Ever since I heard that Archbishop William E. Lori named recently ordained Deacon Darron Woodus as his Delegate for Black Catholics, I’ve been excited about the whole concept of a delegate.
I especially like the idea of select Catholics in every parish becoming what I’d call “delegates for Catholic fellowship.” I’ll explain shortly.
Some may never meet Deacon Woodus, but they’d be sharing his mission, which includes helping to meet the charges laid out in Archbishop Lori’s pastoral reflections “The Enduring Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence” and “The Journey to Racial Justice: Repentance, Healing and Action.”
In “The Enduring Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence,” written in 2018, Archbishop Lori cites Dr. King’s philosophy of “active nonviolence” as an essential, applied theology to combat society’s fragmentations, violence and the sin of racism.
He urges all Catholics to “continue forming cooperative relationships among parishes. When urban, suburban and rural parishes form cooperative and friendly relationships, many barriers are broken down.
“When we leave our comfort zone to go to the so-called peripheries, we make a discovery,” he continues. “People who live on the peripheries are not peripheral; they are real human beings, each with a story, and our encounters with them often bring rich and unimagined gifts to our lives.”
In “The Journey to Racial Justice: Repentance, Healing, and Action,” the archbishop’s follow-up letter one year later, he further reflects upon the sin of racism past and present and offers a framework for systemic change and conversion within the church.
Archbishop Lori asks, “Have we (as Catholics) lapsed, like our society at large, into a situation of de facto segregation? If we can still easily identify the ‘Black’ and ‘white’ parishes of our archdiocese, have we truly accomplished the goal of racial equity we claim to embrace?
“Most importantly, as we gather together at the table of the Lord to share in our common faith in the presence of His Body and Blood, are we certain that those who look or speak differently than us feel welcomed as fellow worshipers?”
So here’s my idea for a possible plan: With the archbishop’s blessing, pastors in each parish could invite members to form a rotating mini delegation, perhaps eight to 10 people, willing once a month or periodically to travel to Mass at another parish ideally with a different racial makeup.
Right before Mass starts at the visited parish, the celebrant, who has been informed ahead of time, could welcome guests, explain why they’re there and invite all to mingle briefly after Mass over coffee and doughnuts.
Ordinary folks – parents, children, teens, single adults, longtime and returning Catholics, pastoral team members and more – could tell their names, where they grew up, share aspirations, wish each other well, go home, then repeat the process with the same or a different set of delegates at a set time weeks later.
The simpler the process, the better.
In a recent homily, Monsignor Richard J. Bozzelli, pastor of the St. Bernardine and St. Peter Claver campuses in Baltimore, where Deacon Woodus has been assigned, said that discipleship is as hard as it is rewarding, that it is about people, not just ideas. Every person encountered presents an opportunity to meet Christ.
He pointed to Matthew 10:37-42 where Jesus says whoever “gives only a cup of water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
Giving a cup of water or coffee and doughnuts – they’re all the same to me: fellowship.
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