Diocese of Wilmington Black Catholic History Month Mass — ‘A place at the table’ — celebrated by Bishop Koenig: Photo gallery

 

Bishop Koenig celebrated the Black Catholic History Month Mass – “A place at the Table: African Americans on the Road to Sainthood” – Nov. 17 at St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Newark.

Sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Ministry for Black Catholics, the Mass was concelebrated by Father Glenn Evers, diocesan director of cultural ministries, and Father Ed Ogden, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland.

Members of the Wilmington Diocese Gospel Choir sang during Mass.

The potential saints in question include Mother Mary Lange, who has the title “venerable,” the founder of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence, the world’s first sustained religious community for Black women.

Other Blacks from the United States under consideration are Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American to become a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and Julia Greeley, known as the city of Denver’s “Angel of Charity” — who both have the title “servant of God.” Three others who have been declared “venerable” are Mother Henriette Delille, founder of the New Orleans-based Sisters of the Holy Family; Father Augustus Tolton, the first Catholic priest in the U.S. known publicly to be Black; and Pierre Toussaint, a noted philanthropist.