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Twenty five years later, there are signs of progress, from the re-emergence of the National Black Congresses to the development of the Xavier University Institute for Black Catholic Studies. New resources are available, including the History of Black Catholics, by Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. Some parishes are beginning to integrate these into their ministries and to experiment with inculturation. St. Augustine Parish in South Bend, Indiana is one such parish. Founded in 1928, it is historically African American but has evolved into a racially and economically mixed community. It maintains its unique African American heritage and faith traditions which include a vibrant gospel choir. The community prides itself on making everyone feel welcome. In recent years, however, it had been losing many of its youth and young adults. Generations were disappearing; the parish was becoming gray. I overheard older Black parishioners speaking fondly of the glory days of St. Augustine: growing up there with family and youth programs; getting active in social justice issues; and forging friendships across societal boundaries of race, class and religion. I winced at my kids' growing complaints that church was boring. My daughter once looked forward to her dozen or so friends at Children's Church (kids activities during the Liturgy of the Word); by high school, however, only she remained from that group. As a small, predominantly Black Catholic parish, we have unique challenges. Of late, we haven't done as well attracting Black families from the surrounding area as have the Black Protestant churches - four of which lay on the same block as us. We, in fairness, are much better at attracting Caucasians and others. St. A's parishioners typically commute -- some from great distances; a source of pride, for sure, but also a challenge to non-Sunday parish activities.
What was the solution? The answer for my wife and me -- after visiting with both our youth and other churches -- seemed to be youth ministry. We knew very little about it, but with the help of our Diocesan Office of Youth Ministry and monthly parish planning committee meetings, we put together a parish plan based on Renewing the Vision and its three goals: 1) to empower youth to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today, 2) to draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community, and 3) to foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person. Still, some in the parish were skeptical. Did we really need youth ministry? Did we have enough youth to justify paying a youth minister? Why not tap into existing youth programs at neighboring churches? Given our unique parish history, composition, and location, I felt our parish needed its own youth ministry, but not only for the benefit of youth. I needed to know that the Catholic Church could have an impact on my people, my concerns. No other Catholic church in the area had such potential. In essence, this was our opportunity to "become missionaries to ourselves." Thus, I offered to serve as youth minister for one year for free, as a trial run. They finally agreed and we went to work. Today, a few years later, you would not recognize St. Augustine parish from what it was before youth ministry. Our once-aging parish has become a haven for young families. Youth of all ages and races are visible and involved. With youth activities purposely planned throughout the week, we are no longer a "Sunday church."
We also teach our youth about Black cultural expression via African drum and dance classes and youth gospel choir, often incorporating these into monthly youth mass (in which youth also do readings and other roles). Even so, we seek to have inclusive programming, to emphasize the universality of Catholicism. Consequently, we are attracting more diversity in ALL our youth programs, and more youth are attending mainstream opportunities like ND Vision at the University of Notre Dame. In many ways, last year was the culmination of our three-year youth ministry plan. Youth who had become involved through programs like Youth Ministry, Movie Night, African dance and Teen Ministry began coming on Sundays, even taking on roles in our youth mass and youth choir; but, they could not go to communion. Hence, they began expressing interest in becoming Catholic; but, I would not let them pursue that formally until they had picked up roughly a year of "building blocks" from Youth Ministry. Once it became evident that their faith was real, I set about developing a special RCIA for youth program, dubbed RCIA-Y. We began weekly classes in September 2008. It was truly ministry in that a simple conversation about sacraments could quickly becomes a sermon on the importance of education, how to treat young ladies, or how to handle the fact that a relative or friend had just gotten shot or locked up. It involves celebrating when their family finally gets a car, when they can finally stop moving around from house to house after getting evicted or when one of them made honor roll for the first time. It's also encouraging them when these things didn't happen. Most importantly, it involved helping them to see God at work in both the good times and the bad or helping their parents trust that, yes, the CATHOLIC Church can have a positive impact and help them raise their kids. Ministry helped our parish and community to finally embrace these young men for who they are: budding young Christians, created in the image of God. Ministry is about meeting life where it is lived. We couldn't wait for manuals or funding; we just jumped in and prayed that God would use us, kind of like Peter did when he jumped out on the surface of water.
Because of faith - in our youth, ourselves, our Church and our God -- on April 11, 2009, at the Easter Vigil, five of our youth were baptized and seven were confirmed as newly Catholics. The arduous journey was worth the wait. Some elders beamed that it was by far the most youth at one time at our parish in recent memory. Most of these youth still attend Sunday mass regularly and, in fact, are more involved. We had another RCIA-Y class this year, this one more diverse. At this point, a few are still discerning; and that, too, is a positive. Our youth attend and/or join the Church because they want to, not because they have to. If we miss picking them up, those that live close enough don't skip church . . . they walk. Isn't that hope enough for us all?  Christ, in John 14:12-14, said: "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." In this spirit, I pray that we -- the Catholic Church -- begin to examine our hopes for U.S. Black youth and be more certain of our call to evangelize them "for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matt 19:15). Only those of the world view our youth for where they are now; those of faith see them for what they could be. For Christ himself died for us in faith while we were sinners. He did not wait until WE were perfect to show love for his own. Why should we? Mel Tardy, an academic advisor in the First Year of Studies at the University of Notre Dame, also serves as faculty advisor to the Notre Dame Voices of Faith Gospel Choir. At St. Augustine Parish, he serves as youth minister, choir director and as a member of the parish council. He is preparing to be ordained as a permanent deacon on May 21, 2011 in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. |
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The US Black bishops, in their 1984 pastoral letter
on evangelization "What We Have Seen and Heard," proclaimed signs that the US
Black Catholic community had "come of age" and that with this new maturity came
the "compulsion" to evangelize; that being to "Go into the whole world and
proclaim the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).
We lack a feeder school; a natural way to
bring in youth, develop a parish and - more significantly - offer
catechesis. In the absence of parish catechetical programs, youth who
didn't attend Catholic schools grew up without gaining knowledge or
connection to Catholicism. Meanwhile, our Black youth attending the
predominantly White Catholic schools lacked opportunities to process
unfortunate experiences (i.e. racism) through Black Catholic lenses.
Internalizing them may have contributed to their leaving the Church when
older. In short, simply having a gospel choir and some Blacks in the
pews was not enough to meet the spiritual and social needs of our parish
/ neighborhood youth.
Youth Ministry, the umbrella activity, meets
every other Wednesday. It is fun, but we also do Bible study using
Sunday readings. It gives a Sunday preview to those who attend mass, but
we can also relate the stories to relevant issues like bullying. Along
the way, we insert building blocks for more in-depth discussion of God
and salvation (i.e. who is Abraham?). Unlike Sunday, youth ministry
tends to attract Black youth from the local neighborhood, especially
males. They live closer; but also, some of our programming and materials
target them. Our first Saturday Teen Ministry program was titled: "A
Shelter in the Time of Storm: Public Fear of Black Teens." We kept that
real, from being on point about message to incorporating hip hop/youth
culture, relevant stats and media.
Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is being sure of
what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Quite often, it was
only faith that got us through youth ministry. I had to tell some youth
they weren't ready, and convince others that they were. Some days we
didn't think anyone would show, but we set up anyway on faith and got
over a dozen youth. Many days, I prayed: "God, I am not the one for
this, I'm not even prepared; but I am the one that is here. Use me, and
we'll see what happens." God always came through. The growing support of
the parish for these changes and our youth has also been inspiring. |
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