Hide Article Text (OCR)
CURIOUS RELATIONS OF THE CATHOLICCHURCH AND COLORED AMERICANS.tSCSerientti-Under the above caption, Howard’sNegro-American Magazine, Vol. 1. No. 1., (Published at Harrisburg, Fa.) has the follow ing to say :The convention of Colored Catholics at Washington in January last may be noted as quite an epoch in the progress both of that race and that church in America. The convention did its work so well and gave publicity to facts of so much interest and importance that reading Americans confess a surprise at the peculiar relations, both present and historic, of the Negaoes and the Catholic Church. There are in the United States twenty district Colored Car hoi icChurches, each with,a school attached, though the Church does not encourage separate organization, and most of its Colored cummunicants attend white churches. The Colored Catholics also have sixty-five schools, eight orphan asylums and three reformitories; seven Colored men are now preparing for the priesthood, and there are 150 Coloredwomen in the various sisterhoods. Theschools now include^,000 Colored children.It is not generally known that the first movement towards general emancipation began in the Catholic Church,that more than one Pope has made it sn object of special address, and that the confessor of Charles V. of Snain was the first to inaugurate a crusade against African slavery and the slave trade. A* to the abolition of white slavery in England, Macaulay despite his strong anti-Catholic feeling, gives this testimony: “The Church of Rome created anartistoeracy altogether independent of race, inverts the relation between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels the hereditary master to kneel before the tribunal of the hereditarybondsman. To this day (1848) is somecountries where Negro slavery exists, popery appears in advantageous contrast to other forms of Christianity; it is notorious that the antipathy between the two races is by no means so strong at Rio Janeiro as at*Washington.How great a part the Catholic ecclesiastics had in the abolition of villenage, we learn from unexceptionable testimony. When the dying slave-holderaskeu for the last sacraments, his spiritual attendants regularly adjured him,as he loved his own soul, to emancipatehis brethren for whom Christ buddied.*’In the United States and adjacent islands there were peculiarities of race which long hindered the natural tendency of the church. In Louisiana and the Indies the white colonists were Catholic, and so the slaves were bred in that faith, and after the revolution in San Domingo about 2,(XX) educated and well to do lt;olored men removed to New Orleans. They spoke the French language, were Catholics, and educated rheu* children in France, the northern S*ntes or in private schools at home. Thus there has existed for manv ventsin New Orleans a Colored society no'ikeany in any other part of the country. Victor Sejour, once the private secretary of Douis Napoleon, and a famous dramatic writer of Paris, was a nativequadroon of New Orleans. *At the close of the civil war the best and probably the largest Colored srheol in the United States was that directed by the “Catholic Society for the Instruction of Indigent Orphans” at Now Orleans, and its history is an encouragement for the race. In 1837 there died in New Orleans a black woman, a native of Guinea, knovyn as Widow Ber-nard Convent, who had acquired herfreedom and a small competency. By her will she gave a lot and the buildings on it for a school for Colored orphans. Ten influential freeman of color associ-ated themselves to give effect to the bequest, were incorporated under the laws of the State, and on the 20rh of April, 1847, tne institution was founded. It . received some slight help from thee, state and city, but was enieily maintained bv contributions, and in 180(5contained 200 pupils. The recent growth of tree schools and colleges for the Colored has made it relatively less important.In New Orleans, and probably there only, are the Colored Catholics able todo what they wish in church extension.Everywhere else they are confronted, not by the “color line,” as inoth tr churches, but by the far more prosaic problem of poverty. The grcar mass of the white Catholics in America have notyet been in the country long enough to have created many large fortunes, andthe Colored Catholics are much poorer still. Nevertheless, they have achievedsome striking success. The Church of St. Augustine, in Washington, is a magnificent edifice, built entirely by the Colored Catholics, and the music, especially the vocal choir, is noted even in that city of excellent choirs. The plenary council of Catholic prelates of the United States, held in Baltimore in 1884, made considerable provision for churches, school houses and priests forthe Colored people. The recent convention was in furtherance of that object. After a busy session of several days and a call upon President Cleveland, the convention adjourned to meet next year at Richmond, Va.
Newspaper Details
American Catholic Tribune
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Sat, Jul 20, 1889
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 28 May 2023
Other Publications Near Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati Kentucky Times Star
Cincinnati Christian Age
Cincinnati Israelite
Cincinnati North Journal
Weekly Cincinnati Times
