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Press Release from the Josephites

As we come to the close of Black History Month, we give thanks to God for the enduring faith, witness, and prophetic leadership of Black Catholics and of Black and Brown communities across our nation. As Josephites, our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is not rooted in trends or politics, it is rooted in the Gospel. It is rooted in the Incarnation. It is rooted in the truth that every person is made in the image and likeness of God.

Our apostolate has always stood at the intersection of faith and justice. To celebrate diversity is to celebrate the creativity of God. To stand up for justice is to participate in God’s ongoing work of liberation. Black History Month reminds us that the story of the Church in the United States cannot be told without the prophetic lives, sacrificial love, and resilient faith of Black Americans.

Read more by clicking here: https://mailchi.mp/6497dfb30ead/partner-with-us-in-mission-help-us-build-the-future-of-black-catholic-ministry-17454218?e=167f1d00e4

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Why St. Katharine Drexel took a fourth vow in religious life

St. Katharine Drexel didn’t want to become an ordinary religious sister. She wanted to dedicate her life to the service of minorities in the United States of America.

According to Sister Eleanor McCann, RSM, on the St. Katharine Drexel Shrine website, “Katharine, who was following the plight of the Native groups, saw the injustices they were suffering at the hands of the federal government. She noted, as well, the severe racial injustices and torture of Black people in the South, for whom she grieved.”

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Pope charts 2026 travel with sweeping Africa tour, visits to Spain, Monaco

by Justin McLellan | Vatican News

Nearly a year into a pontificate largely anchored in Rome, Pope Leo XIV is preparing to launch a sweeping series of international trips that will carry him across Africa, to Spain and to the tiny principality of Monaco.

The pope will travel first to Monaco on March 28, the Vatican announced Feb. 25. After Easter, he will undertake a 10-day tour of Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13-23, and he will make four stops in Spain from June 6-12.

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Holy Family Hospital: Where Black Residents Found Dignity in Segregated Birmingham

By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times

For decades, Holy Family Hospital stood in Ensley as far more than a medical facility. For Birmingham’s Black residents—particularly during segregation—it was a place of dignity, access, and compassion at a time when those things were routinely denied elsewhere.

“It was really the only hospital for Black people,” recalled Circuit Court Judge Tamara Harris Johnson, whose family history is deeply tied to the hospital. “When my family moved back to Birmingham (in 1961 from St. Louis, Missouri), it was the hospital.”

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‘The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave’

By Veryl Victoria Miles | Catholic Standard

One of the most iconic images I see every February during Black History Month is that of civil rights activist Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer appearing before the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She spoke on behalf of the all-Black Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party asking to be seated at the convention because Blacks had been excluded from the all-White Mississippi Democratic Party delegation. In her testimony she described the terrors, indignities and enduring threats of violence and death Black Mississippians experienced for simply wanting to vote. As she concluded her remarks, she asked the convention audience a poignant question, “Is this America, the land of the free, the home of the brave?”