To Father Robert Boxie III, the Catholic chaplain at Howard University in Washington, D.C., “The naming of Archbishop Gregory as a cardinal is huge, it’s historic. The fact that it comes in this month of November, Black Catholic History Month, is also very symbolic.”

Pope Francis’s naming on Oct. 25, 2020 of Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory as one of 13 new cardinals from around the world, and the churchman’s subsequent elevation to the College of Cardinals on Nov. 28, was greeted with praise by the people of the diverse Archdiocese of Washington, and with special joy by Black Catholics there and across the country.

“This is a long time coming. We will be witnessing and experiencing something in the Church that has never happened before, an African American cardinal. In the Church’s 2,000 years this has never happened, and we have the great gift, the great privilege to witness this,” said Father Boxie, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington who is African American.

Father Boxie, a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana who was ordained in 2016, began serving this summer as the chaplain at Howard University, one of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities.

The priest noted that Cardinal Gregory’s elevation “puts the stamp of approval on the ministry, the service, the pastoral leadership that Archbishop Gregory himself has done for our Church in the United States, all of his accomplishments and his contributions individually.” 

The appointment, he added, “also is a stamp of approval for the community that he represents, the community that he comes from and the community that formed him, African American Black Catholics. It says that the faith, the contributions, the witness, the experience of Black Catholics truly do matter, and that’s an important voice and an important gift to the Church universal. The voice of Black Catholics will be now that much closer to the Holy Father. It will now  be in the heart of the Church in Rome, in the Vatican. He will be able to share the concerns, the struggles, the joys, the triumphs, all those things that make the Black Catholic community unique, and all the contributions that we have given to, not only to the Church in America, but to the Church universal.”

Expressing his personal reaction to the news about Cardinal Gregory, Father Boxie smiled and said, “I’m extremely excited and proud, especially as an African American priest, I hold my head up a little bit higher, I stick out my chest a little bit more, because one of our own, from our community is now a prince of the Church, especially when for so long in our country, Black men were denied the opportunity to even enter into seminary here, and now one of our own will be a prince of the Church. So it’s a moment of great joy and great celebration, not only for the Black community, but also for the Church in America, and really truly for the Church universal, because his mission now extends not only to Washington and the United States, but to the global Church.”

Father Boxie was among members of the Archdiocese of Washington interviewed for the Catholic Standard’s online Black Catholic Voices series, which began in November, Black Catholic History Month. His interview, and a related video, is scheduled to be posted in mid-December.

Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. serves as the pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Largo, Maryland. (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

‘Everyone has gifts to offer’

Other local Black Catholics interviewed for that series also expressed joy at the elevation of Cardinal Gregory.

The day before Archbishop Gregory was named as a cardinal, he participated in a convocation for deacons and celebrated Mass at St. Joseph Parish in Largo, Maryland, where Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. serves as the pastor.

In his Black Catholic Voices interview, Bishop Campbell said he was ecstatic to hear the next morning about Cardinal-designate Gregory.

“I was a little late starting 8 a.m. Mass Sunday morning, because I had just heard the news, and I wanted to be able to tell everyone what had happened. He got a standing ovation at Mass, and he wasn’t there,” the bishop said.

Bishop Campbell, who also serves as the president of the National Black Catholic Congress, said, “It is wonderful… It is significant because there’s so many different firsts. This is a man, who as a boy, embraced the faith that he was not baptized into and reared into until he chose to follow it. And then to go on to become a priest and to do wonderful things as a bishop of Belleville (Illinois) and then to lead the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, especially when we had to deal with the outbreak in 2002 of the clergy sexual abuse scandal throughout the country, and as archbishop of Atlanta and  then coming here.”

Noting how Cardinal Gregory also made history when he was appointed as Washington’s archbishop in 2019, Bishop Campbell said, “It is a first that he came here, and that the Church chose him to come here, because he’s the first Black archbishop in Washington, the seat of democratic power and importance in the world, and to be named a cardinal, the first Black cardinal from the United States, that’s significant. And it shows that the Church recognizes that everyone has gifts to offer to the Church, to their community, to their fellow man wherever they are, and they recognize that in naming him a cardinal. And young Black men who may wonder, ‘Could I be called to the priesthood?’ can see that, yes, not only can you be called, but the gifts that you bring with that call will be recognized by the Church.” 

Reflecting on what Cardinal Gregory’s elevation means to Black Catholics, Bishop Campbell said, “(This means) our faith, our talents, our willingness to be part of and work for the Church in our community, we have an impetus to continue to do that because a leader who looks like us has been recognized at the highest level in the universal Church, that means influence in the direction the Church takes in reaching all of the people of the world…”

Bishop Campbell said that also means  “his talents for helping the Church, for helping Black Catholics, for helping all Catholics and all people in this country, and now worldwide have been recognized, and the Church wants to put them to use.”

Sister Patricia Chappell (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

‘A very historic moment’

Sister Patricia Chappell, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and the former president of the National Black Sisters’ Conference and the former executive director of Pax Christi USA who now serves on the leadership team for her religious order, was also interviewed for the Black Catholic Voices series.

Cardinal Gregory’s elevation, she said, “is good news. I certainly rejoice. It’s also a very historic moment. For those of us who are African American Catholics, to have the first African American cardinal named, is just wonderful. I think that Pope Francis also particularly understood that there is much healing that certainly needs to take place with the Catholic Church in the United States, so I think he’s made a wise decision in calling forth a holy man... a man who really listens to the people, a man who is steeped in his faith, and a man who will journey with the people. So I’m just blessed, I’m grateful. I personally know Archbishop Gregory, and I’m elated, I’m happy, I want to support him. In particular, I will keep him close in prayer.”

Asked about Cardinal Gregory’s leadership qualities, Sister Chappell said, “What I know about Archbishop Gregory is his ability to listen, his ability to be able to listen to diverse opinions and to try to find the common threads that somehow can unite people. And yet, he’s also a man of integrity, he’s a man also rooted in prayer and his faith, so he doesn’t back away from his beliefs. What I have seen him do is to try to bring people together, to look at how do we make it better, how do we bring the Good News to all God’s people.”

Msgr. Raymond East (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

 ‘A   tremendous sign of hope’

During his Black Catholic Voices interview, Msgr. Raymond East, the pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington, D.C., and a nationally known evangelist and speaker, said it was exciting to hear that Archbishop Gregory had been named as a cardinal by Pope Francis.

“Well, I was ecstatic, and the parishioners started calling, blowing up my cellphone, people were texting. So by the time we got to Mass, people knew, and it was just a beautiful celebration,” he said. “It means so much to us here in Washington D.C., because we have that long view as part of Baltimore diocese originally, the first English speaking diocese in the New World, in the United States, and for 400 years of encounter and a long history here, in the Washington Archdiocese.”

Reflecting on the historic significance of the elevation, Msgr. East said, “Ever since Black Catholics have come to the United States, both enslaved and free, we’ve never had a cardinal, in all this time, and it’s a tremendous sign of hope. It’s a tremendous recognition by the universal Church that we’ve come, not only of age, we’ve been of age. We’ve been here  generations and generations, but that the gifts of the Black Catholic community, which is both African Americans who have been here for a long time, newly-arrived African immigrants, people from the Caribbean, Afro-Latinos, people from Haiti and from all the islands, the whole African diaspora, that this is a great sign of encouragement for all of us.”

Msgr. East added, “We’re not only encouraged, but we’re so proud. We’re thankful that it was our own Archbishop Gregory, who is one of the most gifted Church leaders in the whole country. He’s been a great light to us, and we’re so blessed to have him here in this diocese, and to have him in this very special place, in our nation's capital, to be the first African American Catholic cardinal, it’s tremendously exciting.” 

Josephite Father Cornelius Ejiogu, the pastor of St. Luke Parish in Washington, D.C. (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

‘I’m still excited’

Josephite Father Cornelius Kelechi Ejiogu -- a Nigerian priest who serves as pastor of St. Luke Parish in Washington, D.C. -- recalled in his Black Catholic Voices interview how excited he was when he heard the news about Cardinal-designate Gregory. On the day before the announcement, Archbishop Gregory celebrated Mass at St. Luke Church, where the congregation included mostly African American Catholics, along with parishioners from the African countries of Cameroon and Nigeria.

“To be frank with you, when I got that email in the early hours on Sunday, that Archbishop Gregory had been named a cardinal, you needed to see me pump my fists and screaming in my room like a child who just picked up a gold coin. I was so excited. I was so happy, and I’m still excited. I’m still happy,” St. Luke’s pastor said.  “When I broke the news to my parishioners at the 8:30 a.m. Mass, it was a standing ovation. People stood up, and they were clapping. I mean, it’s such a beautiful experience.” 

Father Ejiogu noted, “These are some of the things that we talked about, when the first African American bishop becomes a cardinal, that shows that the Church is beginning to chip away from that sin of racism and exclusion, and the Church is becoming a little bit more inclusive.”

The priest added, “I’m so happy. I’m happy for him, not because he’s a Black man, but I’m happy for him because he’s a good man.”

“And so we thank the good Lord, and we’re happy for him. We are praying for him that he succeeds,” Father Ejiogu said. “…I sent him a message to thank him and congratulate him on behalf of the parish, and to say to him, that we will pray for him and (know) that he’ll remember us in his prayers, because his appointment tells us that at least we have somebody who looks like us, who can sit at the table with the pope and make decisions. And because we know that he is a people’s person, because we know he's a person who has a pastoral heart, we all now know that at least our Church is moving and resembling what Jesus Himself wanted His disciples to be, shepherds after His own heart.”

Hilda McDougald (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

‘What a change!’

Hilda McDougald, a 100-year-old parishioner of St. Luke Parish in Washington, D.C., was interviewed Oct. 27 for the Catholic Standard’s Black Catholic Voices series. She and her family began attending St. Luke’s when it was established in 1957, and she remains an active parishioner, again faithfully attending Masses in person there after the coronavirus shutdown of public Masses ended. She attended the Mass that Archbishop Gregory celebrated at St. Luke’s on Oct. 24, one day before Pope Francis named him as a new cardinal.

When asked what it meant to her that the pope named Archbishop Gregory as a cardinal, she said, “Things are changing, times are (changing)… What a change, what a change!”

In her interview, she had reflected how during times of segregation, Black Catholics had to sit in the back of church and wait until the end of the Communion line to receive Communion after White Catholics.

Asked what she thinks of Cardinal Gregory, she said, “I just love him. I admire him, I really do. In fact, I admire all of our priests. All (of them).”

Dr. Ansel Augustine (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)

‘Truly Catholic and truly Black’

Dr. Ansel Augustine, the executive director of Cultural Diversity and Outreach for the Archdiocese of Washington, was interviewed for the Black Catholic Voices series before Archbishop Gregory had been named a cardinal.

Later reflecting on that news, he said, “It’s historic, empowering and joyous. There’s a saying one of my friends, Brandan ‘BMike’ Odums, has in his art gallery, ‘I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.’ I think of the path that Cardinal-designate Gregory is on, the lineage that’s there: Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African American priest in the United States who is one of the six African Americans on the road to canonization. Bishop Harold Perry, the first African American bishop in modern times (appointed as an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans in 1965). Now on Nov. 28, 2020, we’re going to have the first African American cardinal in the history of the United States. What all these three men of God have shown us is it is okay to be truly, authentically Catholic and truly, authentically Black, using the gifts of our Blackness and our Catholicism, while serving all of God’s people, and for many of our ancestors and elders in the faith, that lifestyle was at times seen as contradictory to Catholicism, and they were ostracized or punished for living that out, being kept out of seminaries because of the color of their skin.”

Asked what he thinks Cardinal Gregory’s elevation means to the nation’s Black Catholics, Augustine said, “It’s a dream that some people probably never thought they’d see to fruition in their lifetime. It’s a sense of hope and joy and validation for years of sacrifice and struggle for remaining Catholics in a Church that sometimes didn’t see us and treat us as equals.”

And reflecting on what impact that he hopes Cardinal Gregory will now have, Augustine added, “As the first African American cardinal, this is someone who’s walked the journey of a people whose unique Catholic experience in this country has not been seen or addressed on a national or international stage if at all. Hopefully in communication with the pope (and Vatican officials), hopefully the needs and hopes and dreams of the African American community can be voiced to them and addressed, including, but not limited to, the canonization of the six African Americans on the road to sainthood.”