Visit of Pope Benedict Raises Issues of Concern to Black Catholics - and to Barack Obama

The visit to the United States of Pope Benedict XVI is drawing more attention than has been the case with any other head of state or religion in recent memory.

Journalists, in countless articles and sidebars in mainstream papers up and down the East Coast, have spent the week re-introducing non-Catholics to the tenets of the faith claiming to be the oldest of Christianity.

And pundits and poobahs have been saying in those very same papers that the Democratic candidates, particularly Barack Obama, had better pay attention to the power of the Catholic vote.

[By the way, for Brooklyn Ron's personal confessions about his own Catholic past, and of his feelings about the "one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church," please visit that interesting new web site, The Root, which was started by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, in an association with the Washington Post.]

[And for previous Brooklyn Ron posts having to do with Catholicism, please see one maintaining that Catholics' supposed preference for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is based on race, even though columnists are not acknowledging that.

And please see another about a priest from a Brooklyn parish who just a couple of weeks ago became a bishop in Ghana. We will brag here that this latter post has an interesting slide show with accompanying African music.]

Comments

[Bill Brown]

Hi Ron:

I too stumbled across your article and I immediately had a sense of deja vu. You may be BrooklynRon, but I am HarlemBill. Brooklyn was a place few of us Harmlemnites ventured back in the 1960s, since we had everything in the world right in Manhattan and there was no need to go to Brooklyn or any other borough [smile].

I did go to the Bronx for education, namely Cardinal Hayes High School, the breeding ground for untold numbers of young Black men who went on to successful lives thanks to a good Catholic education.

I became a Hayes man after attending Catholic grammar school [St. Joseph, St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Charles Borromeo], where I learned a lot and never saw a priest sexually abuse a child. Like you I was enamored with the Catholic religion, even to the point of entertaining the notion of becoming a priest.

Like you I was good at track and field, but because of racism I didn't get the college scholarship to Manhattan College that my white teammate [who couldn't beat me highjumping the best day of his life] was awarded. So I had to go into the United States Marine Corps or hang out on the corner like a number of the guys I grew up with.

Catholicsm stayed with me for a number of years, but after traveling around the world, I kinda pushed it away, over the very issues you mentioned, including marriage, divorce and other ecclesiastical issues.

So I tried Buddishm, Baptist, you name it, anything but Catholicism. It wasn't until my mother - a devout Catholic from the old school all of her life - passed away that I started going to her old parish. Like you, I went to Mass regularly, but never took communion.

Last week, Pope Benedict came to Washington, DC [where I now reside], and inspired by his presence, I went to confession right there in Nationals Stadium where they had priests in a tent hearing confessions eye to eye. And, then I went to communion, something I hadn't done in 20 years.

Bottom line: As I get older and nearer to my meeting with the Master I find that I'm getting a lot of solace in the Catholic church, a church I had to recently defend against a former fiance who refused to acknowledge us as Christians, and called us "idol worshipers" [that was the straw that caused me to end the engagement!] It's not perfect but it works for me. Just wanted you to know us Harlem boys went through the same things as you Brooklyn boys.

Take care of yourself, and God bless you.

[John]

Hi Ron,

I stumbled across your article tonight. I'm from Brooklyn, and moved to the West Coast a long time ago. I am a resigned Catholic priest. I must say I enjoyed you relating your journey back to God, although I am sure you were never really away. I remember the IRT stop on President Street for "Prep" on my way to the inner city to attend "Loughlin", back in '53. That is a long time ago, but I remember fondly my days
growing up 'at home'.

God bless us all.