On the evening before he was ordained as a new auxiliary bishop for Washington, Bishop-elect Robert P. Boxie III returned home to St. Augustine Catholic Church, the mother church for Black Catholics in the nation’s capital, for a special prayer service.
On July 7, Bishop Boxie and Bishop Gary R. Studniewski were ordained as auxiliary bishops for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
At the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Solemn Vespers on July 6 at St. Augustine Church on the eve of his episcopal ordination, Bishop-elect Boxie stood at the church’s pulpit and acknowledged he was “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The man who would become the nation’s newest African American Catholic bishop spoke near a display of portraits of bishops of African descent who have served or are serving as bishops in the United States, and near a banner of Venerable Father Augustus Tolton from Chicago, who in 1886 became the first U.S. Roman Catholic priest publicly known to be Black. Throughout the church, other banners were displayed depicting the “Saintly Seven,” the African American Catholics being considered for sainthood in the Catholic Church, including Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and a dynamic evangelist and noted educator who died of cancer in 1990.
Before being named a bishop, then-Father Boxie had served since 2020 as the Catholic chaplain at the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Speaking from the pulpit at St. Augustine Church, where Sister Thea Bowman once sang during a visit there, Bishop-elect Boxie thanked his family, and his extended family from Lake Charles, Louisiana where he grew up as a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church. He noted that two other Catholic bishops also came from his home parish – New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop Harold R. Perry, a member of the Society of the Divine Word who died in 1991; and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Leonard J. Olivier, another member of the Society of the Divine Word who died in 2014.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Robert Boxie III served as an attorney in the Washington area, and he attended Mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church at the time when he was discerning his call to the priesthood. After entering the seminary and later studying at the Pontifical North American College and Gregorian University in Rome, Father Boxie was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington in 2016.
Remembering his years as a parishioner at St. Augustine Church, Bishop-elect Boxie said, “When I came here to Washington, when I moved up here, I used to sit in the fifth pew back there at 10 o’clock Mass. And I never imagined I would be in this position right now.”
St. Augustine Parish was founded in 1858 by free men and women of color, including some who had been emancipated from slavery, and it started with a Catholic school that continues serving the city’s children today.
Sitting in the front pew on one side of the church were the bishop-elect’s parents Robert Boxie Jr. and Roxanne Boxie, and his sister Robyn Boxie. Sitting in the front pew at the other side of the church were four Black Catholic bishops – Cardinal Wilton Gregory, an archbishop emeritus of Washington who in 2020 became the first African American cardinal; Bishop Jerome Feudjio from Cameroon who leads the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands; Bishop Joseph N. Perry, a retired auxiliary bishop of Chicago; and Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr., a retired auxiliary bishop of Washington. Behind them sat Black Catholic women religious, priests, deacons and lay people from across the country.
The prayer service for Bishop-elect Boxie was sponsored by the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, and the presider was Father Kareem R. Smith, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York who serves as the pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in New Rochelle, New York, and as the president of the clergy caucus. The St. Augustine Gospel Choir led the joyful singing at the prayer service, which included the spiritual “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood.
During the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, people knelt reverently as the choir sang “Praise Him” to honor Jesus.
Later in the prayer service, Father Kareem Smith said, “We have gathered, not simply to anticipate an ordination, a consecration, but to watch with hope for what the Holy Spirit is doing in the life of the Church.”
The priest added that, “Tomorrow our brother, Father Robert Boxie, will become our bishop, a successor of the apostles… We have come to lift up the name of Jesus and to remind our brother that no bishop is called out of nowhere. He carries with him the faith of his family, the witness of his community, the sacrifices of those who came before him, and the prayers of the whole church that sends him forth.”
Father Kareem Smith emphasized that “for Black Catholics, this is a sacred moment… It is another testimony that the seeds planted by generations who loved the Church through hardship and hope continue to bear fruit.”
Later in his remarks, the priest offered encouragement to Bishop-elect Boxie, saying, “This evening we come to tell the story again of the faithfulness of God, dear brother, and to remind you that the same faithful God who has brought us all the way is the one who calls you now so that He might walk with you too, to where you need to go.”
Then the bishop-elect was presented with a crosier from the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, as Father Kareem Smith said, “Dear brother, receive this crosier as the staff of the shepherd Christ is calling you to be. Hold it firmly, not as a sign of privilege, but as a reminder that the people of God have been entrusted to your care.”
Concluding his remarks, Father Kareem Smith asked Bishop-elect Boxie to “walk with us, pray for us, challenge us and love us… shepherd us with the heart of Christ… And wherever you lead, always remember that we are close behind. May God bless you, dear brother. May God bless you, our bishop.” Then he embraced the bishop-elect.
Earlier in the prayer service, Father Patrick A. Smith, the pastor of St. Augustine Parish, gave the homily, offering thanks to God for choosing Bishop-elect Boxie to serve in the episcopate, “to lead the Church, to be a bishop not just of Black Catholics, not just the Church in the United States, but a Catholic bishop for the Church universal.”
Later in the homily, he told the bishop-elect that “we are all here to remind you today that ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon you,’ just as He was upon Mary the teenage mother of Jesus. And just as the angel Gabriel was sent to reassure Mary, let us today reassure you in the words of Gabriel, ‘Do not be afraid, you have found favor with God’…”
Father Patrick Smith encouraged Bishop-elect Boxie to “expect more of God than you ever have before; be confident that God will show up whenever you call upon Him; embrace this new assignment with a confidence that God has your back, and so do we.”
The priest added, “Never forget how amazing our God is, that our God is an awesome God, a God who can do anything but fail. Ours is the God who makes the impossible achievable, the unattainable reachable, the overwhelming manageable, and the never-before-attempted possible and doable.”
Continuing his homily, St. Augustine’s pastor said, “We pray with and for you today… you are not only called to the office of bishop tomorrow, you are claimed by Christ, loved by Him and cherished by Him… Your life and ministry matters to God and always has.”
The pastor prayed that as the new bishop faces challenges, that he, like their ancestors, will turn to God, “and that you and the flock entrusted to you will count on Christ who stands with you.” He added, “We pledge our prayers for you to hold you up… so you will always know that there’s an army of faith, and army of believers… that are interceding for you.”
In his remarks at the end of the prayer service, Bishop-elect Boxie noted how in the Bible, Joshua tells the Israelites as they are about to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:5)
Expressing gratitude for the prayer service and for those gathered to pray for him, the bishop-elect said, “I think we have sanctified ourselves tonight. Amen.”
After also expressing thanks Father Kareem Smith and the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus for their leadership and vision, and to Father Patrick Smith, whom he called his “pastor, good friend, mentor and my brother priest,” and gratitude for the music of the St. Augustine Gospel Choir and for the bishops, priests, deacons, women religious and laity in attendance, Bishop-elect Boxie said, “There are not enough words in the English language that are strong enough to express what my heart feels in this particular moment.”
The bishop-elect said he felt lifted up the prayers of every person there, and by the people around the country and the world “who have been praying for me and lifting me up, and I thank you for that.”
Concluding his remarks, Bishop-elect Boxie said, “I look forward to being with you and among you and being for you. Sanctify yourselves, people of God, for tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. Tomorrow the Lord is going to make a new bishop. I am humbled and I am grateful for this charge, this responsibility, and thank you.”
The congregation then gave him a long standing ovation, and during the closing procession, the St. Augustine Gospel Choir led the singing of the song “Rejoice” by Kenneth W. Louis, which included the words, “Rejoice! Come on everybody, rejoice! This is the day the Lord has made… Rejoice! Sing praises to His holy name. God has been so good to us.”
