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Xavier Carey, an 11-year-old parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem, was with his grandmother and other relatives Feb. 1 at the annual Black History Month Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“It’s important that people know that Jesus is our Savior,” Xavier said in an interview after the afternoon Mass, at which Cardinal Dolan was the principal celebrant.
Xavier said he has sung with his parish choir and takes religion education classes. He said Black History Month is a time to celebrate the culture and the accomplishments of people of African descent. “That’s why it’s important,’ said the youngster who traces his ancestry to the South and to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Mass was also a celebration of the National Day of Prayer for African-American and African families. The cathedral was nearly filled, with the liturgy celebrated partly in French, Akan (Ghana) and Tigrinya (Ethiopia and Eritrea).
In his homily, Cardinal Dolan declared several times that “God is good…God is so good,” echoing a popular faith-filled phrase within the black community.
“God is good all the time…It is an honor, it is a joy for me to be here with you to open and to celebrate Black History Month.”
He went on to talk about the Lord being “good” in providing the gifts of family, clergy and lay ministry leaders—and that these gifts and talents are present throughout the black community in the archdiocese.
The cardinal noted inspirational lives, such as Martin Luther King Jr., St. Josephine Bakhita and Pierre Toussaint, among others. St. Josephine, born in Sudan, suffered the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, and later responded to God’s grace in Italy with the Daughters of Charity. Toussaint, whose cause for canonization is open, was born a slave in Haiti and died a free man in New York City. He was renowned for his works of charity in the 19th century New York and is credited by many with being the father of Catholic Charities.
Noemie Jeudy, a parishioner of Holy Name of Jesus in Manhattan, said she attended the Mass to celebrate her faith and her black ancestry. Born and raised in New York, her family hails from Haiti and the Bahamas.
“This is part of who I am,” Jeudy said of the reasons for the celebration, adding that her Catholic faith “gives me hope–it gives me direction.”
Many of the procession participants were dressed in colorful traditional African clothing, from Ghana and Nigeria. They included Daniel Danso, a parishioner at St. Joseph’s in the Bronx.
“It was very beautiful; it was wonderful,” Danso said of the Mass and the cardinal’s homily.
“I appreciated his message, everything that he said.”
Brother Tyrone Davis, C.F.C., executive director of the archdiocesan Office of Black Ministry, noted that the Mass program mentioned how diverse and multilingual the black Catholic community is. He said the “God is good” phrase “reflects the feeling and the understanding in the black community that despite all the hardships that you’ve gone through, God is still good.”
Brother Davis said he appreciated Cardinal Dolan’s homily message in which the cardinal said that in many ways the black community “is a blessing to the Church, and the Church provides a blessing to the community.”
The Gospel-style songs and hymns were led by a combined choir from various parishes, schools and communities of the archdiocese. It was under the direction of Roger Holland II, liturgical music consultant to the Office of Black Ministry, and Mark Howell, director of music at St. Charles Borromeo parish.
