Hundreds of parishioners and guests filled Our Lady of Africa Church, 615 E. Oakwood Blvd., on Feb. 12 for the parish’s annual Black History Month Mass and celebration. This year’s observation of Black History Month fell on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the anniversary of the founding of the NAACP, and, this year, Super Bowl Sunday. Divine Word Father Carl Gales, associate pastor, said it’s important for the entire Catholic community to take time to remember and honor the contributions of Black Catholics. “It is really important for African Americans to celebrate the positive achievements of our community and for us as Catholics to recognize the African Americans who have been influential in maintaining a standard of excellence and progress in our community and our world,” Gales said. “I think a lot of that gets forgotten with media coverage that highlights crime and drugs and other problems.” Asked why having a Black History Month celebration is important, Our Lady of Africa parishioner Deniece Thomas said, “Because we’re Black people. That’s our heritage. If we don’t celebrate it, who will?” Members of the Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary, the Blessed Sacrament Society and the Our Lady of Africa Men’s Club led the procession into the church. The Mass, which started with “Oh Happy Day” and ended with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” featured settings from a Mass composed in honor of Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and Servant of God Thea Bowman, a Black Catholic educator and advocate who often used African American music. Bowman died in 1990, and her cause for sainthood was endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2018. Aaron Mathews, who composed the Sister Thea Bowman Mass, came to Our Lady of Africa from Milwaukee for the liturgy. He used rhythms and chords familiar in African American music for the Mass to honor Bowman, who was known to say that she was both “fully Black and fully Catholic.” “Now is the time for us to carry her work on, to dig a little deeper with Sister Thea,” Mathews told the congregation. “Sister Thea, we speak your name and we sing and pray for your road to canonization.” The music at the Mass moved Kattria Campbell, whose uncle, Tyrone Pittman, is the music director at Our Lady of Africa. “It was very inspiring,” she said. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry celebrated the Mass, and in his homily he reminded the congregation that Christians are called not only to follow the civil law, but to follow a higher moral law, just as Jesus called his disciples to not only follow the law of Moses and the prophets but to move beyond it. That means, for example, forgiving a neighbor not three times, or seven times, but “70 times 7,” Bishop Perry said, by which Jesus meant that his disciples must forgive a neighbor as many times as that neighbor offends. Similarly, while it was unlawful to kill a person, Jesus took that further, saying that anger also is wrong. “He understands it to be a form of killing,” Bishop Perry said. “Anger is an internal dynamic that can be expressed in the taking of a life.” Christians, he said, are not to go along to get along, or fit in with the people around them. “Christians are not meant to be nice people bothering no one, to do what’s accepted in the world,” Perry said. “We are called to be God’s witnesses to truth.” A reception followed the Mass.
Our Lady of Africa Parish celebrates its many cultures Parishioners at Our Lady of Africa Parish celebrated African American Heritage Month Feb. 20 with a Mass that featured readings, songs and prayers in Igbo, a language spoken in Nigeria; Twi, a language spoken in Ghana; and French, as well as parishioners wearing traditional dress.
Knowing Black Catholic history can help end racism, professor says The history of Black Catholics and other marginalized people in the U.S. church covering more than two centuries is one worth knowing and can guide the church’s response to the challenges of racism and social justice, historian Shannen Dee Williams believes.
Annual African American prayer service for students goes virtual For the first time in its 43-year history, the archdiocese’s annual African American Heritage Prayer Service for middle and high school students was held virtually rather than in person because of the pandemic. This year’s event was spread out over four weeks during Black History Month, with a video released every Friday morning.