Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, archbishop of Washington, will celebrate a Nov. 15 Mass at 4:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bowie, Maryland to commemorate Black Catholic History Month.
The Mass, which will be concelebrated by Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr., is the culmination of an afternoon-long program titled “On Holy Ground: Pilgrimage of Remembrance.”
The day begins at 1:45 p.m. with a walk through the cemetery on the grounds of Sacred Heart Parish to honor and remember the enslaved people laid to rest in unmarked graves there.
Several years ago, Sacred Heart Parish found through ground penetrating radar that there were hundreds of unmarked and unidentified graves and burial sites throughout its 33-acre property.
Previously, the property was one of the plantations owned by members of the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits – in Maryland in the 1700s and 1800s, and enslaved people who worked at that plantation were buried in the unmarked graves there.
Some of those buried in the graveyard may be related to the 272 enslaved men, women and children the Maryland Society of Jesus sold in 1838 to Louisiana plantation owners which helped ensure the financial survival of Georgetown College, which is now Georgetown University.
Sacred Heart Parish is one of several in this archdiocese that have graveyards possibly containing the remains of enslaved men, women and children.
Following the cemetery walk, at 3 p.m., there will be a “Circle of Remembrance” for participants to learn about the history and to listen to the voices of descendants of slavery, whose ancestors are buried in the sacred grounds.
A praise and worship service at 4 p.m. will precede the 4:30 p.m. Mass.
The “On Holy Ground: Pilgrimage of Remembrance” commemoration is open to the public and is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach. For more information, call that office at 301-853-4468 or e-mail Wendi Williams at williamsw@adw.org.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Cemetery is located at 16501 Annapolis Road in Bowie, Maryland.
