The headline of the lead article immediately grabbed my attention. Our Memphis daily newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, shouted in large black letters: The US has no Black Catholic saints. Could a future one be buried in Memphis? (10-17-21)
The picture accompanying the article would have gotten my attention without a headline. A young woman smiling with joy demanded attention. Who was this? What was the source of her radiant joy? How did she make front page news? The article began: She wore African dress, began by singing, preached on what it meant to be Black and Catholic in America—and Sister Thea Bowman ended her speech to the U.S. Catholic Bishops by convincing the bishops to stand and sing with her.
There she was, the first Black member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. But that’s not why she had made the headlines. She was declared “Servant of God” in 2018 and is being considered for canonization. There are presently no black saints in the Catholic Church, though, along with Thea Bowman, there are five others, being considered.
Canonization is the official act of a Christian communion—primarily the Roman Catholic Church—declaring one of its deceased members worthy of exceptional designation and attention as a “servant” of God and entering his or her name in the canon, or authorized list, of that communion’s recognized saints.
What got my immediate attention, and why I am publicly reflecting now, was the bold claim in the headline, The US has no Black Catholic saints.” The stark negativeness of that claim grabbed me. “That’s not true!” I almost spoke loudly. “I know a lot of Catholic saints.” Also, my book, Saints Alive!, was recently published and I’ve written two previous books about saints: Keeping Company with the Saints and Lessons from the Saints.
Though I appreciate what the Catholic Church has sought to do in the process of canonization, it specializes the term “saint” too rigidly. The New Testament, particularly Paul, calls us to be “saints”, and talks about Christ followers as the “company of the saints.” The term saint means different things to different people. The term is alien to our ordinary thoughts of habits or life styles. One of my mentors (saints) speaks this way, a saint is “just a human being released from the love of self and enslaved by the love of God. He is a saint by reason of the totality of his abandonment to God.” Me— A saint? Yes, if whatever capacities you possess are open to use for the purposes of God.
Reading that article about Sister Thea Bowman made me wish I had known her. What love and joy she shared. I will be thrilled to meet her in heaven, no matter how the canonization process has gone here. I believe she will be pleased by my embrace and my simple greeting, “Sister Thea, I’ve been joyfully waiting to meet you, and hear you sing; but know this, even though I don’t know one musical note from another I will probably join you in singing.” Me…a saint? Yes, even me! Yes…and you, if you claim it.