‘We’ve come a mighty long way,’ say Black Catholics

13th August 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

Father Sidney Speaks came to New Orleans 30 years ago as a Josephite seminarian and candidate for the priesthood. Over those three decades, Speaks has, as an African-American priest in the Crescent City, seen the Black Catholic community—both locally and nationally—adapt to changes and challenges from inside and from outside the Church.

But through all of it, through every peak and valley, Speaks said, the African-American faith community within the Church has remained as vigorous and passionate as ever.

“I’ve always felt the vibrancy of faith in the African-American community has been at a high level,” Speaks said. “We’ve always stayed true to being Catholic and Black.”

That spirit and energy was on display July 28 through Aug. 2, when the Archdiocese of New Orleans hosted the annual unifying event of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC) and the National Black Sisters Conference (NBSC). Both organizations are celebrating their 50th year of existence and service, and the theme of the recent conference was, quite appropriately, “We’ve Come A Mighty Long Way!”

The NBCCC and the NBSC have brought together Black priests and sisters, respectively, since 1968. Along the way, two other vital organizations—the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association and the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons—were created and nurtured, and together the four groups gathered in New Orleans for a week of empowerment, unity and, above all, rejoicing.

“It was a wonderful celebration,” said Speaks, the parochial vicar at St. Matthew the Apostle Catholic Church and School in River Ridge. “That’s the word that we kept coming back to [at the conference].”

That message echoed nationally during the lead-up to the 50th anniversary gathering.

“This gives us an opportunity to come together in mutual support and encouragement,” NBCCC President Father Kenneth Taylor told the Catholic News Service. “It also gives us a chance to come together to talk about the needs of the Black community and what we can do to help Black Catholics become more engaged in the church.”

In New Orleans, roughly 175 representatives from across the country took part in the Opening Mass on July 30 at St. Raymond and St. Leo the Great Catholic Church. New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond presided as celebrant, while Bishop Fernand Cheri served as homilist.

The following day, congregants and the public enjoyed a “Pack the House Gospel Choir Extravaganza” at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, where several local Black Catholic choirs united with other musical guests for a joint performance.

With a pair of excellent keynote speakers and discussion groups added in, Speaks said, “we were able to talk out some of the things we face as an African-American community and as a church.”

Speaks said much of the discussion centered on the “double minority” status Black Catholics experience and the challenges that dual identity creates.

“When national organizations gather like this, it gives us pause to examine the status of African-American Catholics, and the status of the African-American community in general,” said Speaks, who also serves as the secretary of the NBCCC.

While this year’s 50th edition of the conference provided an opportunity to recognize and honor the founders of the NBCCC and the NBSC, he said, “it also gave us a chance to look at the present and the future.”

While acknowledging that the numbers of participants in faith communities across the country have continued to drop over the last few decades, Speaks said that hasn’t dented the resilience and dedication of the roughly 30 local Black Catholic parishes. He said the attendance and emotion displayed at the conference signify that optimism

“To me, these were indications that the lifeblood of African-American Catholicism is very much alive,” he said.

This article originally published in the August 13, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.