Although he grew up in a farming family in Modesto, California, Father David Bava has spent more than four decades of his 50 years as a priest serving in predominantly African American parishes in the city of Washington, D.C.
Interviewed about his 50th anniversary, Father Bava – the pastor of Holy Redeemer in Washington since 1995 – said he has learned lessons in persevering in the faith from his Black Catholic parishioners, and has joined them in working with community partners to bring help and hope to people in their neighborhood.
A special blessing in his nearly three decades as pastor there, he said, has been “the people themselves, their firm foundation in the Catholic faith.” Parishioners there have continued a legacy of faith at Holy Redeemer, which was founded in 1922 by determined members of the local Black Catholic community who had experienced discrimination at nearby St. Aloysius Church, where at that time they had to sit in the back of church and wait until the end of the Communion line.
Reflecting on the parish’s history, Father Bava said that church along busy New York Avenue in Northwest Washington became “a base for their faith to be strengthened and nurtured, so that they persevered,” in spite of racism that they encountered in society and sometimes in the Church.
In the decades that followed, Holy Redeemer was known for its evangelization efforts and educational and social outreach. Since then, generations of Black Catholics have remained loyal to that parish.
As a first generation Italian American, Father Bava’s own foundation in the faith began in his devout Catholic family whose farm included an orchard where they harvested peaches and almonds, and where they also raised livestock.
“My older brother and I worked on the farm before and after school,” said Father Bava, who said he learned “the discipline of a work ethic that was important for the care of people.”
His parents, John and Erminia Bava, raised four sons and “were strong in the faith,” he said, noting their family prayed the rosary together, and after Mass on Sunday, they visited a cemetery to pray for their immigrant family members who had made their opportunities for a new life in America possible.
During his high school years, David Bava attended St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Mountain View, California, and then went on to St. Patrick’s College in Menlo Park, both operated by the Sulpician Fathers, who also led Theological College in Washington, where the future priest continued his seminary studies from 1968 to 1973.
“I attribute my formation and discernment toward responding to the call to becoming an ordained priest to the Sulpicians, to their spirituality and their support,” Father Bava said.
Reflecting on the formation he received from the Sulpicians, he said it was designed “to prepare us for a new diocesan venture, of how to make the Church relevant and real, as a leaven in the world for strengthening people’s lives and making the Catholic Church’s presence in the world more relevant and more of a credible witness.”
Before he came to Washington in 1968 to attend Theological College, that summer he served at Christ the King Parish in Jackson, Mississippi, where the parish was looking for volunteers to help with voting registration efforts.
“It was my first time experiencing a completely segregated community, the city, the state,” Father Bava said, noting that the Ku Klux Klan would drive by at night, with a man on a bullhorn shouting out threats to bomb the church and rectory.
The future priest, who had become interested in working with Black Catholics, said at that Mississippi parish, “I did not encounter any hatred on the part of the Blacks. There wasn’t hatred. What did I encounter? Perseverance to work for change, to make things better and more equal. I never encountered hatred, and that struck me.”
The seminarian came to Washington a few months after the riots in April 1968 that had erupted after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. From 1972-73, he served as a deacon at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Washington. “I went there, because I saw it as an opportunity to give what I could to serve the people, and also to learn more how people managed life in D.C. after the riots.”
Father David Bava was ordained as a priest at St. Francis de Sales Church in 1973 by Bishop Merlin Guilfoyle of his home Diocese of Stockton, California, and then he assisted at the parish as a priest from 1973-79.
Serving there, he said, taught him “perseverance and patience in making change.” During those years he also learned the importance of working with other faith and community groups to provide outreach in the city. Msgr. Geno Baroni, a noted champion of social justice who died in 1984, was a mentor to him.
During those early years of serving as a deacon and deacon at St. Francis de Sales, Father Bava said he drew on what he had learned from the Sulpicians, to form and educate the Catholic laity so they will live their faith and become future leaders.
In 1981, Father Bava was incardinated as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, and he then served as a parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Clinton, Maryland, from 1981 to 1987.
Then Father Bava returned to the city of Washington, becoming the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish, which he led from 1987 to 1994. The parish, which had been all Caucasian, was becoming a predominantly African American parish as the neighborhood changed.
The priest worked with his parishioners to start a gospel choir there and to form evangelizing strategies for its neighborhood involving its church and Catholic school communities.
“The greatest blessing was seeing how the people worked at coming together and building and shaping a cohesive community. They became more united,” Father Bava said. “The older Whites were touched by African American ministers of the Eucharist bringing them Communion.” That broke through barriers, he said.
After a sabbatical from September 1994 to January 1995 that included a visit to the Holy Land, Father Bava became the first diocesan priest to serve as pastor at Holy Redeemer Parish in Washington, which had been staffed since its founding by the Josephites, a religious order founded to serve Black Catholics in the United States.
“The challenge at Holy Redeemer was following a religious community that did things a certain way for 75 years,” he said.
Since then, serving there for nearly three decades has given him time to shape the parish and be nurtured by the parishioners and to be inspired by their faith, Father Bava said.
During those years, the church was renovated. Sadness came when Holy Redeemer Catholic School closed in 2010 due to declining enrollment. As many parishioners have been displaced by urban renewal and gentrification and younger millennials have moved into the area, Holy Redeemer has continued to offer a 6 p.m. Mass on Mondays through Fridays, and a 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass to open its doors to longtime members and to new neighbors.
Reflecting on his years of urban ministry, Father Bava said he has looked to the model of a medieval cathedral, which he said was not only a beacon of sacramental life, but was also at the center of the marketplace and a place of refuge and service to the broader community.
The veteran priest believes the way to do that is by forming partnerships with other faith and community groups to serve the neighborhood.
Holy Redeemer Parish has held dialogues and worked on community outreach with its Muslim neighbors at Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, and hosted meals for them as they broke the Ramadan fast.
A former apartment building next to Holy Redeemer Church now provides transitional housing to families that had been homeless. The parish and community groups had partnered together to establish that housing program, which is now managed by SOME.
The historic Perry School building near the church had been abandoned and boarded up, and Holy Redeemer Parish connected with community groups including the former Providence Hospital to open the Perry School Community Services Center, which over the years has provided a family health center, a child development center, a job training program, a learning center, an arts center, and college preparation program.
In November 2022, Cardinal Gregory celebrated a special Mass at Holy Redeemer Church to mark the parish’s centennial and blessed its new Welcome Annex that includes an elevator and ramp making the church fully accessible for its elderly population and for people with disabilities.
Some of the elders were in tears when that elevator was completed, Father Bava said, speaking of the Holy Redeemer parishioners who have found a church home there, as he has.
Reflecting on his priesthood, Father Bava said, “I’m feeling a lot of gratitude for all that has happened in 50 years, that the Lord has allowed to happen, both the ups and the downs, the mistakes I’ve made as well as the good ventures that I’ve undertaken with others. (I’m feeling) gratitude to the Lord.”
