Black Catholics look forward to pope, have own issues

Black people have been part of what became the Catholic Church since Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry the cross toward Calvary, but Sheena Turner, 22, says she still gets the question:

"You're Catholic?"

Msgr. Federico A. Britto, pastor of St. Cyprian Church in West Philadelphia, says he gets a different query:

"You're black and a priest?"

What is to some the confounding juxtaposition of black and Catholic represents a persistent image of the Catholic Church as a white institution, and the assumption that if you're black, you're Protestant, said Deacon William Bradley, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office for Black Catholics.

But when Pope Francis visits next month, the region's black Catholics will be among the welcoming faithful, while hoping for more representation, recognition, and greater numbers in a church that has been a spiritual home for centuries.

"I am so excited," said Dorothy Franklin, a retired seamstress who attends St. Cyprian Church. She made a sports-style letter jacket for the pope that she has forwarded to the archdiocese. "I had to do something. Pope Francis is not just a lover of Catholics, he's a lover of everybody."

In the five-county archdiocese, there are an estimated 20,000 black Catholics among the total of 1.5 million, a decline from about 40,000 in the 1960s.

In the Camden Diocese's six counties, James Andrews, director of black Catholic ministries, says a census of black parishioners hasn't been taken for several years. He estimated that fewer than 1 percent of the 430,000 parishioners in the diocese are black.

Philadelphia's small numbers in parishioners, priests (14), and substantially black churches (16) make for a tightly knit community that has infused its culture and music into Catholic liturgy, but sometimes feels overlooked.

"When you close parishes, places that people love, the perception is that people don't care," Bradley says. "And because we're smaller, the effect is magnified."

In 1985, the archdiocese closed St. Peter Claver Church in Center City, the 100-year-old "mother church" of Philadelphia's black Catholics. Later, the building became an evangelization center, holding Mass and community events.

In the early 1990s, the archdiocese began a reorganization that closed and merged parishes, a reflection of shifting demographics. Congregations in North and Southwest Philadelphia, communities with large minority populations, were a focus of the closings then and a decade later. The St. Peter Claver Evangelization Center closed in 2013.

"A lot of black Catholics were upset," said Alonzo Baker, an official of the northern states district of the Knights of Peter Claver Inc., the nation's oldest black Catholic lay organization. "But really, those structures were too much for the number of black Catholics in there."

Under financial pressure, the archdiocese had little choice, Bradley said.

In response to the upheaval, Britto said, some parishioners stay, some go to other faith communities, and some stop going to church.

The growth of immigrant Catholic communities from Africa and the Caribbean has been a bright spot, with many, like African American Catholics before them, helping to transform worship styles into celebrations reflecting their own culture.

But efforts to attract young people haven't been as successful, Bradley said: "We've been focused on just trying to keep churches open."

Baker would like to a see a modern facility or church dedicated to black Catholics to replace the churches that have been closed over the decades.

Turner, who grew up at the now-merged St. Madeleine Sophie Church in Mount Airy, is worried about what the church will look like in 20 years, when her 5-month-old daughter, Abigail, is an adult.

"Will she have to drive 15 miles to get to a church? Will she be able to be close to the people in her parish?" asked Turner, of Upper Darby. "We knew everybody. I'm scared for Abigail's generation because she may not have that community."

The lack of black clergy is also a concern.

Currently, four African Americans and 10 African/Haitian priests serve among the archdiocese's corps of 680 active priests.

About 250 of the nation's 38,800 priests are African American. There are an additional 1,000 to 1,500 black priests who have immigrated to the United States.

In the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the Rev. Rayford Emmons, 67, was the first black priest to be ordained in the region (1974) and to be appointed to pastor a church (1987).

Emmons, parochial vicar at the Holy Cross community parish in Mount Airy, converted as a teenager.

"When I became a Catholic, I was told that there were no black priests serving in the archdiocese," Emmons said. "I couldn't believe it. . . . That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard in my life."

Cardinal John Krol, as Philadelphia archbishop, vowed to appoint a black pastor in the mid-1980s after attending a Philadelphia conference of the Knights of Peter Claver. In 1987, Emmons was appointed to the former St. Elizabeth Church in North Philadelphia.

Bradley, Deacon James Mahoney, and the Rev. Stephen Thorne, pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish in North Philadelphia, have worked hard to increase black participation in a vocations retreat hosted annually by the archdiocese.

This year, about 34 black youngsters attended a four-day vocations retreat in Lancaster County, up from 30 last year. A similar vocations effort is planned for girls in November.

Longtime parishioner Connie McCalla felt the disconnect of being part of a church with few leaders who looked like her and a high-church style of worship that she says felt distant. That propelled McCalla, vice president of human resources at Delaware County Community College, to "audition churches" when she moved back to Philadelphia in 2006 after living in Harlem for several years.

"But I never considered being anything but Catholic," said McCalla, 65.

At St. Raymond of Penafort Church, a predominantly black church in Mount Airy, McCalla found a sense of community and a cultural familiarity in the music and liturgy.

The Rev. Chris Walsh, who is white, helps set the tone.

"In seminary, they teach you seven minutes" for a homily, said Bradley, who is also a member. "If Father Chris goes for less than 20, it's, 'What's wrong with him?' "

St. Cyprian and St. Athanasius have large numbers of African and Caribbean Catholics who also infuse their culture into liturgy, a contribution to Catholic worship that doesn't get the recognition that it should, Emmons said.

That group will be among the estimated 1.5 million expected to crowd the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the pope's visit. McCalla is looking forward to it.

"Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air. I hope [the visit] means a sense of renewal," McCalla said. She wants to hear the pope's voice "say what the church is really about: commitment to Christ, not buildings, money, or hierarchy. That we are all a part of one church and we all have a voice."

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