Dilemma for Catholics : Breakaway Black Priest: New Schism?

When Father George Augustus Stallings Jr. defied his cardinal and launched an independent black Catholic congregation early this month, a curious crowd of several thousand turned out to catch the maverick priest’s foot-tapping show of gospel music, swaying dance and spirited preaching.

Three weeks later, most of his brother priests remain on the sidelines, but many parishioners who had come to check out Stallings’ stylish disobedience have stayed. His Imani Temple services have overflowed a rented, 1,500-seat auditorium in a suburb here twice each Sunday.

And the renegade black priest--who compares his tactics with those of Protestant reformer Martin Luther and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.--has succeeded not only in grabbing the attention of the national media. He also has caught the ear of the highest echelons of the U.S. Catholic Church. Its leaders fear that his revolt could provoke the first major exodus from mainstream American Catholicism in nearly 100 years.

Church Sanctions

Cardinal James A. Hickey of Washington has responded to Stallings’ breakaway move by suspending him, revoking his right to say Mass and perform priestly functions. Stallings has ignored the order.

“We’re looking far beyond Imani Temple,” proclaimed an exuberant Stallings last weekend as he formulated plans for a second congregation, one of many he expects will spring up across the country. “Imani Temple has already stirred the conscience of a nation . . . and a whole hierarchy.”

Indeed, the feisty and shrewd 41-year-old priest’s dispute with Hickey and the Archdiocese of Washington goes far beyond the issues of unorthodox African-American liturgy and an unauthorized parish that first brought him to public attention. In fact, he is campaigning for black civil rights and crusading against the “institutional racism” that he says permeates the “Euro-American dominated” Roman Catholic Church in this country.

‘Eurocentric Mind’

“The Eurocentric mind says you either have to be Roman Catholic or no Catholic. The Eurocentric mind says you either have to do it our way or no way,” Stallings thundered to raucous cheers during his sermon this past Sunday.

“But the Afrocentric mind does not say that. It’s not . . . either-or, but both-and. There is no separation. . . . Afrocentric mind says you can have your church and we’ll have our church!” A din of shouting, clapping and pounding of African drums drowned out his final words as Stallings danced about the stage, his white robe trimmed in red, green and black flapping wildly.

In a quieter moment, during an interview in his antique-decorated home in southeast Washington, Stallings explained further.

“It’s more than simply creating an African-American expression of worship,” he said. “We’re talking about self-determination and church structure led by (black) clergy, and our own theology, spirituality and instruction for its membership.”

To critics, that sounds like schism.

But Stallings, 15 years a priest and a “cradle Catholic,” insists that he is within the bounds of legitimate Roman Catholicism and that he will remain there to “challenge from within.”

“History as well as the truth are on our side,” boasts Stallings, never modest in his assessments.

Strong Opposition

Hickey--joined by the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the nation’s 13 black bishops and black priests in the Washington archdiocese--strongly opposes Stallings’ methods. The cardinal has suggested that the Southern-born priest is seeking personal recognition and power above the needs of the black Catholic community.

And, while agreeing with Stallings that racism flaws the nation’s 55-million-member Catholic Church, the black bishops said in a statement that racism “is too serious an issue to be used as a cover for selfish concerns.”

Changes in the church take time, but they are happening, the black bishops say, noting that the number of black Catholics has climbed from 1.3 million to 2 million in the last two years. They point as well to “authentic African-American expressions of Catholicism” that already exist in most black parishes.

Shortly before Hickey suspended Stallings, the cardinal warned him that “by calling for complete autonomy and self-direction, you are . . . demanding that African-American adaptations to the liturgy be self-authenticating. No cultural or ethnic group anywhere in the world can legitimately make that demand. It is a demand which fractures the unity of the church and transforms legitimate diversity into a religion unto itself.”

The black Catholic community is agonizingly split over Stallings and his Imani Temple.

“Sure, it’s painful. They are torn. They are confused,” said Jacqueline Wilson, executive director of the Washington Office of Black Catholics. “There’s a lot of hurt when it divides families.”

Auxiliary Bishop Leonard Olivier, who under Hickey oversees the District of Columbia parishes, said Stallings’ attempt to “work outside the system demeans those working within the church--the honest progress. I see . . . that beginning to happen.”

Pastors of the 33 predominantly black parishes here report no “wholesale defections” to Imani Temple. But the priest who now heads the parish that Stallings served for 12 years acknowledges that the “attractiveness of one charismatic leader cannot be underestimated. . . . I’m in complete awe of George’s gifts. He has a confrontational style that’s almost delightful. . . .

“And it’s a sexy issue. A people’s movement,” added Father Raymond G. East, who succeeded Stallings at St. Teresa of Avila a year ago. Before opening Imani, Stallings spent much of the past year preaching and evangelizing at black churches around the country and earning substantial speaking fees.

Although he will not reveal his current compensation, sources say that between $50,000 and $60,000 has been collected from the congregation and other donors to underwrite the new temple.

At Sunday’s Mass, a former St. Teresa member who preferred not to give his name said he is switching to Imani Temple because “there is participation as well as expression” there.

‘I’ll Be Back’

Shirley Jones of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in southeast Washington said it was “too soon” for her to decide whether to change churches. “But I’ll be back,” she told another visitor. “He had a good sermon--something to feed you in everyday life.”

Stallings’ sermon was entitled, “It’s OK to Be Hip; Just Don’t Lose Your Grip.” About 50 people filled out cards during the three-hour service indicating they wanted to join the congregation.

Among them was Stevenson Samuels, reared in Catholic schools and churches. He said he quit the Catholic Church in 1960 because of segregation at a church social event. “This is like coming home,” he said of Imani Temple.

Almost everyone at the standing-room-only service was black, but many were not Roman Catholic. Stallings, a consummate showman, introduced a Baptist minister and quipped, “How’d you like to be a Catholic priest?” As if on cue, a drum roll punctuated the line and the audience erupted in “Amens” and laughter.

Robert Eaddy, a United Church of Christ seminarian, attended Sunday as “a supporter and well-wisher.” Imani Temple, he said, “is rooted in black tradition and preaching relevant to issues that confront black Americans, such as poverty, racism and double standards. . . .

“I see a whole new movement coming out of this,” Eaddy added, “but in a sense, these are the same things we were saying in the 1960s.”

Stallings, his eyes flashing and an impish grin creeping over his lightly bearded face, has a knack for making his cause sound fresh, not only in church, but whenever he takes his crusade on the road or appears on talk shows. These days, that is often.

“We are authentically black and truly Catholic,” he frequently says, referring to himself in the first person plural.

Then he plunges into his agenda:

- No more closing of inner-city black parochial schools or parishes.

- Development of black vocations among “a sensitive indigenous African-American clergy.”

- Appointment of more black bishops to head dioceses.

- Church investments in black parishes and schools, deposits in black banks, and affirmative action programs in diocesan contracting, purchasing and personnel policies.

Reverberations from Stallings’ “ain’t no stopping us now” campaign have rumbled as far west as San Francisco. The jaunty priest gained a sympathetic hearing and a collection for his building fund during a private meeting last week with 50 Bay Area civic and religious leaders. This week, he is taking his case before a national joint caucus of black Catholic clergy and black nuns in Milwaukee.

In Chicago, white priest Michael L. Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, one of the city’s largest black Catholic parishes, has expressed “100% support” for Stallings. A special African-American Catholic Rite, similar to those in the Ukrainian and other Eastern Rite churches that accept the Roman Catholic sacraments and recognize the Pope, “is long overdue,” he said in a telephone interview.

The only precedent in the United States for an independent Catholic Church movement, according to church historian John Tracy Ellis of Catholic University, is the Polish National Church, founded in Pennsylvania in 1904 by Polish Americans who defied Vatican rules. The 300,000-member body has never been in communion with Rome.

Some of the 13 black bishops feel it is ironic that Stallings chose to strike out on his own just two weeks after a meeting of the nation’s more than 300 bishops that highlighted their concern about evangelizing blacks and their sensitivity to cultural differences.

“Our opportunities as African Americans in the church, while not perfect, have never been more promising,” said Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta, one of two black bishops who heads a diocese.

Marian Davis Fussey, director of religious education at St. Brigid Parish in Los Angeles, where gospel Masses in the black mode are common, agrees.

“We’ve been doing things in great strides here. But it’s like Jacob’s ladder--a rung at a time,” she said. “(Stallings) jumped on the elevator, pushed the button and expects to shoot right to the top.”

It may be a tougher climb than the intrepid priest imagines.

Although he repeatedly reminds questioners that “we have not been excommunicated” and Hickey apparently has no immediate plans to take such action, Stallings is on a thin edge.

If he incorporates Imani Temple as part of the Roman Catholic Church, it will come under the legal ownership and ecclesiastical control of the Archdiocese of Washington. But if he incorporates as a separate entity, he will lose his crucial identity with official Catholicism.

“Cardinal Hickey does not want this to be seen as a schismatic act,” said Father Godfrey Mosley, a black priest who is vice chancellor of the archdiocese. “The cardinal is trying to keep the door open for some kind of reconciliation. . . . And at the same time, Father (Stallings) is very careful to keep within that very thin membrane of the church.

“We have two very strong personalities here. The cardinal isn’t going to back down. And George isn’t either, now that he’s a public figure.”