Black Catholic Messenger

Briana Jansky says the new Lee Daniels flick integrates the African-American experience with a positive view of Christianity that's all too rare.

Fr. Norman Fischer Jr., a veteran Lexington, Kentucky, priest and the president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, died in Delaware July 14. He was 50 years old and had been on sabbatical. 

Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day's granddaughter, will be "a voice crying out in the wilderness" with "a different message, a new commandment" at the National Eucharistic Conference, writes Nate Tinner-Williams.

One of the beauties of the Black Catholic experience here in America is that we can look at the past for a road map on how to impact our future in our increasingly inhospitable church.

The 96-page document covers several centuries and various episcopates in the diocese, which predates the United States.

The longtime administrator departed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in April as the highest-ranking lay African American in the Catholic Church.

Joe Mazzulla and Jason Kidd will lead their respective teams on basketball's biggest stage this month, starting Thursday night in Boston.

30 churches will shutter in the newly finalized plan, released on May 22 and sparking varied reactions from African Americans.

Ralph E. Moore Jr. says this year should be the start of a direct campaign for the sainthood of the first six African Americans up for canonization.

The veteran labor organizer succeeds a fellow Catholic in Mary Kay Henry as head of an international union boasting of nearly two million members.

Matthew Cressler's vision for an accessible throughway to the nation's thorny history of race and religion has resulted in a uniquely modern initiative.

The Jesuit Antiracism Sodality will hold a retreat, "The God of Us All: Praying with Black Spirituality," this summer in Illinois, part of an effort to respond to African American issues within the Society of Jesus.

More than 100 Catholics and allies attended a gathering at "Women & Synodality: Where Do We Go From Here?", held at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University from May 3-4.

The founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Venerable Mary Lange, was raised in Cuba before coming to America. A 2021 film explores the Oblates' work there after Lange's death. 

The nation's highest civilian honor, bestowed by President Joe Biden, went to the 93-year-old activist, former attorney, and businessman on May 3.

Firebrand conservative commentator Candace Owens has announced her conversion to Catholicism, describing it on social media April 22 as a "decision to go home."

Louisiana's extension of the statute of limitations for child sex abuse has been ruled unconstitutional in a split decision hinging on the due process clause of the state's constitution. 

Sr. Mary Roger Thibodeaux, a veteran member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and a leading Catholic light of the 20th-century Black freedom struggle, has died in Pennsylvania. 

The 100-year-old school is one of several small, significantly Black Catholic colleges to announce closure recently due to long-term financial struggles.

Tevin Williams writes about his hope that this Lenten season, "Black Catholics will recognize that in spite of the injustices and odds against us and the standard of perfection often required of us, we will prevail just as Jesus did."