During Black History Month in February, Catholics are being invited to register to attend this summer’s National Black Catholic Congress, which over the years has made history of its own.
The National Black Catholic Congress XIII will be held on July 20-23, 2023 at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland, marking the third time that the Washington, D.C., area has hosted the gathering, and each of those times, key participants included noted figures in U.S. Catholic history.
St. Augustine Church in Washington – the mother church for Black Catholics in the nation’s capital, founded by free men and women of color in 1858 – hosted the inaugural congress gathering, which opened on New Year’s Day 1889 and included a Mass celebrated by Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, the first U.S. Catholic priest publicly known to be Black and whose cause for sainthood is now being considered.
Five of those congresses were held before the turn of that century, and then that movement was revived with National Black Catholic Congress VI held in 1987 on the campus of The Catholic University of America in Washington, where the speakers included Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and dynamic evangelist who died of cancer in 1990 and whose cause for canonization is also underway.
At the National Black Catholic Congress this summer, Cardinal Wilton Gregory – the archbishop of Washington who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in 2020, becoming the first African American cardinal in history – will give the opening keynote speech and celebrate the opening Mass.
On Feb. 16 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., the Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is hosting an online information session on the National Black Catholic Congress XIII, which has as its theme, “Write the Vision: A Prophetic Call to Thrive.” The virtual meeting will provide background, details and registration information about the congress, the largest national gathering in support of Black Catholic ministry that brings together lay people, clergy and religious for prayer, dialogue and discernment.
Wendi Williams, the executive director of that office, noted that the National Black Catholic Congress “coming to the Archdiocese of Washington is a coming home at an important time for Black Catholics, coming out of COVID, really sensing the needs and interests as they exist today, and how we plan to move the priorities forward.”
She explained that “the congress movement is a mechanism to involve the lay faithful with the Black Catholic ministry. By attending, the lay faithful are involved with decisions and priorities that will become the pastoral plan (of the National Black Catholic Congress) for the next five years.”
That national pastoral plan is integral to diocesan plans and parish outreach for Black Catholics, Williams said, noting that it exemplifies the synodality that Pope Francis has encouraged in preparation for the World Synod of Bishops meeting at the Vatican in October.
“The congress is an important lay movement that helps ensure that the voices of the lay faithful are heard and acted upon,” Williams said. “…It’s about listening, dialogue, discernment and journeying together.”
Williams said that at the information session on Feb. 16, the history of the congress movement will be shared, and people will learn “how each of us has an opportunity to be a part of it.”
In preparation for the National Black Catholic Congress XIII, parish representatives from throughout the Archdiocese of Washington in November 2022 participated in a day of reflection at St. Joseph Parish in Largo, Maryland, to shape local recommendations for the national gathering. Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr., who also serves as St. Joseph’s pastor and as the president of the National Black Catholic Congress, welcomed those participants, saying, “We look at what we can do as a prophetic people for our communities, families and Church.”
The National Black Catholic Congress, which is headquartered in Baltimore, also hosted a pilgrimage and Mass this past September at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington to mark the 25th anniversary of the Our Mother of Africa Chapel there.
Bishop Campbell, who was the main celebrant at that Mass, said in a recent interview that it was fitting for this year’s gathering of the National Black Catholic Congress to be held in the national capital area, since the congress serves people in dioceses across the United States. While enjoying the congress, participants will also be able to experience the nation’s capital, he said.
The National Black Catholic Congress, which meets every five years, was held in Orlando, Florida, in 2017; in Indianapolis in 2012; in Buffalo, New York, in 2007; in Chicago in 2002; in Baltimore in 1997; in New Orleans in 1992; and in Washington, D.C., in 1987. At each gathering, the congress renews its mission with a new pastoral plan.
Key recommendations in the Pastoral Plan of Action from the most recent National Black Congress gathering in Orlando included enabling Black Catholics to enhance their Africentric spirituality, increasing awareness of Black saints, creating opportunities for lay leadership in the Church, identifying and eradicating racism, increasing prison ministry and outreach, providing support for those experiencing domestic violence, increasing awareness of and working to eliminate human trafficking, developing Africentric religious education programs, providing outreach to unchurched members of the community, creating more sustainable Catholic schools, promoting and supporting Black Catholic vocations, and having parishes and dioceses “address the urgent issue of disengaged Black Catholic youth.”
Bishop Campbell said the pastoral plan devised in the upcoming congress will help Black Catholic parishes and parishes with Black Catholic members “address the vision of what we’re called to do.”
The early congresses and now the modern gatherings have had a goal of showing that “Black Catholics have an equal place in the Church with any other Catholics,” he said. The gathering, he said, can help Black Catholics persevere in their faith and show the gifts from God that they have to share.
Discussing the impact that the National Black Catholic Congress can have on individuals, parishes and dioceses, Bishop Campbell said, “We start with a change of our hearts and move to change the hearts of others, so we’re all walking together. That’s what we do in our parishes. Just like a family is the building block of society, the parishes are the building blocks of the Church.”
The leader of the first national Black Catholic congress was Daniel Rudd, who was born in a slave family in Kentucky and later became a noted journalist and speaker. In 1886, Rudd founded a newspaper for Black Catholics called the American Catholic Tribune. He promoted the national gathering in his newspaper.
Morris J. MacGregor, the author of the book The Emergence of a Black Catholic Community: St. Augustine’s in Washington, noted that church “was a natural choice” for the 1889 gathering, since it was then the largest Black Catholic church in the United States and its parishioners supported Rudd’s call for Black unity. Delegates were invited to meet President Grover Cleveland at the White House, and Pope Leo XIII sent a special blessing to the congress participants. After Father Tolton’s Mass in St. Augustine Church, the 84 delegates heard talks in the parish hall.
That congress’s report called on the Catholic Church to work to end prejudice, and it also stressed the importance of Catholic schools and other educational opportunities for Black children, and urged an end to discriminatory practices in housing and employment.
Other early national congresses for Black Catholics were held in Cincinnati in 1890, in Philadelphia in 1892, in Chicago in 1893, and in Baltimore in 1894.
In his book, The History of Black Catholics in the United States, Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis noted the success of those early national gatherings of Black Catholics.
“They achieved what Rudd set out to do in calling the first congress. They demonstrated beyond a doubt not only that a black Catholic community existed, but that it was active, devoted, articulate and proud,” Father Davis wrote, noting that those early congresses showed there was strong lay leadership in the African American community, and those meetings laid the foundation for the modern gatherings.
When the movement was revived with the National Black Catholic Congress in Washington in 1987, the opening Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception included a procession of the nation’s 11 Black Catholic bishops at that time, including then-Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Wilton Gregory. Almost nine decades earlier, the forerunner to that gathering included a Mass celebrated by Father Tolton, the nation’s first known Black Catholic priest. For that opening Mass at the 1987 congress, the nation’s 11 Black Catholic bishops stood together at the altar to concelebrate the Mass.
In a postscript to his book, Father Davis noted that “as a result of the National Black Catholic Congress of 1987, a national program for evangelization in the black community was drawn up and adopted by the American bishops in 1989. It was a commitment to the African American community and a pledge of support to the zeal of black Catholics.”
In July 2023, participants in the National Black Catholic Congress XIII meeting in the Washington area will have the chance to make history of their own. A promotional flier for the upcoming congress invited people to “join with other Black Catholics and those who minister to Black Catholics in the United States for a celebration of our faith and culture.”
Early registration for the National Black Catholic Congress XIII ends on Feb. 28, 2023, and regular registration ends on July 15, 2023.
For more information, including a schedule of events, and to register, go online to nbccgathering2023.org .
