Catholicism as a religious tradition in the United States has been the minority since before the country was independent. Going to school in Maryland, I was taught that George Calvert founded the state as a “haven” for Catholics persecuted in England. In reading books, and in knowing about the historic nature of John F. Kennedy’s presidential election, I understand that despite having approximately 20% of the United States population, Catholicism still pales in comparison to Protestant denomination numbers. Black Catholics, therefore, would be a minority within a minority.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishop released this information on the demographics of African-Americans within the Church. There are currently 3 million African-Americans within the United States that identify as Catholic, mostly in the South. This makes sense, though, to me, because of the Spanish presence in Florida and the French in Louisiana and the surrounding areas.

I find it unique how the Catholics took a step back from their normal proselytizing within the United States. The Catholic Church converted much of Latin and South America upon arrival, and yet, we’ve discussed in class that this wasn’t so much the case in the United States. The Catholic Church feared marginalizing themselves further from the mainstream Protestant society. In the Sernett book, there was a section from the First African American Catholic Congress in 1889. At it, they recognized the Reverend Father Augustus Tolton, a “trusted and worthy brother in race as in creed” (Sernett, 297). The conference continued to discuss the idea of education, which we haven’t really talked about a lot this semester. I think that church-run education institutions can be very effective at increasing membership, especially if the education is “the great and fundamental means of elevating it to the higher planes to which all Christian civilization tends” (Sernett, 298). If these schools offer the best education, and if the Church also offers other social programs, like orphanages, hospitals, and other places, they give themselves a much better face for the country. And in turn, they also receive more members. 

I think that even though African-American Catholics are not always thought of immediately when discussing African-American religions, or when discussing religion in the South at this time, they are an important part of the religious culture of our country. I think something interesting about the church in the video has is their powerful music, a unique approach to Gospel and the Word, in a way that both connects their African roots and their Catholic elements. 

My dudes, let’s have a chat about Davis’s work. First off, disclaimer, I recently took a history course over the summer about early civilization (basically through the fall of the Roman Empire)- and oh my god. High school leaves out so much. We’re all aware that with the crowning of Justinian,Rome was a predominately Catholic, but I found this work to be amazing because it discusses how this religious shift specifically impacted African Americans. For one thing, at the very beginning, people were divided. On the one side we had Justinian and his followers who believed the teachings of the Catholic church, that God could be both human and divine (i.e., The Trinity). On the other side we had Theodora and her followers believed that God could only be divine. Also, a lot of this is super cool because it is only until very recently that historians have discovered that Nubia followed a Christian religion. According to Davis’s work, he found, “unmistakable proof” that the Byzantine Empire had been influenced as well. Furthermore, Nubia isn’t even the oldest place to be recoded as having a Christian faith. According to Davis’s research, Ethiopia had been influenced over two centuries earlier. Davis also goes on to state that African Americas had a lot to do with the foundations of Catholicism. This made me link together a reading from last week where in his address, Nathaniel Paul had suggested that the British had helped pave their way to freedom. Here, in Davis’s work, we find that he states African Americas were in no way dependent.

Reading about the concept of black pride was also interesting. Here again, we observe a common theme. Bible verses are again used to prove a point. In Song of Songs, there is the line, “I am black, and I am beautiful.” In the eyes of Augustine, blackness was an undisputable sign of the church and its community. However, the phrase, “one step forward, two steps back,” continues to be applied throughout history. One of the most striking examples of this was with St. Benedict Moore. Although he began life as a slave, he soon broke away from those chains and committed himself, and rose-in religious life. St. Benedict Moore was not only popular in Spain, but also around Europe and the New World of this time. But despite all of his popularity and influence, he was ironically standing on the future grounds of the admirers that would later enslave his people. I think this reading was very important because it helped me to cast eyes upon some topics of history we have been educated in since grade school, but very much got painted a pretty picture of many events. The real world, is not so black and white.

Also, ps. Theodora was actually, lowkey, pretty badass.

Before this weeks reading, I had never really heard of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church or now what is know as the Christian Methodist Episcopal church (CME). While I have heard of other majority African American congregations, CME’s were not in my area so I decided to look more into  them. According to the churches website, The CME church was founded on December 16, 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee. Previously members of the Methodist Episcopal church, some of the slave members from their congregation broke away from their denomination to create their own.  This follows the other churches we have been learning about in our readings like AME and AME Zion and how their first congregations were formed. The church came to be after the trauma of the civil war and  the reconstruction period when the divisions between whites and African Americans were at an all time high. I thought it was really interesting to learn more of the background of the church especially since we read the piece by Lucius H. Holsey so learning more about the foundation of the church itself helped also make that reading understandable as well. I also am a Methodist so it was very interesting to learn about what the difference between the denominations was and why the split occurred.

You can learn more about the CME Church here.

http://www.thecmechurch.org/cme-logo.html