African american Catholic Church

[Rolltide]

I think we are arguing over tomatoes or tomotoes.

Ketchup or Catsup?

 

[LDNCatholic]

The Catholic Church serving the African American community.

GREAT GOOGELY MOOGELY THAT’S LONG!!!

I don’t have that much air in my lungs to say all that.

Is it not the same problem when you say the ROMAN Catholic Church?

The Roman Universal Church dosent sound like it makes sense eather. If its universal its universal.

Agreed, shall we just call it the Catholic Church? If anyone asks what the ethnic makeup of your parish is, go ahead and tell them.

 

[excaliber]

Agreed, shall we just call it the Catholic Church? If anyone asks what the ethnic makeup of your parish is, go ahead and tell them.

That’s the only time I use the term…to distinguish it from other churches.
For example how would you know what This thread was about without the term.

 

[excaliber]

Now as for African American style…every race has its different style.
Food…culture…dance…etc…etc…

How you interact with eachother.

 

[LDNCatholic]

That’s the only time I use the term…to distinguish it from other churches.
For example how would you know what This thread was about without the term.

Thats the point though. The difference is subtle but calling it ‘‘the African American Catholic Church’’ makes it difficult to tell what you are talking about.

Remember I am neither African nor American.

 

[Unitas]

Racial lines were already drawn long ago. Those lines were transparent to “some” caucasians because the lines favored them. And so knowone says anything.
Lots of Catholic churches were already “caucasian Catholic Churches”.

Really? Where?

What makes a Church white or black? By who attends? Why does it matter?

However now the racial lines that were already drawn are not tolerated. And there are African American Catholic Churchs.
Why call it an African American Catholic Church? Because African Americans need a way to find it.

Is “Catholic Church” not good enough? Is there something inherently anti-black about it that necessitates another name?

Sorry, that smacks of “The whites have their Church, here’s ours.” The Church is for everyone.

You don’t need to name a church a caucasian american Catholic Church, because there are plenty that are already predominantly white.

And plenty that are predominantly other races as well. But it’s the Catholic Church, there is no different version depending on your skin color.

You know why they’re predominantly white? Look at the geographical area and demographics of religions Rolltide already brought up. Go africa where the Church is under attack, those congregations are predominantly black. Go to China, where the Church is also under attack, those congregations are mostly chinese. Take a sampling from an area that is predominantly white, the Catholic congregations will reflect that.

I don’t understand why when Blacks get what whites aready had…THEN there is some problem.

I don’t understand why that Church needs to advertise as an African American Catholic Church.

What did the whites already have? The Church? So did everyone else!

Where is the White American Catholic Church? Where is the Church that has a unique charisma and white american culture? There isn’t one.

Blacks have had the same Church as whites all along. The Church is the bride of Christ but Christ gave it to the world. It sounds like you’re saying the Church isn’t “black” enough thus requiring a special “African American Catholic Church”.

As far as evangelising,It seems that being born into Catholosism is one major way of evangelising. The Chances are thet most African Americans in America won’t receive this type of evangelisation.

The same as many people, regardless of color. How do you custom-tailor evangelization to appeal to the black community?

And like myself many will come in contact with catholics on a regular basis…but never hear much about
the Church.

Depends on who you talk to I guess.

HOWEVER the very word “African American Catholic Church” will get there attention. Hmmmmm what’s that? they will think.

Yeah, I’m thinking alright.

The African American Catholic Church is sertainly not responsible for drawing racial lines that already existed, it will only serve to help African Americans come into the Church.

Yikes Im saying all this stuff, I guess I better join LOL.

You’re making many assumptions here:

1. That racial lines were already drawn. Prove it.
2. That Blacks have a more difficult time entering the Church, which then requires an African American Catholic Church to make it easier. Prove it.
3. That whites have had thier white churches all along, so blacks should have a black church. Prove it.

Can’t we all just get along in the same Church? Why is there a need to advertise as an African American Cahtolic Church?!

 

[Tracy10]

Don’t know much about it. Why don’t you talk to the Minister? I’m sure he would appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut. Maybe there are others in your church who would prefer the same or who could recommend a church more like the one you are used to.

---

I want to learn all I can about the African American Catholic Church.
I have visited and it looks like a normal latin style mass. There is a different choir style. And the peole get up and walk to the basket to put there donations in.Then walk back to there seats.

Then after mass, visitors are asked to stand…welcomed and encouraged to come again.

The African American people normaly dress very nicely for church.

What are your thoughts of The African American Catholic Church?

All the traditions seem the same as the latin rite.

 

[Unitas]

If you HAVE to be surrounded by mostly one race, why can’t it be your own?

Because none of us have a problem not being surrounded by a race other than ours. You’re suggesting blacks prefer “African American” Catholic Churches because they’re African American. It seems like you’re the only one making an issue of it, no one else takes race into account when thinking about which Church to attend.

I mean, how would it sound to you if I said “If I have to be surrounded by mostly one race, I’d rather it be whites.” Pretty nasty, eh? Yet that is what you’re saying here. There is no place for that kind of thinking in the universal Church.

If there is seventy predominantly white churches, and two predominantly black churches…its obvious that the two black churches need to be named so they can be identified. And the seventy predominantly white churches don’t need a name because whites have no problem finding Catholics who are white in America.

That is no different than saying “These seventy drinking fountains are for white people and these two are for black people.” I thought society had progressed past that sort of thinking. Why can’t there be just the Church? If race doesn’t matter, why attend one over another based on race?

 

[jc-servant]

This is probably the most racist thing I have read on these forums and is deeply distressing.

I have seen a lot more disturbing things on this forum when the people in the thread seemed to assume that only white people participate on this forum. In reading through this thread it appears to me that a lot of people are reading the title of the thread and then skimming through while reading things between the lines of Excaliber’s posts that I just don’t think are there…

It is a fact that many black people in the US see the Catholic Church as a “white man’s church.” I’ve had people say it to my face. There is in fact quite a bit of negative history between the church and this particular group that has not existed with most other groups including ethnic minorities in other centuries. If Catholics remain as defensive about the past as some of the posts on here, then widespread and productive evangelization in the black community in the US is going to remain a pipe dream.

I know of no other group who was forced into segregated parishes in the south or forced to wait until all “white” people had taken communion before they were allowed out of the “special” pews to come forward. It may not have been the official church policy but it happened well into the 20th century. Something similar may have happened to the Irish or Italians when they first came here, but I don’t know all of the specifics of their history in America. They did build ethnic specific parishes for some reason, so I have to wonder how wide their welcome actually was in the US part of the church.

I do know for a fact that blacks were not permitted in Catholic seminaries and religious orders for a very long time in the US. I also read in the news that a number of orders of nuns in Kentucky finally made a formal apology a few years back because they had allowed slave holding women to come into the convent with “personal slaves” attending them prior to the Civil War. Apparently that vow of poverty still allowed them to own another human being which tends to make our church look hypocritical to people looking for a reason to reject us for Protestanism or something else. In fact, the last piece in the puzzle of my conversion story was when JPII apologized to all of the people in the world who had been harmed in the name of or by the church and he specifically mentioned some of my ancestral history in the US.

I’m not personally bitter and angry about these negative things from the past (because obviously I did become Catholic), but I do have that knowledge in the back of my mind because not all of it stopped with the Civil War. I’m part Native American (black & Irish) and you should hear how some of my people from that part of the family talk about our church’s (and government’s) past behavior. There are still some very strong feelings about past things like boarding schools where many Indian children were beaten for speaking their native languages. Those people are still alive in some cases, so this is not ancient history.

It is not good evangelization to merely deny the negatives of our church and fail to deal with the residual damage now by telling people to get over it or that they should not feel a certain way. Black Catholics are a very small minority within a minority in the US. Getting angry and calling us racists if we enjoy not being the stared at “only” on Sunday in an overwhelmingly or solely “white” parish is not reasonable or charitable in my opinion. I see little empathy on this thread and a lot of defensiveness. I personally don’t care most of the time because my parish is very diverse, but when I travel it gets pretty old being stared at and questioned and talked about and pointed at when I just want to go to mass and worship.

It is a luxury and a privilege that most “white” Americans take for granted that they can go to places including church and just be themselves without being a spectacle or followed or moved away from or whatever even in 2008. I just recently went through that nonsense again for 2 whole days when I went to a friend’s Catholic wedding in a lovely midwestern state that I won’t shame here. When I do have the option between sticking out like a sore (and often unwanted) thumb at an all-white parish or going somewhere else to worship, guess which I would rather choose. This desire to not be the only visible minority at mass does not make me a racist. Now if I said that I did not want to worship with any white people that would be completely different.