Only about 250 of the estimated 37,000 Catholic priests in the United States are African-American, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Only one other diocese beyond the Archdiocese of Washington is currently led by an African-American: Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana.
The majority of Black American adults are Protestant, but about 5 percent are Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center. The Catholic church historically had a smaller presence in the Deep South, which has long been significantly Baptist, but the Black Catholic community grew in places where the church had a stronger presence, like Texas and Louisiana, as well as in the Northeast, as immigrants met and married Black people who had moved there during the Great Migration, Dr. Verret said.
For centuries, Black Catholics were excluded from seminaries and religious orders, and when they were included, they were often given positions with little power and were not allowed to lead African-American parishes, said Shannen Dee Williams, assistant professor of history at Villanova University.
Archbishop Gregory’s appointment is the “culmination of a longstanding Black Catholic freedom struggle against racism, slavery, segregation and exclusion within the U.S. church,” she said.
“The significance of his role as the first Black Archbishop, now Cardinal, of Washington D.C., which was the center of power of the U.S. church’s slaveholding elite, also cannot be overstated,” Dr. Williams said. “His presence, voice and advocacy against racism as a ‘pro-life’ issue in the Church is needed now more than ever.”
Archbishop Gregory’s leadership in Washington was a turning point for a pivotal diocese previously led by Theodore McCarrick and Donald Wuerl, two prelates tarnished by the church sexual abuse crisis.
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