‘Share Gifts,’ Black Catholics Ur85 hold : Pastoral Letter Issued in Fall Gains Attention in Church

Blacks in the Roman Catholic Church have some enriching “spiritual gifts” to give to it, say its 10 black American bishops. And, the church leaders add, the time has come to “go and tell it on the mountain.”

The bishops say there are abundant signs that the black element of U.S. Catholicism has “come of age” and now has the responsibility “to share the gift of our blackness” with the whole church.

The challenge was set forth in an initially little-noticed but historic pastoral letter by the country’s black Catholic bishops last fall, the first time they have jointly issued such a teaching document.

It did not have a “widespread impact” at first, said Bishop Joseph L. Howze of Biloxi, Miss., but it now is in broader circulation. He said the letter is getting increasing attention because church members are holding workshops and discussions about it.

Strengthened Confidence

Noting that the number of black bishops has increased fivefold since 12 years ago, when he was one of only two of them, Howze said the letter represents strengthened confidence among the church’s black leadership.

Auxiliary Bishop James P. Lyke, of Cleveland, called the letter a “major document in black American Catholic history.”

“In the way of enthusiasm, it’s beginning to get more response,” said Auxiliary Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, of Chicago, who noted that a third printing of the letter has been ordered.

The bishops said they directed the letter specifically to their 1.2 million black Catholic “brothers and sisters,” but emphasized the need for their talents to enhance the entire church, as well as ecumenically.

The overall “black church crosses denominational boundaries and is without a formal structure,” but it is “a reality cherished by many black Christians,” the bishops say.

They said it is a “result of our common experience and history.” Although blacks are loyal to “their respective faith communities,” the bishops said, they “understand and appreciate each other” because of that common heritage.

May Serve as Bridge

“We as black Catholics are in a special position to serve as a bridge with our brothers and sisters of other Christian traditions” and to deepen “awareness of the whole black church,” the bishops said.

They stressed the special contributions that black spirituality can bring into the church-at-large, particularly the emphasis blacks always have put on the Bible, long before the revived attention to it in contemporary Catholicism.

“For our ancestors, the Bible was never a closed book,” the letter says. Even when forbidden in slavery times, “the stories were told and retold in sermons, spirituals and shouts.”

For blacks, the scriptural story of redemption from bondage and travail “is our story,” the letter says, adding:

“No one can understand so well the meaning of the proclamation that Christ has set us free than those who have experienced the denial of freedom. . . . This is the gift we have to share with the whole church.”

The letter underlines special qualities of spirituality that stand out in black faith, terming it simultaneously contemplative, holistic, joyful and communitarian.

By contemplative, “we mean that prayer is spontaneous and pervasive in the black tradition,” the letter says. “Every place is a place for prayer. . . . The sense of God’s presence and power taught our ancestors that no one can run from him and no one need hide from him. . . .

“Black spirituality has taught us what it means to ‘let go’ and to ‘lean on God.’ . . . In an age of technology and human engineering, our spiritual heritage has never let us forget that God takes us each by the hand and leads us in ways we might not understand.”

By being holistic, the letter says black spirituality sees no “divisions between intellect and emotion, spirit and body, action and contemplation, individual and community, sacred and secular. . . .

“In keeping with our African heritage, we are not ashamed of our emotions. For us, the religious experience is an experience of the whole human being, both the feelings and the intellect, the heart as well as the head.”

That attribute can help counter the “dehumanization brought about by a technocratic society,” the letter says. “We can put back the human factor by rediscovering that ‘the world is charged with the grandeur of God’ ” and that “ ‘the whole world is in his hands.’ ”

Concerning the “gift of joy,” the bishops said “the hallmark of black spirituality” is its celebrative aspect.