The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s annual Mass to Commemorate Black History Month celebrated on Feb. 21 at St. Joseph Church in Largo, Maryland, brought together five choirs, hundreds of faithful from across the archdiocese, and a homily that gave the congregation a new way to hear three letters that have been the center of discussion recently.
Entering St. Joseph Church, one could feel the energy bustling as congregation members and volunteers got ready for praise and worship music before Mass. The crowd was dressed in a mix of traditional church attire and African dress with dashikis and bright fabric spread throughout the pews.
The praise and worship music started as the crowd filled in before Mass. The parish’s Traditional African Choir opened with Dr. Michael Clarke, St. Joseph’s director of music, on the piano. From there the St. Joseph Youth Choir followed, with a soloist leading the singing of “Oh Happy Day.” Throughout their performance, the Youth Choir members incorporated clapping and dance moves into their routine.
Music was also led by the parish’s Voices of Praise choir, accompanied by a trumpet player, and by the St. Joseph Children’s Choir. The St. Joseph Gospel Choir closed out the praise and worship music before the Mass, as throughout each set, the congregation steadily got into the beat and energy, as the music reached a crescendo before the start of Mass.
Dr. Clarke, who organized the five choirs alongside their individual choir directors, was intentional about the music selection. For the presentation of offertory gifts he chose “Until I Found the Lord,” a song with three verses that speak directly to the Black experience, “Lord, I prayed and I prayed,” “Lord, I cried and I cried,” and “Lord, I mourned and I mourned.” He felt it had a fitting message for this Mass. For the thanksgiving hymn he chose “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” to mark Black History Month with a song considered to be the Black national anthem.
Following the Gospel Choir set, the Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Color Corps led the opening procession in full regalia, followed by the women altar servers and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell, Jr., the principal celebrant of the Black History Month Mass, which was also a vigil Mass for the First Sunday of Lent.
In his homily, Bishop Campbell reflected on the Gospel reading from Matthew 4:1-11, and spoke about the temptation of Christ in the desert and how to recognize and resist the devil.
From there, the bishop moved into his central message: that every person is created in God’s image, and that means accepting fellow Americans as exactly that.
Bishop Campbell – who also serves as the president of the National Black Catholic Congress and as the pastor of St. Joseph Parish – lifted up the “Saintly Seven,” the seven Black Catholics from the United States who are currently being considered for sainthood, calling them ordinary people who did extraordinary things through God. The “Saintly Seven,” whose portraits were displayed prominently in the church’s sanctuary, include:
- Venerable Mother Mary Lange, who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic religious order for African American women, in Baltimore in 1829;
- Venerable Father Augustus Tolton from Chicago, the first known Black Catholic priest in the United States;
- Venerable Henriette Delille, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans;
- Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a skilled hairdresser in New York City, who after gaining his freedom from slavery, was well-known for his acts of charity, opening his home to orphans, the sick and others in need;
- Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman from Mississippi, who converted to Catholicism at age 9 after attending Catholic school and later became a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and dedicated her life to the faith as a teacher and evangelist;
- Servant of God Julia Greeley of Denver, who was born into slavery and later became Catholic and was known for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Mother;
- Servant of God Friar Martin Maria de Porres Ward, a Boston native and Conventual Franciscan who pursued his calling through missionary work in Brazil, where he served until his death.
Bishop Campbell challenged everyone to pick one of the seven and pray for their intercession. Venerable is the title given to a deceased person recognized formally by the pope as having lived a heroically virtuous life or offered their life. To be beatified and recognized as a Blessed, one miracle acquired through the candidate's intercession is required in addition to recognition of heroic virtue or offering of life. Canonization requires a second miracle after beatification.
Then in his homily, Bishop Campbell spoke about the “Agnus Dei,” (Latin for “Lamb of God”) sung before the distribution of Communion.
Pausing to reflect on those three letters, Bishop Campbell said, “DEI means God is diversity, He is equity, and He is inclusion.”
During the presentation of the offertory gifts, Jordan Gill stepped forward as soloist. Gill is a St. Joseph parishioner, a member of the Gospel Choir, and the parish’s Youth Choir director. He opened with singing, “Until I Found the Lord” a cappella, the first verse just his voice carrying through the church, before he was later accompanied by musical instruments. Beside him, a student from Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville signed the entire song in American Sign Language.
Gill later said the Mass resonated with him personally as a Black Catholic, because he “could really feel the spirit and energy in the air.” The director of the Youth Choir said he has found the key to getting young people engaged is meeting them where they are, letting them sing songs they know and love, and then using that energy to pull them deeper into the faith.
The moment “Lift Every Voice and Sing” began, six Bishop McNamara students stepped forward and signed every word in American Sign Language. The congregation then rose, with some people holding their cell phones, as if they weren’t recording just to watch later, but they wanted to hold onto that moment forever.
After Communion, Wendi Williams, the executive director of the archdiocese's Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach that sponsored the annual Mass, spoke about the Black Ministry Pastoral Plan Committee drawing on recommendations from the National Black Catholic Congress XIII that was held in the Washington area in 2023.
Williams noted that the committee, led by Bishop Campbell, is working on a plan to support parishes and ministries in the Archdiocese of Washington “in responding more fully to the pastoral needs and interests of the Black Catholic community.” She said a key goal is to strengthen the Black Catholic family by engaging young adults and making Catholic teaching something “baked into the air we are breathing.” This spring the committee will hold listening sessions going directly to parishes, ministries, and community groups to make sure as many voices as possible shape what comes next. Anyone interested in participating in those sessions can contact her by emailing Culturaldiversity@adw.org.
The Black History Month Mass at St. Joseph Church seemed to reflect that vision in action, a church full of people from across the archdiocese, dressed in the colors of their heritage, singing songs that carried generations of struggle and praise, and hearing a bishop remind them that the God they came to worship who created every person in His own image has always been a God of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
(Martial Kawunde, a member of St. Mary’s Parish in Landover Hills, Maryland, is a communications major at Morgan State University in Baltimore.)
