‘We are Black and Catholic’: Father Winbush says at Mass opening of 2024 Joint Conference

“We are proud people. We are strong people. We are gifted people. We are spiritual people. We are Black and Catholic and nobody can take that away from us!”

These words from Father Patrick Winbush, O.S.B., of the Archdiocese of Newark, rang through St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 30, during the jubilarian Mass for the 2024 Joint Conference. They also characterized the event as a whole, which each year gathers Black Catholic priests, deacons, deacons’ wives, women religious, religious brothers, and seminarians from around the country for several days of fellowship and official business.

This year’s event, which ran from Sunday to Wednesday, was the first since 2022 and featured the theme of synodality, an apt focus as the Church continues to follow Pope Francis’ vision of a listening Church that hears and responds to the cries of those on the margins.

Black Catholics in the United States have often been the unheard voice, and with their gathering in Kentucky celebrated milestones of achievement in ministry and perseverance, as well as the great work that must continue to be done. 

Father Steven Bell, CSP, who led the joint plenary sessions of the conference, spoke of the need for increased vulnerability as well as unity in the Black Catholic community, which is believed to number around three million across the diaspora in America. The synodal movement in the Church has faced much opposition, perhaps especially in the United States, but has also brought a renewed focus on the need for dialogue among Catholics in the 21st century.

“It’s a very familiar process of listening and allowing the Spirit to unfold within every human person,” Bell said, “so that we might not serve the god in our image, but allow ourselves to know the greater dimensionality of the God in whose image we have been made.”

Participants gathered both as a group with Bell and in executive sessions for the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC), the National Black Sisters’ Conference (NBSC), the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons, and the National Association of Black Catholic Seminarians(NBCSA). The organizations annually conduct their official business during the Joint Conference and also fellowship with one another to discuss the needs of the Black Catholic community.

Winbush’s homily during the Mass on Tuesday, celebrated by Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv. of Lexington, weaved together the story of Black vocations in the U.S. Church and in his own life. He also honored the decades of service being celebrated among several members of the constituent organizations, including sisters, priests, bishops, and deacons.

Winbush also touched on the impact of Black Catholic ministers in his own life, beginning in New Jersey and later resulting in his vocation to the Benedictine Abbey of Newark, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 2023 after more than two decades as a brother monk. He is one of only a handful of African-American Catholics ordained to the priesthood in recent years, reflecting a decline in the faith within the community but also a longstanding question of investment on the part of the Church’s leadership.

“So what is the church’s commitment to the Black community today?” Winbush asked pointedly. “I can honestly say that more work has to be done, so that we feel more welcome in the Church in every aspect, including leadership.”

Sister Addie Lorraine Walker, SSND, outgoing president of the NBSC, spoke of the jubilarians themselves as a shining example of Black Catholic faith and commitment.

“You give us an occasion to remember God’s faithfulness, to remember all the Christian community’s call to holiness,” she said. 

“It is a time that you remind us to recommit ourselves to what we have been called to in our baptism and consecrated to in our lives.”

Walker was among those elected the NBSC’s new-look leadership team, including president Sister Barbara Spears, SNJM and vice president Sr Josita Colbert, SNDdeN, among other new board members. Walker completed her term as president after serving since 2022. Colbert is also a past president of the organization, having preceded Walker.

One of the nation’s well-known African-American priests, NBCCC president Fr Norman Fischer, died just weeks before the gathering, leaving the Black Catholic community in shock. It also challenged the conference itself, with the Clergy Caucus tasked to gather under a new head in Fr Kareem Smith, who had been elected vice president in 2023.

Smith’s snap election as the new president reached local Catholics this week during the 5th National Black Catholic Women’s Gathering, which took place in Louisville from July 26-28. There, Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville shared the news at a Mass just days before the Joint Conference commenced.

Smith and the other conference leaders organized their members to travel to Fischer’s funeral on Monday, one hour east of Louisville at the Cathedral of Christ the King in his home diocese of Lexington. He served as a priest for 24 years, most recently as pastor at the local Black Catholic parish, St. Peter Claver Church, and as chaplain at Lexington Catholic High School. 

At the funeral Mass, myriad voices—including homilist Fr Tony Ricard of New Orleans and Bishop Stowe—spoke of the late Afro-Filipino priest in glowing terms, suggesting holiness evocative of the canonized in heaven.

“Over the last two weeks, I have received many, many, many blessings, people reaching out from all over the country and certainly throughout the diocese with stories about how Fr Norman touched their lives,” Stowe said.

“Stories about how he did the impossible, cataloging these things for the case of his sainthood, I’m afraid, producing volumes of miracles.”

On Monday evening back in Louisville, the Joint Conference held its annual Harambee Banquet, bestowing awards on members of the constituent organizations who have evoked qualities of Black Catholic stalwarts of old during their years of faithful ministry.

This year’s honorees included Sr Eva Marie Lumas, SSS and associate member Tonya Taylor-Dorsey, who received the NBSC’s Harriet Tubman Award and Julia Greeley Little Red Wagon Awards, respectively; Dcn Jerry Lett, who received the NBCCC’s Father Joseph M. Davis, SM Award; Br Cursey Calais II, SSJ, who received the NBCSA’s Father Clarence Williams Award; and Sr Barbara Moore, CSJ, who received the Joint Conference’s Father Al McKnight Award.

Their ministries reflected the emphasis of the Joint Conference’s perennial mission, to promote the Black Catholic community’s achievements and also to plan for the future built on the foundation of the past. During his jubilarian homily, Winbush brought together synodality with this “sankofa” vision in words that also echoed the theme of the recent 2023 National Black Catholic Congress.

“In the spirit of synodality… we need to continue to listen to dialogues and dialogue with one another, and include others to help us write the vision for the future of Black Catholics and for our organizations,” he said.

“Because if we don’t write the vision, then guess what? Nobody will.”

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

Featured image: Attendees at the 2024 Joint Conference gather for a jubilarian Mass at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky., on July 30, 2024. (Nate Tinner-Williams)