Elizabeth Kepniss (973) 497-4187 kepnisel@rcan.org

For Release:  October 26, 2000

Archdiocese of Newark celebrates Black Catholic History Month

The Office of Black Catholic Affairs will celebrate Black Catholic History Month within the Archdiocese with a Mass of Thanksgiving, 3:00 p.m. in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark on November 5, 2000. Archbishop McCarrick will be the principal celebrant, and Msgr. Edward D. Alleyne, pastor of Queen of Heaven Church, Cherry Hill, NJ will be the homilist. The Sacred Heart Schola will be the featured Catholic school choir.

The celebration will also recognize St. Josephine Bakhita, the first African woman to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in the new millennium. Recognition will also be given to a Hispanic woman, St. Maria Jose del Corazon de Jesus Sancho de Guerra, who was canonized on the same day with St. Josephine. In addition, recognition will be extended to St. Katherine Drexel and Blessed Fr. Don Alfonso Marie Fusco, two non-Africans who devoted their lives, prayers and support to many Native Americans and people of African descent.

Immediately following Mass many youth of the Archdiocese will be recognized for their service to the Church in their respective parishes. Each youth recommended by a pastor, Director of Religious Education, Youth Minister, or Music Minister will receive a specially blessed religious token and a certificate of service signed by the Archbishop. All are welcome to attend the celebration, which at 2:45 p.m. will begin with a Libation Prayer service, a form of prayer that has been with us many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.

Other scheduled for Black Catholic History Month include:

Nov. 1 All Saints Day - an opportunity to review the lives of the hundred Saints of African descent in the first 300 years of the Church.
Nov. 2 All Souls Day - a time to remember all those African lost to cruel treatment in the Middle Passage crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
Nov. 3 Feast of St. Martin de Porres, the only saint of African descent born in the Western Hemisphere.
Nov. 4 St. Pierius - Head of the Catechetical School in Alexandria, North Africa.
Nov. 7 St. Achilias - Head of religious instruction in Alexandria, North Africa.
Nov. 11 St. Nennas - An Egyptian soldier in Phygia, who fled from persecution and became a hermit.
Nov. 13 The birth of St.Augustine in 354 A.D., the first Doctor of the church Born in Tagaste, North Africa. St. Arcadius and companions - Martyrs, victims of the Arian Kind of the Vandals, Genseric.
Nov. 20 The death of Zumbi of Palmares in Brazil, South America. Founder of a free state for Blacks.
Nov. 21 St. Gelasius - Bishop of Rome and third African Pope (492 - 496), liturgical reformer, who ordered the reception of Communion under both species.
Nov. 25 St. Catherine of Alexandria - Virgin and martyr who suffered martyrdom in Alexandria, Africa. Her relics are said to be kept in the monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai.

For more information on Black Catholic History Month, please contact the Office of Black Catholic Affairs at (973) 497-4340.

 

2000 News Releases