Diocese of Brooklyn celebrates Black Catholic History Month Mass in support for canonization of six African-Americans

The Diocese of Brooklyn has recently celebrated a Mass dedicated to six African-Americans on their path to sainthood.

Black Catholic History Month Mass

According to The Tablet's article, the service served as a rallying point for supporters of the canonization of six African-Americans that includes:

Augustus Tolton, the first Black man to be ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church in the United States
Henriette DeLille established the Sisters of the Holy Family as a religious order.
Julia Greeley was formerly enslaved and known as the "Angel of Charity" in Denver due to her numerous efforts to assist low-income families.
Mother Mary Lange was the founder of the first African American religious congregation, the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Pierre Toussaint, a formerly enslaved person, became successful in business and contributed to funding the establishment of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in what is today known as Soho.
Sr. Thea Bowman, a Catholic nun, educator, and musician, advocated for broader participation in the church's musical and liturgical life.

It was reportedly held on Saturday, Nov. 19, at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Flatlands.

Fr. Alonzo Cox, who serves as the vicar for the vicariate, extended an invitation to Fr. Kareem Smith, St. Michael the Archangel Church in the Bronx's administrator, to preside over the Mass.

During the Mass, Fr. Smith said they have gathered to celebrate who they are as a community.

The Mass was organized by the Office of the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns for the Diocese of Brooklyn and Archdiocese of New York's Cultural Diversity Apostolate, as reported.

Many people who attended Mass on Saturday believed that canonizing the six candidates for sainthood would be a significant source of pride for African-American Catholics.

However, many of them have the impression that their contributions to the church over the centuries have been unfairly overlooked, as reported.

Black Catholic History Month

The celebration of Black Catholic History Month is one of the more recent ones in the annals of the church.

It was reportedly established in 1990 at the behest of the National Black Clergy Caucus, which had convened in July of that year at Fordham University and voted to designate an entire month to mark the contributions of Black Catholics.

The National Black Clergy Caucus was responsible for the establishment of the organization.

Additionally, November was chosen to commemorate Black Catholic History Month because it falls in conjunction with several other significant dates that are significant to Black Catholics.

One of those dates is the feast day of Saint Martin de Porres, considered the patron saint of social justice.

Diocese of Brooklyn

The Diocese of Brooklyn was established in 1853 to cater to the requirements of the over five million Irish Catholic immigrants who, exhausted and destitute, arrived at the port of New York in search of a better life.

As reported, most of those immigrants settled in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

The Diocese of Brooklyn continues to be a vibrant and diverse community even in modern times, as it is once again home to an immigrant population primarily of Hispanics.