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Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

News of the Diocese

November 22, 2022

Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

The Black Catholic community in the Diocese of Cleveland has been observing Black Catholic History Month with weekly prayer services during November. The services also are in celebration of the diocesan year of Eucharistic Revival.

One last session – at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 – will take place at St. Adalbert/Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish, 2347 E. 83rd St., Cleveland. All are invited for reflection on the glorious mysteries, to pray the rosary and for adoration and benediction.

Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

(The photos in this story are from the Nov. 21 session at St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatima Parish.)

Gathering and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will begin the evening. Sister Jane Nesmith, new director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries, will address the faithful and the minister will invite all to pray and reflect on the theme.

The Black Catholic History Rosary was created in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement.

Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

The joyful mysteries are dedicated to education, social and economic justice. Each of the five mysteries is dedicated to a Black Catholic who is on the path to sainthood: Servant of God Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, OSP who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first African American religious congregation; Venerable Henriette DeLille, SSF a Creole of color and a Catholic nun from New Orleans, Louisiana, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1836 and served as their first mother superior; Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian American philanthropist and former slave; Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, ordained in 1886 was the first known Black Catholic priest in the United States; and Daniel Rudd, a Black Catholic journalist and early Civil Rights leader.

The sorrowful mysteries: dedicated to Black Catholic historical documents, are in thanksgiving for “Brothers and Sisters to us”; “What we have seen and Heard”; “Rise ’n Shine”; “Lead me Guide me!” the Black Catholic hymnal; and for the Office of Cultural Diversity at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

The glorious mysteries are in thanksgiving for the founding of organizations to support Black Catholics: the Black Clergy Caucus; the National Black Sisters Conference; the National Black Seminarians Association; the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators; and the Institute for Black Catholic Studies of Xavier University in Louisiana.

The luminous mysteries are dedicated to Civil Rights causes: the March on Washington; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; the Voting Rights Act of 1965;and to religious orders of men and women who risked their lives in the struggle for Civil Rights.

Faithful to gather for Black Catholic History Rosary and adoration

After praying the rosary and spending time in adoration at the Nov. 21 service hosted by St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Cleveland, Father James Watson, OFM Cap, pastor, led the congregation in the Litany of Peace, the Our Father and he presided at benediction.

A social followed in the parish hall.

Also hosting the rosary and adoration nights were St. Aloysius/St. Agatha Parish, Nov. 10, and Our Lady of Peace Parish, Nov. 15, both in Cleveland.

Click here for more information on the Office of Black Catholic Ministries.

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