Where do people get the idea that Black Catholics don’t exist and the church has been silent on issues of race?

[Lea101]

There just strait up isn’t a lot of blacks where I live or in my parish. That doesn’t reflect a racist community around us!

Well, that’s not what I said so there’s no need to be defensive tbh. I live in SEA, I’m not going to call every parish here racist against some people because we don’t have a certain race here lol.

 

[ZemD]

The Catholic Church in America has not always been welcoming to African-Americans. Many White ethnic groups discriminated against African-Americans and actively opposed the Civil Rights Movement. Those White ethnic groups are predominantly Catholic.

What groups are those?

 

[on_the_hill]

I was in my early 20s before I met a white Baptist. I grew up thinking Baptist was a predominately black denomination.

 

[twf]

The Catholic Church in America has not always been welcoming to African-Americans. Many White ethnic groups discriminated against African-Americans and actively opposed the Civil Rights Movement. Those White ethnic groups are predominantly Catholic. I’m a convert of twenty years. The response of many Catholics towards police brutality, racism, and White Supremacist ideology has left me feeling DEEPLY disappointed. Too many White Catholics support Donald Trump. They are single issue voters about abortion and ignore other issues of injustice.

I just can’t think of the Catholic Church as a “white” church. If you think about the average Catholic in the Americas, you think of a Latino…likely of at least partial indigenous ancestry. If I think of the average Catholic where I live, in the Vancouver area, I think of a Filipino or other Asian-Canadian. I too find the views expressed by many Catholics on this forum very disappointing…because I’m just not used to associating Catholic with “white conservative American” in my mind.

 

[1ke]

Most Americans aren’t aware there exists a world outside the US. They have no concept of history before 1776, and even then they just harp on about “winning” two world wars and saving Europe.

Generalize much?

 

[RhodesianSon]

Yes. That’s kind of what the qualifier most was for.

 

[GLam1761]

Here might b ONE reason why the Roman Catholic Church might b seen as White Supremacists(Only in Appearance):This is a procession of SPANISH Catholic Faithful(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Catholic Tradition had the Head Coverings CENTURIES before the KKK!!

 

[TMC]

The Catholic Church in the US has not always had a great relationship with African-Americans, at least in some areas. The Church owned slaves prior to emancipation, and during segregation many parishes participated in segregation - effectively barring black catholics from participating in the parish. There is even one (and probably more) historically black Catholic parish in the US that was started as a mission to black Catholics because the local parishes would not integrate their services.

 

[Polak]

The Catholic Church in America has not always been welcoming to African-Americans. Many White ethnic groups discriminated against African-Americans and actively opposed the Civil Rights Movement.

Well I’m no expert on the Catholic Church in America, but just remember the Catholic Church in America doesn’t or didn’t necessarily represent how the Catholic Church in general behaved. Of course it might have given it a bad rep, and that’s a problem the Vatican would have had to deal with.

Anyway, if her mom was stared at, and felt like an outsider (in the past, might I add, when racism was more explicit, or at least not as taboo as it is now), it’s not a stretch to say it’s because of the society she’s in, and not the church in itself.

I’ve gone into a church I haven’t been to before and felt stared too, by white folks. Given that your go to theory of ‘probably racism’ isn’t available, what’s your backup explanation?

 

[Mrchatsworth]

All this stuff about how historically the Church may or may not have been welcoming doesn’t have a real addition to the perceived problem. Protestants including Baptists were the traditional “masters” of the slaves and they seem to have no problem with garnering black members.

 

[Mrchatsworth]

Can’t think of a state that is 96 percent white.
Wyoming is 91

 

[Tis_Bearself]

She always tells me how she went to mass with a Jewish lady she was taking care of back in the 90s

Why was a Jewish lady going to Catholic Mass?
Jewish people aren’t Christian and don’t go to Mass.

Is your mom sure it was Catholic Mass she was even at?

 

[BornInMarch]

Catholic churches exist everywhere, so one would be painting it with a broad brush unless she’s referring to the Vatican.

Even then that would be a broad brush because there are Black Cardinals.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Introduce your mom to:

https://www.nbccongress.org/history-of-black-catholics.html

Catholicism began in the middle east, not in Europe. The first Catholics were brown people

 

[MtnDwellar]

Christianity is segregated in the U.S. Only about 3.3% of Catholics are black. The majority of religious blacks are Protestant. The majority of Black Protestants attend traditionally black churches.

 

[aroosi]

@TheLittleLady In my experience I never met a Middle Eastern person referring to himself/herself as brown or black people. Believe me, I know plenty of them…
For 2020 US census people of Middle Eastern and/or North African ancestry are considered Caucasian (but many prefer to mark ‘other’ and are requesting to have a MENA category created). Most Middle Eastern people consider themselves… well… Middle Eastern!

Are Arabs and Iranians white? Census says yes, but many disagree - Los Angeles Times

 

[LilyM]

Of course there’s nothing particularly “white” about the global Catholic Church. There is a massive Catholic presence in Africa. And we have a history of black saints.

St Josephine Bakhita and St Moses the Black immediately come.to mind. There was at least one of the Popes in the early centuries who waa black (cannot remember his name unfortunately).

 

[LilyM]

Lea101:

Catholic churches exist everywhere, so one would be painting it with a broad brush unless she’s referring to the Vatican.

Even then that would be a broad brush because there are Black Cardinals.

Most prominently Cardinal.Sarah, who some.think may be the next Pope.

 

[Nepperhan]

Look up Saint Josephine Bakhita, Charles Lwanga and Ugandan martyrs. Sr Thea Bowman and Father Augustine Tolton (both process of canonization ongoing),

They are relatively recent. We did have a St. Charles Lwanga parish in this diocese, though.

What groups are those?

There was a special, Catholic version of the Klan in St. Augustine, FL to oppose integration. Blacks had to become Knights of Peter Claver instead of joining the Knights of Columbus, in which I have membership. In the seventies, the head of the Klan in Connecticut was an Italian Catholic.

 

[Nepperhan]

I just can’t think of the Catholic Church as a “white” church.

It is commonly held that the headquarters of Catholicism in America is St. Patrick Cathedral in NYC. That says a lot.