Albertus Charts Path To Black Catholic Sainthood

There are 11 white Americans — and 0 African Americans — among the 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

“Zero Black American saints. Zero Americans-of-African-descent saints,” Shingai Chigwedere told a 20-person audience at Albertus Magnus College. ​“However you want to word it, there are zero.”

That number may soon change, as the local Catholic university shined a light on the six Black Catholics currently being considered for sainthood.

Those six were the focus of conversation Wednesday night during the first installment in a series called ​“Saints Among Us.”

The community event was sponsored by the Eckhart Center and Black Excellence 365, and held at the Albertus Magnus College Campus Center at 831 Winchester Ave. 

It featured a wide-ranging examination of sainthood and the byzantine process to get there, film clips on the steps to canonization and Servant of God Julia Greeley, and a lively discussion on what it means to be a saint.

While declaring herself ​“not an expert, but a person fascinated with this issue,” the Zimbabwe-born Chigwedere, a member of the Dominican Mission and Ministries team and a candidate with the Dominican Sisters of Peace at Albertus, described the process of canonization as ​“mysterious and laborious.” 

It’s one that involves stages — from Servant of God to Venerable to Blessed to Saint — with proof of miracles, including at least one medical miracle, required at every turn. 

It’s long, often lasting decades and even centuries and, with the exception of Mother Teresa, isn’t set in motion until five years after death. Not to mention, as Chigwedere put it, beyond the Pope as final arbiter, ​“the process is not as transparent as it could be.”

It’s also exorbitant, with costs ​“ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 to begin the process,” Chigwedere said, including research and documentation for a panel of historians and theologians, as well as reviews of medical events and procedures for the scrutiny of doctors and scientific experts. 

“Those expenses alone can present challenges for those worthy people who happen to serve in areas with minimal access to financial resources to fund these types of causes,” she said. 

There’s also this. Fundraising campaigns and publicity machines to advance the cause of a saint are seemingly antithetical to the spiritual mission of those involved, Chigwedere agreed.

The cost is steep in another way. ​“Learning about the exemplary lives of these six inspire us to be the best version of ourselves,” she said. ​“If we don’t tell their stories, that opportunity will be lost.” 

In November 2021, Ralph Moore Jr., a Black journalist out of Baltimore, took another tack, coordinating a letter writing campaign that called on Pope Francis to expedite the canonization of the six American Black Catholics, with more than 3,000 letters dispatched to the Vatican.

“Mr. Moore proposed that instead of focusing on miracles, the church should recognize the hardships African American Catholics have endured over the years, being expected to sit in the back of the church or receiving communion only after white Catholics had done so,” Chigwedere said. ​“This persistence of faith is itself a sign of grace or a miracle.” 

That might describe Sister Henriette Delille, among the six; she ​“was not permitted to wear a nun’s habit in public,” Chigwedere said, but founded a congregation that cared for the sick, helped the poor, and took in elderly women who needed more than visitation. Or Father Augustus Tolton who studied for the priesthood in Rome when no U.S. seminary would accept him. 

There’s also Mother Mary Lange who, rejected by existing women’s orders, founded an African American religious congregation whose sisters taught the children of Baltimore slaves to read despite the fact that ​“it was illegal to teach Blacks to read in some parts of the U.S. at that time,” Chigwedere said.

Then there is Julia Greeley, the focus of Wednesday’s discussion. (Future lectures will shift the spotlight to the lives of Sister Thea Bowman and Father Augustus Tolton.) 

Freed during the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Greeley served white families across the Far West, including in Denver, Colorado. At night, she pulled a little red wagon loaded with firewood, clothes, and food, leaving them on the porches of the poor. She did it all with one eye. Her former slaveholder was beating Greeley’s mother when his fist caught her other one.

“The whole notion of holiness is not trying to achieve some elevated spirituality,” said Lisa Bilodeau, an administrative assistant at Albertus, during Wednesday’s discussion. ​“Look at Julia Greeley. It’s about who we are as people in the best sense of that. It’s about living out our faith as best we can.” 

“I was very touched by her working at night,” said Robert Bourgeois, professor of religion at Albertus. ​“She wasn’t seeking to be recognized. That’s a great example of holiness.” 

Bilodeau agreed. ​“She didn’t call attention to what she was doing, and she also considered the dignity of these people, not making them feel embarrassed that they were in need.” 

“No matter what happened, no matter how she was mistreated, she did not let that turn her against folks, or from thinking she didn’t have to be kind or concerned or forgiving,” said Sheila Jewell, another attendee at Wednesday’s event. ​“She rose above adversity.”

“Everyone has their own way of being holy,” said Albertus alumnus Earl McCoy, Jr., the assistant director of career and professional development at the college.

Despite the towering barriers between the six and canonization, there may be cause for hope. 

There has been discussion that, Chigwedere said, ​“Pope Francis knows more about American politics than we think he does.”

“After the murder of George Floyd, the first Black cardinal was appointed in the U.S. in November 2020,” she said. In Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed by police, the pope appointed a Black archbishop. Likewise, in South Carolina.

“So those are indicators to me that Pope Francis knows what’s going on and is trying to help the church move with love and in ways that can support the entirety of the church,” she said.

For now, Chigwedere said, ​“it is my hope that learning about these men and women will be helpful examples to the world of how to be good and become the best version of ourselves.”