Local Black Catholics Inspired by Congress

By Linda Busetti

Clergy process toward the altar at the start of the opening Mass for the 10th National Black Catholic Congress, which was convened July 12 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center in Buffalo.

A delegation from the Brooklyn Diocese returned from the 10th National Black Catholic Congress ready to put their experience into action.

The Congress was held at the Buffalo Convention Center, July 12-15. More than 2,500 black Catholics gathered for the meeting whose theme was “Christ Is With Us: Celebrating the Gifts of the Sacraments.”

According to the NBCC Web site, the days of reflection focused on “making connections between the sacramental life and our NBCC Core principles: Africa, Catholic education, HIV and AIDS, parish life, racism, social justice, spirituality and youth and young adults.”

Father Caleb Buchanan, coordinator of the diocesan Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns, and Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq led the delegation of 32 to Buffalo.

Father Chris Coleman also participated, as did Elreta Fowler, who works in the Black Concerns office, and Marilyn Santos, coordinator for Adolescent Faith Formation. The rest of the delegation consisted of “three lay men and women ranging in age from their 20s to 60s and 70s.”

“It was a very powerful experience,” Father Buchanan said. Speakers focused on different sacraments each day. Bishop Sansaricq, a presenter on Matrimony, offered “poignant reflections” on “the call to love” and the need for a renewal of spirituality and healing in the black family, Father Buchanan said.

The Buffalo Convention Center had been transformed into a “living basilica,” Father Buchanan said. A black marble altar was emblazoned with a “gold blaze of fire” as if representing Christ in the black community, he said. African symbols decorated seven banners, which hung over the altar.

Adoration and Reconciliation

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the sacrament of reconciliation were available throughout the Congress.

For the opening liturgy, the Brooklyn delegation wore vests with the motto, “The African Diaspora in the Diocese of Brooklyn Is in God’s Hands.” The diocesan Alive in Hope Foundation funded kente stoles for the closing liturgy, which were designed by Julia Primus of St. Peter Claver parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and woven in Ghana.

Father Buchanan explained the stoles were of multi-colored strands representing the “complex black Catholic diaspora” of the diocese, which has its origins not only in Africa, but also in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

“We have great unity in our diversity,” he said. “We are going to find ways to make our similarities and differences work for the diocese.”

Father Buchanan said the speakers were “very powerful” and reminded him “how faith and culture can be inter-connected.”

On Sunday, Valerie Washington, NBCC executive director, declared the Congress “not over,” but “just beginning” as the participants prepared to take what they had learned back to their dioceses.

Black Catholics are “going through a profound renewal,” Father Buchanan said. “The number one priority has to be evangelization.”

“There is a misperception that all blacks are Protestants,” he said. There was a “(Catholic) Church of color in the United States before the Declaration of Independence,” he pointed out.

“Black Catholics are not anomalies. In our own time there are the mega churches and storefront churches. There is a need for re-evangelization of neighborhoods.”

Hearing the speakers reminded Father Buchanan of what Auxiliary Bishop Frank Caggiano stresses – the need to evangelize “men and youth.”

Father Buchanan conceded, “We have sustained a serious loss” in terms of black men and youth.

“We have to conduct targeted evangelization,” he said. “Work with them where they are. We heard this again and again at the Congress. We have to be welcoming. Invite them in and let them know we want them here.”

Father Buchanan praised Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio for creating the Vicariate of Black Concerns, which is on “firm ground to achieve the goals this Congress charged us with.”

Among the group that traveled by bus to Buffalo was John Whitmore of St. Therese of Lisieux parish, East Flatbush. He went for “catechesis,” he says. “This was a teaching Congress.”

“I want to bring back what I learned into the parish to the RCIA and religious education programs.”

Whitmore became director of music and liturgy at St. Therese 15 years ago, and is now a pastoral associate. He was at one time vice president of the board of trustees of the diocesan Office of Black Ministry. Bishop Sansaricq has asked him to get involved again, this time with the vicariate.

Among the Congress exhibits, Whitmore “searched out and found new music” including “more contemporary and upbeat” pieces. He quotes Pope Paul VI who, on a 1969 visit to Uganda, encouraged black Catholics to “share your gift of blackness with the whole Church.” Whitmore said this includes music, “a style of worship and a way of praise.”

Whitmore said he was disappointed they hadn’t brought young people to take part in the Congress’ new youth track. Hopefully, he said, that will be different at the next Congress in five years.

He said he was impressed with the white clergy who took part in the Congress and how they have adopted and adapted to their black parishioners and vice versa.

It was Georgeann Campbell’s fourth trip to a National Black Catholic Congress. She likes to be among people who are proud to be black Catholics and to “feel their joy…. You can’t get that from (reading) a piece of paper,” she said.

The presentations on the Eucharist especially “were very powerful for me,” she said.

In her parish, Our Lady of Charity, Weeksville, Campbell is “oversight coordinator for social action” – prison ministry and assistance at a homeless shelter. Campbell said the parish has the “goal of creating a home for those who are leaving prison.” She is investigating how to go about setting one up.

Congress delegate Ruth B. Watt has been a parishioner of St. Clement Pope parish, South Ozone Park, for about 30 years. This was not her first Congress, but she did find it “very inspiring and full of the Spirit.”

She gathered information on “prayer centering and evangelization.” She is eager to “go out to work” having received what she “needs to work in the vineyard” and the joy in her voice is contagious.

Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq leads a group of U.S. bishops as they receive instruction before processing toward the altar during the closing Mass for the 10th National Black Catholic Congress in Buffalo.

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