CNA Staff, Feb 12, 2024 / 08:00 am
A Catholic educator from Texas says teaching students about Black Catholic saints and other holy men and women of color “gives not only representation, but new role models for all of our students.”
“Being Catholic is an overarching, cross-racial identity. There is no outgroup in the Catholic Church,” said Kaye Crawford, who founded the site BlackCatholicHistory.com in 2013.
February is Black History Month, and the Church also celebrates Black Catholic History month every November.
Crawford, who has a master’s degree in theology from the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in Louisiana, hosted a webinar for fellow Catholic educators Feb. 1 titled “What Our Students Don’t Know About Black Catholic History.” She told CNA that in her remarks she emphasized the importance of presenting to students a diverse range of Catholic role models, such as the African Pope Victor I, who is believed to have been the first pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek.