By Associate Amy Larocque-Romano
Did you know that while there are 10 American Saints and 9 Americans who have been Beatified by the Vatican, none of them are Black?
I only became aware of this three years ago when Associate Dolores Moore shared with the Dismantling Racism Committee that members of her parish, St. Anne’s in Baltimore, had come together to elevate awareness of six Black Americans whose lives exemplify holiness and virtue.
These six are: Mother Mary Lange, Fr Augustus Tolton, Mother Henriette DeLille, Mr. Pierre Toussaint, Ms. Julia Greeley, and Sr Thea Bowman. (click their names to read about their incredible lives).
As noted on St. Anne’s website:
“In the history of our Church, there has never been a saint from African American heritage. Though the history of the African Diaspora is full of figures of integrity, faith, and sacrifice, we have still to see one of our spiritual leaders selected for this higher station. We wish to see this changed in our lifetimes.”
Learning about these six remarkable individuals not only opened my eyes to their impact but also made me confront the racial inequities embedded—often unconsciously—in the history of the Catholic Church.
After 50 years being raised in the Catholic Church, why did I not realize until this time, despite Black Americans making up 10–12% of the U.S. population since 1900, all American saints are white? Through the stories shared by the St. Anne’s committee and other Black Church members and Sisters that the Dismantling Racism Committee engaged, I came to understand how deeply racism has shaped religious experiences. I learned about historical segregation in many churches that once denied Black people entry or relegated them to the back pews.
Through our education and support of the Saintly Six, we have become aware of how the exclusive depiction of holy figures as white subtly reinforces the notion that holiness is tied to whiteness. The absence of Black saints perpetuates unconscious bias within our Church—bias that I, too, have unknowingly been part of. There remains much prayerful work to be done. With this long history of structural racism and unconscious bias, the wounds are deep, and unconscious bias is challenging to unearth, including skepticism about the basis of choices of Churches to close to meet financial obligations. (See Closure of Black Churches in Baltimore)
As we conclude Black History Month, let us pray:
• For the Saintly Six, their causes receive the recognition they deserve on the path to sainthood.
• That God continues to reveal and dismantle our unconscious biases so that we may fully embrace the universal Church as God intends.
