History matters to Father Francis Michael Walsh, not just as a collection of dates and facts, but as personal and community stories that spark inspiration and aspiration. He also sees history as a catalyst of discernment and identity, and as unvarnished truth, some of it bright and beautiful, some of it so traumatic one might want to hide from it.
In an interview and public event to launch his book, The Story of the St. Inigoes Mission, 1634-1994, Father Walsh discussed history matters he has pondered for decades. Father Walsh, a priest of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, served as pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish in St. Inigoes, Maryland, from 1977 to 1986. He now serves as the spiritual director at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
His book, which was recently published by the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, was released at St. Peter Claver Church on Feb. 22 during Black History Month.
Laura Masur, Ph.D., an assistant professor of anthropology at The Catholic University of America, contributed to the liner notes writing: “(Father) Walsh’s narrative conveys –with a clarity that is largely absent in other sources – how St. Peter Claver Parish emerged because Black Catholics refused to tolerate the continued racism of white Catholics…”
The book is 40 years in the making, said Father Walsh, written for the people of St. Peter Claver Parish, to tell their history.
But the book is also full of European and County history, fine art, historic photos and
maps, supporting the priest’s claim that it is really “three books in one” – a historical monograph, “arcane parochial data” and memoir.
Twenty-two chapters are organized around themes. The first, “The Victory of Nationalism and Rationalism Over Faith,” examines the persecution of Catholics
during the Protestant Reformation, the rise of English nationalism and the Enlightenment, periods that were so culturally and politically volatile, that they broke bonds of Christian brotherhood.
“The state of Maryland owes its existence to the religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants,” Father Walsh said in his presentation. “…At one time all had shared the same house of faith. All shared the same table. But the events of the Reformation intervened and separated us. We drifted apart to the point where we no longer saw the family resemblance due to our shared Baptism,” which he said eventually impaired “our ability to share the same civil society.”
The book’s second theme, “The Victory of Racism Over Faith,” centers on early influencers, planters, and Jesuits who built St. Mary’s County and the St. Inigoes Mission. Faith helped them battle laws instituted by Protestants to restrict the spread of Catholicism, and faith united them as the church was forced underground to worship in manor houses.
But it was the setting aside of faith that led to the acceptance and spread of slavery in St. Mary’s County as enslaved people replaced the dwindling number of indentured servants. Justifying the enslavement of baptized Black Catholics had guaranteed the sustainability of and freedoms for white Catholic planters and clergy.
“The structures of sin that slavery entailed blinded those involved to the implications of the truths of faith about Baptism,” Father Walsh told the audience. “… In Baptism we acquire more than a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have a relationship with all those whom Jesus has likewise called to be his friends and to share in his resurrected life...
“But in the environment engendered by slavery, who could understand the notion of church as a family of brothers and sisters for Jesus? Race replaced Baptism as the fundamental optic through which to understand identity,” Father Walsh said, adding, The secular culture told them that race was the most important element in one’s identity.”
During the interview, Father Walsh explained his emphasis on Baptism.
“The problem is once you get into the habit of such an arrangement (as slavery or racism) it is difficult to get out of it,” he said. “Over time, “It makes you more insensitive to the human situation.”
The book’s third theme, “New Ways of Thinking: Overcoming the Legacy of the Past,” offers unsung faith stories about St. Peter Claver Parish, highlighting parishioners’ struggles and enduring faith, past and present. The section also offers new ways to examine history and shares hopes for reconciliation.
Reared in Plainfield, New Jersey, in an Irish immigrant family and parish, Father Walsh never forgot the invisible social chasm and visible inequities that separated the white and Black neighborhoods he served as the local paper boy.
In a 1984 Washington Post story titled “The Priestly Plot” he told how his lifelong dream to become a priest was nearly derailed after seminaries rejected him for being too “frail and unathletic” for a priests’ life. The Archdiocese of Washington was his last chance. He prayed that if ever ordained, he would fight to open the doors of the church to Black people, “hitting segregation and racism” as long and hard as possible. Soon afterward, he was accepted and headed to Washington.
Ordained in 1967, he spent a decade serving in inner-city, predominantly African American parishes before being assigned to St. Peter Claver, a rural parish located two hours away by distance, and decades by time warp. The assignment was a gift from God, he said.
“I wanted to address the social situation while I was down there, but there was a great gap between them (Blacks and whites),” and he wondered, “How do I overcome that?”
His answer was Catholic identity based on Baptism, not race.
“My answer was not to be a part of it, not to allow our identity to be defined by the system but by Baptism!” he said. “We are not Blacks or whites who happen to be Catholic. We are Catholics who happen to be Black or white.”
His book was inspired by Twin Silver Jubilees, a booklet he found at St. Peter Claver Parish that was published in 1949 and written by the parish’s pastor then, Jesuit Father Horace McKenna, to commemorate the 1924 establishment of the Cardinal Gibbons Institute at St. Inigoes and the arrival of the Oblate Sisters of Providence to the school.
Father McKenna was his inspiration, a social justice legend in Washington, D.C., who had earned the moniker “Washington’s friend to the poor,” by establishing health care and job service centers along with the SOME (So Others Might Eat) and Martha’s Table soup kitchens. His goal was to add to Father McKenna’s book, looking at St. Inigoes’ history from the beginning, and then moving forward.
The book was meant to be published in 1984 with scores of photos. A draft was sent to archdiocese leadership, and Father Walsh was continuously asked to make updates. He willingly complied. Months, then years passed. The priest said he was told, “It is not the right time” for publication.
As he waited, “I said to myself, I’ll have the last laugh,” declared the tall, lanky, white-bearded priest now in his 80s.
The manuscript languished in obscurity until late 2023 when Peter LaPorte, the executive director of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, came across a CD of the manuscript while clearing shelves. Curious, he browsed the contents, his interest and excitement steadily growing.
LaPorte had only been in the county since 2019. Friends and colleagues provided background information about the book, located Father Walsh, and helped him assemble a team to research photos and help prepare the manuscript for publication.
Antonio Ugues Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in St. Mary’s City, said “Let’s do it together,” LaPorte recalled, as a launch event was designed for the society’s “Historically Speaking” series.
Thrilled about the event and his return to St. Inigoes, Father Walsh said he expected to be pleasantly surprised by the attendees, even though “I left there 38 years ago and most of the old people are in the cemetery.”
He wasn’t disappointed. The church was full. More than 160 people showed up, a racially diverse crowd that included St. Peter Claver members, clergy, Catholic and Protestant friends, community, political, civic and social justice leaders, educators, history lovers, and even a descendant of Louisa Mahoney, one of the enslaved people depicted in the book, among others.
Citations from Maryland State Senator John D. “Jack” Bailey and Congressman Steny Hoyer were read. Governor Wes Moore appeared via video offering kudos to Father Walsh, stating the importance of the book to Maryland’s 2024 Year of Civil Rights.
In his remarks, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. said, “Father Walsh’s book is a call to define our identity as Catholics.”
By evening’s end, all copies of the book there were sold. LaPorte said the St. Mary's County Historical Society was planning a second printing.
Related links:
https://www.stmaryshistory.org/content.aspx?page_id=586&club_id=706426&item_id=20347
