• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Father Donald A. Sterling, pastor of New All Saints Church in Baltimore, is honored for his nearly 50 years of service to the Archdiocese of Baltimore with a special Mass Nov. 20, 2022, celebrated by Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

First African-American priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Father Donald Sterling, set for retirement

December 26, 2022
By Paul McMullen
Special to the Catholic Review
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Retirement

Whether it was responding to a food desert, preparing meals for visitors or providing a meaty sermon on Sunday morning, Father Donald Sterling sustained his community.

Father Sterling, 74, will retire from active ministry as a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore Jan. 1.

Ordained in 1974 as the first African-American priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Father Sterling has served as pastor of New All Saints in Liberty Heights since 1992. His touch is seen in the worship space, the liturgy and the welcome strangers receive.

Father Donald A. Sterling, pastor of New All Saints Church in Baltimore, was honored for his nearly 50 years of service to the Archdiocese of Baltimore with a special Mass Nov. 20, 2022, at New All Saints. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“He is so committed to his ministry, with such a strong sense of spirituality,” said Dr. Thelma Thomas Daley, a parishioner of approximately four decades. “His sermons are like lectures; we learn something that moves us. He’s a priest who is a professor. He’s very collaborative, and likes to relate to people.”

That quality benefitted all of Northwest Baltimore in 2014, when ShopRite of Howard Park opened what was then described as the largest grocery in the city on Liberty Heights Avenue, two blocks from the parish.

“Father Sterling was very involved with community projects,” said Bettye Pettiford, a parishioner since 1974 who is in her second term as parish council president. “With BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development), he worked tirelessly to remove the food desert that surrounded the church.”

Father Sterling was a minority student at the former parish school at St. Ann on Greenmount Avenue and Archbishop Curley High School. He studied for the priesthood at Resurrection College in Kitchener, Canada; St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in Baltimore; and St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park. Cardinal Lawrence Shehan ordained Father Sterling to the priesthood at St. Ann.

Father Sterling served as associate pastor of St. Cecilia in West Baltimore from 1974 until being named administrator in 1980 and then pastor in 1981. He served at St. Cecilia until coming to New All Saints in 1992.

“He went through a lot,” said Bishop Denis J. Madden, emeritus auxiliary for the archdiocese. “Without being belligerent or accusatory, he was able to share, in a helpful way, what it’s like to be the only Black man in a room.

Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., was on hand to celebrate the impending retirement of Father Donald A. Sterling, pastor of New All Saints Church in Liberty Heights. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“Father Don would tell us how it (a proposed action) would affect the (Black) community. I remember one task force saying, ‘We’re going to do this.’ He said, ‘Have you asked them?’ He offered observations that seemed spot on.”

Bishop Madden first got to know him through the late Monsignor Damien Nalepa, who began a 30-year stint at St. Gregory the Great while Father Sterling was the pastor of St. Cecilia. In addition to social justice, the two shared an interest in seeing the world.

Father Sterling’s travels were manifested in the rectory kitchen at New All Saints, where meetings were often preceded by a meal of his creation.

Father Sterling oversaw a reworking of the rectory space, and renovations to the church continued after the parish centennial in 2012.

“He has a vision of where the Catholic Church and the African American community should be, and worked hard to achieve that,” Pettiford said.

In 2018, new windows were installed in the church, with half of them depicting saints from the Americas, such as St. Junipero Serra and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, and including one hopeful, Mother Mary Lange.

“I wanted to reflect the cultural and racial diversity that is part of our history,” Father Sterling told the Review. “There are people we may know by name, but you never see them anywhere.”

Aesthetics involved input from others, among them Adam Scott, another member of the parish council.

“The laity should be involved in every level of church life,” Father Sterling told the Review in 2013. “The more involved church members are, the stronger your parishes are.”

Bishop Madden noted that Father Sterling’s preaching kept him in demand at conferences outside Baltimore. His parishioners experienced his singing in a solo offering of the spiritual, “I’ve Decided to Make Jesus My Choice,” but his ministry extended well beyond the pulpit. When Daley’s husband, Gilbert, took ill, one of the first calls she made was to Father Sterling.

“I doubt I could have gotten through it (his death) without his help,” said Daley, whose teaching credentials include Loyola University Maryland. “Here I am, a professional counselor, yet I called Father Sterling for help.” Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., urban vicar, celebrated a Nov. 20 Mass at New All Saints in Father Sterling’s honor. During the celebration, the archdiocesan Office of Black Catholic Ministries and the Oblate Sisters of Providence presented Father Sterling with a lithograph of “He Ain’t Heavy,” a painting by the prominent Black artist, Gilbert Young.

Read More Local News

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints

Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day

Sister Mary Kathleen Marie Saffa dies at 86

Trainor to retire from post as Mount St. Mary’s president in 2024

Theater program hits new highs at Immaculate Conception

Copyright © 2022 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Paul McMullen

Paul McMullen, a resident of Austin, Texas, served as the managing editor of the Catholic Review from 2008 until his retirement in September 2021.

The author of two books, Paul has been involved in local media since age 12, when he began delivering The News American to 80 homes in his neighborhood. He began his journalism career with the Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, and spent more than 25 years as a sports writer for The Sun in Baltimore. His favorite writing assignments have included the Summer Olympics in Australia and Greece, the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and “Feet for Francis,” a 2015 walking pilgrimage from the Baltimore Basilica to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day
  • Hold the tuna casserole; pass the crab cake this Lent
  • Theater program hits new highs at Immaculate Conception
  • Trainor to retire from post as Mount St. Mary’s president in 2024
  • Movie Review: ’65’

| Latest Local News |

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints

Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day

| Latest World News |

Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm

Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love, pope says

Welcoming migrants, refugees is first step toward peace, pope says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm
  • Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love, pope says
  • Question Corner: Jesus became man so I could become God?
  • Papa: Acoger a migrantes y refugiados es el primer paso hacia la paz
  • Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81
  • Welcoming migrants, refugees is first step toward peace, pope says
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Good politics brings people together, generates care for others, pope says
  • Wyoming becomes first state to ban abortion pills

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED