Black History Month Is Celebrated in Crown Heights

By Stefanie Gutierrez

Over 400 black Catholics from the diocese came together this past Sunday, Feb. 17, for a 4 p.m. Mass honoring Black History Month, sponsored by the Vicariate for Black Catholic Concerns. Gathering at St. Gregory the Great, Crown Heights, banners from various apostolates led the procession.

Those represented included the National Black Catholic Congress; the Knights of St. Peter Claver and the Ladies Auxiliary; Kujenga, the diocesan black Catholic youth program; the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns; the West Indian and Caribbean Apostolate; and the Igbo Catholic community of St. Fortunata parish, New Lots.

“This Mass symbolizes unity among the black community,” said Helen Cureton, a parishioner at Sacred Heart, Cambria Heights. “We are together with one celebration.”

Delores Haynes, a parishioner at St. Clement Pope, S. Ozone Park, added, “This is a time for us to come together and worship as one. We all come from different backgrounds, but with this Mass we are one.”

Stefanie Gutierrez Photos  

A BLACK HISTORY Month Mass and celebration sponsored by the Vicariate for Black Catholic Concerns was held at St. Gregory the Great, Crown Heights on Feb. 17. Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq, above, center, was the main celebrant.

Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq was the main celebrant. The homilist was Father Anthony Ozele, parochial vicar at St. Francis of Paola, Williamsburg, who was also the revivalist for the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns’ Black History Month Revival, which took place the Friday and Saturday evenings before Sunday’s Mass.

Sixteen priests, including Msgr. Ronald Marino, vicar for migrant and ethnic apostolates, concelebrated Sunday’s Mass.

In his homily, Father Ozele spoke of the need to give and receive encouragement from others. He related to the congregation, “Sometimes all we need is a phone call, an act of encouragement, or someone telling us they are praying for us.”

He said, “Jesus also needed encouragement, just like us. He was truly human like you and me; he experienced the hopes and fears that we do.”

Father Ozele said that the Transfiguration “wasn’t for Jesus alone, it was also for the disciples. They needed to know who He was, and it was the words of the Father that said it all: ‘This is my beloved Son’.”

He added, “God knows we need encouragement. You and I, dear friends, we are called to be encouragers to one another. In our different parishes, in our different cultures, there will always be disagreement. We are all guilty of this… But we need to respond like Jesus did: with patience and encouragement.”

He said, “We are no longer natives of a foreign land, we are now citizens of Heaven. We begin every day on a clean slate because we have been cleansed. Every day is a new one. Our God is so willing to forgive us that we never have to start from a place of fear; we start from a place of victory. Let us rejoice and be thankful for the gift of victory in Jesus.”

As the newly formed vicariate Mass choir played hymns of praise and worship, Father Caleb Buchanan, administrator of St. Gregory the Great, concluded the celebration by giving thanks to the many people and apostolates who helped make the Mass possible.

Looking back on the revival and liturgy, Father Buchanan said, “This past weekend really reconnected a lot of us and our spiritual roots as Catholics. One example of that was Father Ozele’s first homily on Friday, in which he emphasized the importance of acknowledging the glory of God who lives within us in the Eucharist. It was his conviction and his prayerfulness and his direct and passionate delivery of that message that really lifted up the hearts of those who were there.

“In many ways, it reenergizes our spiritual connection to the Church and the power of Christ that works within our community… I think as Catholics we are made more alive when we share each other’s experience of the faith across cultural and ethnic lines.”

The Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns’ next event will be its Women’s Day of Reflection, for all women of the diocese, on Saturday, March 8, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at St. Gregory the Great. For more information, call 718-774-3806.

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