The painful, resilient history of America's black Catholics

[Michie]

Black Catholics have a long history in the Americas that can teach the wider Church much about the importance of forgiveness, contemplation, community and holistic spirituality, but more needs to be done to welcome them.

Article below.
http://m.ncregister.com/48500/d#.VtATBEY8LCQ

 

[Michie]

I had no idea the Knights of Columbus were one of the first to push for racial equality.

 

[Davidnic]

I had no idea the Knights of Columbus were one of the first to push for racial equality.

Yep. And I believe there is a pretty involved history of Archbishop Rummel standing against racism in Louisiana.

 

[Michie]

The KKK going after Catholics had to do with immigration didn't it?

Yep. And I believe there is a pretty involved history of Archbishop Rummel standing against racism in Louisiana.

 

[Davidnic]

The KKK going after Catholics had to do with immigration didn't it?

Yep the Nativist Know Nothing period....anti-Catholic riots. American Catholic history is pretty fascinating and intersects with many African American and immigration issues.

 

[Davidnic]

 

[Davidnic]

In fact my high school has a cross that has never gone without being lit and it is on the highest point in my town. To remember the opposition to the Klan who were against Catholics and minorities. They gathered on the hill and lit crosses in the late 1800's to the 1920's. The Church bought the land and built a school in the 1950's

When it was dedicated in the 1950's it was with the words: This cross of Christ replaces a cross of hate and will never be extinguished.

The cross takes up the entire center of the School with the Chapel and Eucharist in the center on the second floor and it has never been unlit at night.

 

[Michie]

View attachment 170447

I have some antique anticatholic books that have a lot of these villifying type of illustrations in them. One is a book claimed to be written by an ex-priest. I have read a few of them and those stories are pure fabrication or exaggeration imo. But they are the stuff nightmares are made of. With that sort of thing circulating I can see why people were terrified of Catholics. They made them out to be subhuman monsters.

 

[Davidnic]

Oh yes there was actually a class in this literature at Penn State once. It examined the writings that falsely claimed to be written by nuns and priests. Maria Monk and such. Horrible stuff. We were painted as the swarthy brown inhuman Italians, the monkey like Irish, and the ignorant hulking Slavs. All marching to the beat of the Pope who was directed by the devil to destroy America...given by God to the non-Catholics to save Christianity from the Antichrist. And it is not gone totally. A rep from NH called the Pope the Anti Christ last week. Ann Coulter said how it is easy to see how people were worried that we were un-American when Pope Francis visited. It is not widespread but there is still a Nativist mindset in America.

 

[Michie]

Oh yes there was actually a class in this literature at Penn State once. It examined the writings that falsely claimed to be written by nuns and priests. Maria Monk and such. Horrible stuff. We were painted as the swarthy brown inhuman Italians, the monkey like Irish, and the ignorant hulking Slavs. All marching to the beat of the Pope who was directed by the devil to destroy America...given by God to the non-Catholics to save Christianity from the Antichrist. And it is not gone totally. A rep from NH called the Pope the Anti Christ last week. Ann Coulter said how it is easy to see how people were worried that we were un-American when Pope Francis visited. It is not widespread but there is still a Nativist mindset in America.

Oh I know. I have caught whiffs of it myself. Yes there is one I have where these girls claim to be held in a convent and escaped. They were horribly abused. Made to be sex slaves to priests and bore the children that were soon killed and buried on Church grounds. Another where the confessional is a lurid place. The ex priests putting copies of checks in his books claimed to be written by other clergy as a pay off. All sorts of things. You expect batboy to show up in the confessional at any moment with his head spinning and spitting pea soup.

 

[Davidnic]

Oh I know. I have caught whiffs of it myself. Yes there is one I have where these girls claim to be held in a convent and escaped. They were horribly abused. Made to be sex slaves to priests and bore the children that were soon killed and buried on Church grounds. Another where the confessional is a lurid place. The ex priests putting copies of checks in his books claimed to be written by other clergy as a pay off. All sorts of things. You expect batboy to show up in the confessional at any moment with his head spinning and spitting pea soup.

These were so popular there was actually a sub-genre of nuns escaping convent tales (that were all debunked) to the anti-Catholic literature of the time. The most famous was the Maria Monk tale, preceded by Rebecca Reed. But Monk became the standard for the false narrative that stoked even greater anti Catholic feeling.

 

[Michie]

These were so popular there was actually a sub-genre of nuns escaping convent tales (that were all debunked) to the anti-Catholic literature of the time. The most famous was the Maria Monk tale, preceded by Rebecca Reed. But Monk became the standard for the false narrative that stoked even greater anti Catholic feeling.

I did not feel so bad about keeping these books as soon as I found out Notre Dame had an anticatholic collection as well. A lot of the same material I have.

 

[Tallguy88]

I did not feel so bad about keeping these books as soon as I found out Notre Dame had an anticatholic collection as well. A lot of the same material I have.

I've got a circa 1900 printing of a blackface minstrel show script. It's mostly intact. Those sorts of things are fascinating.

 

[Michie]

Yes there is a lot of that sort of thing in many antique books. It seemed to be the norm. I don't have a minstrel show script but you will find that sort of thing in old sheet music as well.

I've got a circa 1900 printing of a blackface minstrel show script. It's mostly intact. Those sorts of things are fascinating.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Clarence Thomas is the second African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice in history, and he is a devout Catholic.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Black Catholics have a long history in the Americas that can teach the wider Church much about the importance of forgiveness, contemplation, community and holistic spirituality, but more needs to be done to welcome them.

Article below.
http://m.ncregister.com/48500/d#.VtATBEY8LCQ

Amen - so thankful for you taking the time to honor history. In some of the older discussions, I've shared before on how I grew up going to Catholic Churches...more so within the Black community (here and here/here and here and here). But What I experienced in the Catholic school I attended and what my sister/mother both experienced (as Afro-Hispanics) is radically different than what I saw lived out in differing Catholic Churches when there did not seem to be a lot of emphasis on the community/social justice and the poor.

Going to a Catholic elementary school in lower-income communities as a Black Hispanic (when my mom was single), it truly was a very distinct experience and I thank you for bringing awareness to the issue of what other Black Catholics have had to go through.

 

[Michie]

Amen - so thankful for you taking the time to honor history. In some of the older discussions, I've shared before on how I grew up going to Catholic Churches...more so within the Black community (here and here/here and here and here). But What I experienced in the Catholic school I attended and what my sister/mother both experienced (as Afro-Hispanics) is radically different than what I saw lived out in differing Catholic Churches when there did not seem to be a lot of emphasis on the community/social justice and the poor.

Going to a Catholic elementary school in lower-income communities as a Black Hispanic (when my mom was single), it truly was a very distinct experience and I thank you for bringing awareness to the issue of what other Black Catholics have had to go through.

I was very happy to find it and post it. It is a sad but amazing history that we could all learn from and take with us in our daily interactions with other people.

 

[Michie]

Here is the website for The National Black Catholic Congress for more information and history.

http://nbccongress.org/

 

[thehehe]

Thank your for sharing. Actually I didn't know a lot about all of this. Even if I already noticed the american anti-Catholic tendancy (how many times I read on this forum that "Catholics are false Christians", from people who obviously act with real Christian humility by saying that)

It was very interesting to read how hard it must have been for Black Catholics during the times of the KKK. Surely we don't hear enough about these men. Thank you again!

 

[Michie]

You are very welcome!

Thank your for sharing. Actually I didn't know a lot about all of this. Even if I already noticed the american anti-Catholic tendancy (how many times I read on this forum that "Catholics are false Christians", from people who obviously act with real Christian humility by saying that)

It was very interesting to read how hard it must have been for Black Catholics during the times of the KKK. Surely we don't hear enough about these men. Thank you again!