National Black Catholic Congress

Part of a series on
Black Catholicism
1892 Colored Catholic Congress
Overview
Pope: Francis History Black Catholic Movement National Black Catholic Congress
Background African Christianity African Catholicism Kongo Catholicism Black Christianity Catholicism and race Age of Discovery Catholic Slavery U.S. Catholicism Haitian Revolution Stono Rebellion San Miguel de Gualdape Fort Mose
People Saints Moses the Black Augustine Monica Benedict the Moor Martin de Porres Peter Claver Katharine Drexel On the way to sainthood Pierre and Juliette Toussaint Mary Elizabeth Lange, OSP Henriette Delille, SSF Augustus Tolton Samuel Henderson Julia Greeley Mary Theodore Williams, FHM Daniel Rudd Thea Bowman, FSPA Martin de Porres Ward, OFMConv Cardinals Wilton D. Gregory Archbishops Eugene A. Marino, SSJ James P. Lyke, OFM Bishops James Healy Joseph O. Bowers, SVD Harold R. Perry, SVD Joseph L. Howze Priests Patrick Healy, SJ John R. Slattery, SSJ Charles F. Uncles, SSJ Cyprian Davis, OSB Clarence Rivers Seminarians William Augustine Williams Families Healy family
Institutions Churches Basilicas Basilica of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception (Norfolk, Virginia) Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica Other St Augustine (New Orleans) St Augustine (D.C.) St Francis Xavier (Baltimore) St Benedict the Moor (NYC) Most Pure Heart of Mary (Mobile) Religious communities Oblate Sisters of Providence Sisters of the Holy Family Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary The Josephites Society of African Missions Fraternal orders Knights of Peter Claver Schools Xavier University of Louisiana Claver College St. Augustine High School (New Orleans) St. Augustine Seminary (Bay St. Louis) St. Anthony's Mission House Organizations Colored Catholic Congress Federated Colored Catholics National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus National Black Sisters' Conference National Black Catholic Seminarians' Association National Black Catholic Lay Caucus The National Office for Black Catholics National Association of Black Catholic Administrators National Black Catholic Congress Black Catholic Theological Symposium Institute for Black Catholic Studies National Association of Black Catholic Deacons
Literature History of Black Catholics in the United States (Davis)
Worship Gospel Mass Black Unity Mass Prayer Sacraments
Rites Roman Ordinary Form Zaire Use
Controversies Jesuit Bend Incident George Stallings (Imani Temple)
Miscellaneous Anti-Catholicism Ecumenism Relations with: Protestantism Islam
Societal issues U.S. Catholic politics
Links and resources Index Outline Glossary Category Media Templates WikiProject  Vatican City portal
Catholic Church portal
v t e

The National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) is a Black Catholic advocacy group and quinquennial conference in the United States. It is a spiritual successor to Daniel Rudd's Colored Catholic Congress movement of the late 19th and early 20th century.

It was founded in 1987 by the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators (NABCA), the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC), and the National Black Sisters Conference (NBSC). Bishop John Ricard, SSJ served as NBCC president from its founding until 2017.

Its mission is to improve and enrich the lives of African-American Catholics, operating in close cooperation and coordination with the Black Bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)^[1] and receiving funding from the Black and Indian Mission Collection.^[2]

Six NBCC congresses have been held as of 2021, occurring every five years (though delayed one year recently, to 2023, due to the COVID-19 pandemic).^[3]

History

Background

The historical precedent for the Congress emerged from the Colored Catholic Congress that took place on January 1–4, 1889. The National Black Catholic Congress was founded by Daniel Rudd, a Black Catholic journalist and activist from Kentucky (though based elsewhere throughout his life). His movement lasted only a few years before folding for unknown reasons.

During the Black Catholic Movement of the late 60s to early 90s, the National Office for Black Catholics (NOBC) emerged, as did a National Black Catholic Conference and National Black Catholic Lay Caucus. Leadership disputes foiled the lay caucus, however, and the NOBC eventually folded as well, giving way to NABCA, an organization made up of all the African-American diocesan front office professionals in the US.

Founding

NABCA proposed a revived Congress in the late 80s, after which they brought in the NBCCC and NBSC for further planning.

The first meeting was held in 1987, and featured a series of inculturated "Gospel Masses", an African-American form of the Catholic Mass that had emerged in recent decades as part of the Black Catholic Movement. They also developed a pastoral plan, which was to inform and govern Black ministry in dioceses around the country.

Subsequent gatherings

The Congress convened every five years after the inaugural gathering, and in the 1990s funded the construction of the Our Mother of Africa Chapel in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. It was proposed that they instead raise ~$10M for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at XULA, publishing control of “Lead Me, Guide Me” (the standard Black Catholic hymnal), and an endowment for scholarships for Black seminarians, but Bishop Ricard is said to have nixed that plan.

21st century

In 2017, Bishop Roy E. Campbell was elected president of the NBCC, succeeding Ricard.

In March 2021, the NBCC announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 gathering would be pushed to 2023.

Pastoral Plan

One of the main purposes of the inaugural gathering was to discuss and finalize a Pastoral Plan for the Black Catholic community, to be distributed to the country's dioceses and implemented by parishes, priests and bishops nationwide.

Similar documents have been developed at each successive meeting of the Congress. The latest was formulated at the gathering in 2017.

Notable participants

• Servant of God Thea Bowman, who provided various liturgical programs for the first Congress. She died in 1990, two years before the second gathering.
• Sister Francesca Thompson, who gave an address at the 1987 gathering, parts of which have appeared in multiple NBCC documentaries since.
• The initial crop of Black bishops in the United States, including—among others—NBCC president John Ricard, SSJ, now-Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Joseph Francis, SVD, Eugene Marino, SSJ, Emerson Moore, and James Lyke, OFM.

Programs

• The National Black Catholic Congress Convocation - an event providing guidance to black clergy on how to best preach and minister to the African-American community.
• Lay Leaders Training Workshops - providing understanding on how to reach Black lapsed Catholics on a regional scale.
• Catholic High School Consortium Program - in which leaders create plans to help member Catholic schools with a significant (75%) Black population best serve their constituency and the larger communities.
• NBCC Newsletter - an email newsletter published quarterly, with noteworthy information impacting the Black Catholic community.
• Webinars - the Congress regularly hosts webinars on various topics of concern to the Black community.

In popular media

The inaugural Congress was covered in a documentary produced by the Congress, as were subsequent gatherings in a later piece.

See also

• Black Catholicism
• Federated Colored Catholics
• The Black Church
• Knights of Peter Claver

References

Further reading

• Phelps, Jamie T. Black and Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk: Contributions of African American Experience and Thought to Catholic Theology (Marquette University Press, 1997) online

External links

• National Black Catholic Congress website

This page was last edited on 23 January 2024, at 14:11