CatholicTV Premieres Series on Six Black Catholics on Path to Sainthood
The half-hour documentary series "Black Catholics: Footsteps to Sainthood" introduces six African American Catholics whose beatification or canonization causes are underway, marking Black Catholic History Month.
A new documentary series about Black Catholics on the path to sainthood premieres on November 2 on CatholicTV, the television station of the Archdiocese of Boston. Timed to Black Catholic History Month, which is observed in the United States every November, the half-hour films profile six African American Catholics whose beatification or canonization causes are underway. According to the host, the focus is on lives marked by extraordinary service rooted in love.
The first episode is devoted to Father Augustus (Augustine) Tolton, who was regarded as the first publicly recognized African American priest in the United States. His portrayal combines live acting with scenes created using artificial intelligence. The producers presented the series at a screening in Chicago, where Tolton ministered for more than a dozen years in Black Catholic communities. He died in 1897 at the age of 43 from heatstroke.
Tolton was the son of enslaved Black parents who remained faithful to the Catholic faith. During the Civil War, he fled with his brother and mother from Missouri across the Mississippi River and found freedom in Quincy, Illinois. There he received a Catholic education that was not free of prejudice and difficulties. Priests and women religious supported him and encouraged his vocation. Because racism in the U.S. Church blocked his path to the priesthood, he could study only at the seminary of the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, which admitted vocations from people of dark skin.
Retired Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago, postulator for Tolton's beatification cause, opened the evening with a prayer he had written for the priest's cause. Speaking to OSV News, he said Tolton's story naturally evokes compassion. People feel drawn to those who have overcome great obstacles, and such stories remind them of their own struggles.
Host Ansel Augustine, associate director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and liaison to the Subcommittee on African American Affairs, guides viewers through each episode and links the portraits with commentary. He said these stories need to be told. They are not only Black Catholic stories but Catholic stories, especially in America, about the contribution, resilience, and fidelity of these men and women. Their canonization is important because it represents the universal Church and inspires Catholics of every background.
The series covers four Venerable Servants of God and two Servants of God. Father Tolton, Mother Henriette Delille, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, and Pierre Toussaint have been recognized as Venerable, meaning their heroic virtues have been acknowledged. Sister Thea Bowman and Julia Greeley hold the title Servant of God. Their causes began in the United States. A seventh person, Brother Martin de Porres Maria Ward, came from Boston and was the first Black Conventual Franciscan in North America. His cause began in Brazil, where he served as a missionary for almost half of the 20th century. The group is known as the "Saintly Seven."
Augustine named Mother Delille as a personal connection, since she worked in his home neighborhood of New Orleans, and the Sisters of the Holy Family she founded helped in his upbringing. Born into a free family, Delille founded her own religious congregation in 1842, when no existing community would accept a Black woman.
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