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The annual archdiocesan Black History Month Mass will be offered Sunday, Feb. 6, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Cardinal Dolan will serve as principal celebrant, and Father Kareem Smith, parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Shrub Oak, will deliver the homily. Father Smith is also chaplain of the archdiocesan Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Program.

The 2 p.m. liturgy, organized by the archdiocesan Office of Black Ministry, will also commemorate the National Day of Prayer for the African-American and African Family. The Mass theme will be “Glad to Be in His Service: Acknowledging and Celebrating Service Within the Church and Community.” Organizers said this year’s Mass will feature a combined Young Adult Choir.

The Mass will be livestreamed at saintpatrickscathedral.org/live. Information: archdiocesan Office of Black Ministry by phone, (646) 794–2681, or email, obm@archny.org

“Vivit in me Christus” (Yes I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me). Galatians 2:20

By Bishop Jerome Feudjio
Catholic Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands

My dear Priests, Deacons, Religious, Men and Women of Good Will in the Diocese of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands, forgiveness is the key word of my first pastoral letter to you as Bishop of St. Thomas.  The first thing I am calling each and every one of you to do with me as I begin my Episcopal ministry is to forgive.

by Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service | CNS photo, Gregory A. Shemitz

The history of Black Catholics and other marginalized people in the U.S. church covering more than two centuries is one worth knowing and can guide the church’s response to the challenges of racism and social justice, historian Shannen Dee Williams believes.

Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.

Watch video biography: https://youtu.be/nwbOZGfJYQ4