Over the past several months, the local media has drawn a great deal of attention to the inequality in the quality of education offered in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia. We are blessed to be involved in supporting a school in our sister parish – St. Martin de Porres – that helps over 500 children in one of the most challenging areas of the city to receive a high quality education. This inequality in educational opportunity has a long history throughout our country and next week, we have the opportunity to contribute to addressing this ongoing problem as we participate in the annual Collection for the Black and Indian Missions. Established in 1884, the Black and Indian Mission Collection responds to the concern of the Catholic Church throughout our nation for evangelizing the Black, Native American and Indigenous peoples of the United States of America. Your contribution to this fund assists clergy, religious and lay catechists, parishes, schools and catechetical centers in their ongoing efforts to evangelize these people – so often forgotten by the rest of our society.
This important ministry within our Church has an interesting local connection; allow me to share it with you. I imagine you’re familiar with the story of St. Katharine Drexel, our first Philadelphia-born person to be declared a saint. She was the daughter of Francis A. Drexel, a wealthy international banker. Born in 1858, she lived a very comfortable life as a child and young woman. She was well educated and travelled extensively around the country with her family in their private railroad car. A book that she read, Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor, brought to her attention the plight of the American Indians. So, while she was on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend, Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” Her initial response to his answer was to become so distraught that she became ill.
Once home, however, she visited the Dakotas, met Red Cloud, the Sioux chief, and began a systematic aid program to Indian missions. In 1889, she renounced her fortune and dedicated her life to care for the American Indians and African Americans. By 1942, she had a system of 50 missions for Indians in 16 states and Catholic schools for African Americans in 13 states. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in the United States for blacks.
I present her inspirational life for your reflection as we prepare, once again, for this annual collection, which we will take up next weekend. Your support impacts the daily pastoral work of our bishops, consecrated religious men and women, and lay leaders who minister on Indian reservations, urban centers, Black Catholic and Alaskan Native parishes, and mission schools throughout the country. And locally, a number of parishes in our Archdiocese – including, St. Martin de Porres, our sister parish – are able to fund pastoral outreach and evangelization programs. Every year, about $9 million is collected from Catholics across the U.S.A. It is only through your continued generosity to this collection that such efforts can be realized.
The Black and Indian Mission Office is comprised of three distinct but inter-related organizations, each with its own purpose and history, but all seeking to fulfill the one mission to three mission outreaches in our country. The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions was established in 1874 to evangelize the American Indians and to advocate for better treatment of these earlier settlers of our land. The Commission for Catholic Missions, founded in 1884, focused on serving the Native Americans in Alaska. And, the Catholic NegroAmerican Mission Board was established in 1907 to evangelize and serve the African American community in our country. By 1980, these three separate organizations, all founded by the Catholic bishops of the United States, were combined into the Black and Indian Mission Office which cooperates with local diocesan communities to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and respond to real and pressing needs of these three communities.
After his resurrection, Jesus commanded his followers to “go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). Pope Francis reminds us regularly that everyone is called – by their baptism – to share in the essential work of evangelization. As we begin another year of evangelization in the Black Catholic, Native American and Alaskan Native communities, everyone is called to make a difference by offering their prayers and financial support. As you have done in the past, I encourage you to be generous to this annual collection.