class at Holy Rosary, and when that class was baptized, she was
baptized with it.
To much laughter, one grandmother told her story of how some of
the local Catholic women felt her grandson had a vocation. So when the girls
called him, she always asked them to call back. (Even so, he never entered the
seminary.)
The vastness of the diocese surfaced in conversation. For a
meeting like this, half of the attendees had driven more than 200 miles, and
much of that on fairly narrow Mississippi Delta roads. Muesetta Wise, who moved
to Greenville in 1987 from St. Paul, Minn., said she misses no longer being an
active member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of St. Peter Claver, as
she was in St. Paul. But, as she remarked, its quite a distance to
go to Jackson [two-and-a-half hours away] for a meeting.
Any gathering of African-American Catholics in this Mississippi
diocese implicitly has an unseen visitor: the regions most famous black
daughter, the late Franciscan Sr. Thea Bowman of Canton, Miss. Much that was
implied at this gathering, and the intent behind the Office of Black Ministry,
traces back to Bowmans determination to organize a diocesan Black
Catholic Congress (see box).
Donna Williams, interviewed later by phone, was a powerhouse in
the diocesan Black Catholic Congress that Bowman organized, and the
regions Knights of St. Peter Claver auxiliary. The efforts of people like
Williams resulted, in 1997, in Jacksons Bishop William Houck establishing
the Office of Black Ministry.
Williams wants a more embracing diocese. When we move into
other churches in the diocese, we dont hear our music, dont hear
words encouraging to us. That, too, is part of what were trying to
get.
Bowmans witnesses were present: Mary Cameron of Christ the
King in Jackson, who started out with Sr. Thea when she wanted to
acknowledge famous black people, not necessarily Catholic, but those that have
history; Sarah Bradford of Jacksons Holy Ghost Parish, who acted as
Bowmans secretary for the last few years of Bowmans life; and
Vicksburg High School vice-principal Calloway of St. Marys Parish there.
After Bowmans death, and of their own volition, Bradford and Calloway
spent years traveling to traditional black parishes like this one, trying to
stimulate interest and action in black Catholic initiatives.
Harts aim, too, in these meetings is to determine how local
black Catholic communities can gain more knowledge of the church, of
Catholicism itself, so they can carry on the tradition on their own.
Thats the office of Black Catholic Ministrys main push. The second
is to work with youth to develop leadership. A key component of that is
giving the young black leaders the nurturing programs necessary so that when
they are part of larger, predominantly white diocesan gatherings, they
wont feel isolated.
Theres a major youth gathering planned for August. Already
Hart has developed a team of 17 adults and 17 young people from across the
state who will work with the children and youth attending the three-day event.
The topics come straight out of the Thea Bowman goals: giving the youth an
understanding of the history and traditions of Catholics of African-American
descent and, as Hart says, showing what this history means to black youth
now and in their future as leaders. We really need black leadership in the
church, she said. And she didnt mean just the black church.
Its a theme that resonates with Calloway. We have
black doctors, lawyers, professors, law enforcement officers, every profession
you can name as part of the black Catholic faith community. And they dont
see themselves as leaders of that faith community, said Calloway.
Thats cultural and historical. Many parishes were
mission parishes, she continued, so there was always somebody from
outside, from Wisconsin or Illinois, making decisions for them. That fostered a
mentality of, Im not capable of doing it because somebody better is
doing it, said Calloway. These are the things that have
never been emphasized. What cultural barriers are there to asking the right
questions? Its a whole cultural block. And we need a large conference to
define and set some goals.
Calloway and Bradford believe the church needs more black presence
in the chancery. Indirectly, through Joyce Hart, the bishop knows some of this,
they said, but he needs black people as inner-circle decision-makers, and as
key department heads. Not only to be part of the decision-making,
said Calloway, but part of the visibility. Joyce [Hart] is part-time. It
should be a full-time position, Calloway said. The Hispanic
ministry has been [full-time] for years.
Bradford and Calloway agree that black Catholics need to define
the issues, to set goals -- and begin implementing goals that can be met
immediately.
In the interim, at the Sacred Heart meeting, new friendships were
made and the network further expanded.
National Catholic Reporter, January 19,
2001
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