Honoring the International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition – Aug 23
SSND involvement in the pursuit of racial justice
by Kathleen Bonnette
The year 1833 held three significant events for racial justice: first, the inaugural American Anti-Slavery Society convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; second, Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery in all of its territories, including Canada, paving the way for thousands of fugitive slaves from America to seek refuge with their northern neighbors. The third event was the founding of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who were called to “transform the world through education.” In several instances, the SSNDs were pioneers in efforts to end racial injustice within the Church and broader society.
One occasion, in particular, bears recalling: Augustus Tolton, the first African-American priest in the United States, was educated in his youth by SSNDs in Quincy, Illinois. Augustus was a runaway slave, who looked, talked, and acted differently from the other (white, northern) students, and he experienced intense hostility because of it. In 1868, Sister M. Herlinde Sick, SSND, took Augustus under her wing and tutored him, facilitating his academic success. Augustus demonstrated a deep commitment to the faith and strong intellectual aptitude, so the priest in his diocese recommended that he consider becoming a priest. After a long search for a seminary that would accept a black student, Augustus finally enrolled in the Collegiuum Urbanum De Propaganda Fide in Rome in 1880, which led to his ordination in 1886 (Institutional Racism and the Catholic Church, Williams, 2011, p. 61). Sister Herlinde, with the approval of Mother Caroline, went on to found a school for African-American children, “and then took charge of it, and, insofar as she could, struggled to ensure its survival” (“Philemon’s Dilemma,” Thompson, 1985, p. 8; cf. n. 15).
When he returned to Illinois, Fr. Tolton built a thriving, integrated parish with 1500 white and black members, and his sermons drew parishioners from other dioceses – so many, in fact, that a racist “dean” of the diocese cut funds from the parish and declared that Fr. Tolton should no longer minister to white parishioners (Williams, 2011, p. 66). After years of perseverance in the face of this discrimination, Fr. Tolton requested a transfer to Chicago, where he pastored the first black parish in the city, St. Augustine’s Church (ibid., p. 70). Within four years, Fr. Tolton’s congregation had grown from 100 to 600 members, drawing both white and black parishioners, and Fr. Tolton made great efforts to minister to the poor and oppressed of Chicago. Fr. Tolton passed away in 1897 at the age of 43, and his cause for sainthood is now being considered by the Vatican’s theological commission.
It is no secret that the influence of racism has pervaded the practical history of the Catholic Church, despite the Church’s theological convictions that condemn it. The SSND community is part of this institution and so may not have been immune to the insidious effects of racial discrimination – “Nuns and clerics were persons of their time, products of an environment in which racism was almost universal” (Thompson, 1985, p. 13). However, as the author of “Philemon’s Dilemma” describes the work of sisters, such as the SSNDs, who ministered to the black community at a time when it was “neither easy nor popular” (Thompson, 1985, p. 15): Their “initiatives in education, health care and other areas did ameliorate the deprivations suffered by thousands within the minority race. However tentatively or unconsciously, they were laying foundations that would enable at least some Afro-Americans to assume greater control of their own destinies” (ibid).
As we remember the SSND community’s contributions to social justice and celebrate the progress the world has made in upholding human dignity, the Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition is also an opportunity to mourn the fact that racial injustice is historically pervasive and ongoing. Let us, then, with the LCWR and “following in the footsteps of Jesus” reflect upon our conscious and unconscious complicity in unjust practices and become inspired by the pioneering efforts of those before us who struggled to bring justice and peace to all of God’s creatures (LCWR 2018 Recommitment to 2016 Assembly Resolution Systemic Causes of Injustice).
