Action urged on struggle for equality, crisis of black priesthood

Published: 2003-11-04

METUCHEN, N.J. (CNS) -- The struggle for equality and the crisis of the black priesthood in America still exists today and must be addressed, said Father Anthony Bozeman, guest speaker at the Metuchen Diocese's annual African-American convocation. "I think we need to know where we came from in order to know where we are to go," said Father Bozeman, who emphasized the importance of learning the history of African-American Catholics and the church. "We appreciate the struggle more if we know where we are coming from," he said. "At one point in the 20th century, we, as black Catholics, had to either sit in the back of the church or sit in the balcony. We had to stay there and then process down once others had received Communion, ready to receive our Lord, who tells us we are all equal." "How in the world did we do that?" he asked. "Only by the grace of God do we have black Catholics at all, when in fact the role of blacks in the Catholic Church goes as far back as the Old Testament," added the priest, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Philadelphia.

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