By Gretchen Keiser

Parishes of the Atlanta archdiocese are being asked to begin a year of reflection, coinciding with the new Church year, on the black Catholic community and its national plan to evangelize blacks more effectively.

This Advent “request and invitation” from Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, is extended to all parishes, not just those with a significant number of black Catholics.

Calling it a timely moment, the archbishop said The National Black Catholic Pastoral Plan applies in a specific way to north Georgia. “The Catholic Church in north Georgia ought to be called to see itself as an evangelizing church because Catholics are such a small minority of the people.

“I would guess a million African Americans live in north Georgia who do not belong to any church. We need to understand who they are, so we can reach out to them in a real way,a way that will ring true,” he said.

The national plan outlines specific approaches the Church, and the parish, can take to better mirror the culture of African-Americans; to support the black family unit; to recognize strong Catholic inroads in the black community, like inner city Catholic schools; and to consider weaknesses, such as the connection between faith and social justice, between faith and real life issues like drugs, poverty and poor housing, and between the parish and the neighborhood.

Timely because the plan was endorsed by the U.S. bishops as a body in November, the document also represents a grassroots black Catholic statement at a time when the church is being attacked from the outside as unresponsive. The plan was drafted at a national Congress of black Catholics in 1987, following diocesan assemblies. The Atlanta archdiocese had local level meetings and sent delegates to the national Congress.

Copies of the pastoral plan to be given to parish councils will be made available to any pastor requesting them from the archbishop’s office, Archbishop Marino said.

For those who might challenge the setting of black evangelization over other evangelization efforts, the archbishop noted that in the wider Church there are moments when the particular concerns are most vital and pertinent. In 1978, for example, Pope Paul VI’s document Evangeli Nuntiandi, on evangelization, sparked efforts to awaken Catholics to spread their faith in Jesus Christ to others.

In addition to the national emphasis on black Catholics currently, there is also a local renewal in process, the archbishop said. A Commission for Black Catholic Concerns, formed in the early 1980s to give some diocesan recognition to the particular concerns and gifts of the black Catholic community, needs to redefine its mission, he said. The original task for the commission was to study the need for an Office of Black Catholics as part of the archdiocesan structure, and bring it about. That was accomplished in 1986. In the years since, “It has not had a sense of clear direction and purpose,” he said. “This is not in criticism. I really affirm these people who want to serve the Church. But they may not have the best and most refined structure through which to do it.”

A day in May 1990 has been set aside, he said, for the commission, composed of members from seven predominantly black parishes , to refine its mission. He would like it to function as an advisory group to him "on how the resources of the Church, the programs, the priorities of the Church would reflect the input of African Americans and the needs of African Americans.” Like the council of Priests, he said, he would like the group to look at and comment on policies and procedures at the archdiocesan level.

Also underway, the archbishop said, is a plan for the archdiocese to hold a four to five day Revival in February 1991 led by a visiting preacher, Father James Goode, OFM. This Revival would involve black Catholics from throughout the archdiocese, he said, and emphasize the Church as an archdiocese, across parish lines.

The danger exists today, the archbishop said, of a “new congregationalism” where converts joining the Church are not sufficiently evangelized into the whole Church, rather just into one parish. The Revival will take a year of planning, involving Father Goode as well as local people, the archbishop said.

Emphasis on the gifts of minority cultures in the Church is a note that has been struck a number of times since the installation Mass of the archbishop, where Hispanic, Korean, Vietnamese and black and white diversity was emphasized in music, language, prayer and participation.

Asking all parishes to look at The National Black Catholic Pastoral Plan may challenge some people to rethink their priorities, the archbishop said. “People may challenge their own attitudes, their own hearts. If they do, that will bode well.” Majority white parishes might consider what the openness of the parish would be to African Americans; the pastoral plan gives insights into what is important and raises the question how is the parish prepared to evangelize people culturally different.

“Learning opening up, challenging one’s assumptions is a very challenging process,” the archbishop acknowledged. “It might even lead them to pick up something like ‘Brothers And Sisters To Us,’ ”the bishop’s 10-year-old-document on racism in the Church and the world. That document was written not just for the black community ,” Archbishop Marino said. “They may get into ‘Brothers And Sisters To Us.’ People may have to be more courageous, test their assumptions and judgements, let go of their prejudices.”

The year of study, beginning in this Advent 1989, will encourage the parishes to focus upon the plan, while the archbishop and Black Catholic Commission work toward refining its mission and prepare for the 1991 Revival.