In my free time, I am the curator and principal researcher of the “Voices of Our People Past and Present – Contributions of Africa and The African Diaspora to the Catholic Church” (Voices Project).
This year, the Voices Project research has focused on the struggles and challenges men from the African diaspora overcame to serve at God’s altar. It has a borrowed title, “God’s Men of Color.” This research reveals the perseverance of one hundred twenty-six (126) men from the African diaspora who overcame great adversity to be ordained priests between 1854 and 1960.
This research timeframe ends seven years before seminaries in the United States were opened to men from the African diaspora. The project captures the bishops who supported them and the bishops who opposed their calling to the priesthood, noting their challenges and struggles to work in the public ministry that God called them to. As we celebrate Black Catholic History Month, I offer some insight into the lives of three men who lived during this historic period.
Father Leonard Aloysius Cunningham, C.S.Sp. (Congregation of the Holy Spirit) Feb. 14, 1923 – Dec. 5, 2010. – Father Cunningham was born in Charleston, S.C., and was ordained in 1950. He may be the first African American priest from South Carolina. His story was not included in the Diocesan Black Catholic history narrative, as he never served as a diocesan priest.
Father Cunningham was the son of Harley and Marion Cunningham. His family belonged to Immaculate Conception Parish. He graduated from Immaculate Conception School in 1942 and attended the Holy Ghost Missionary College at Cornwall Heights, Penn. and later, the Holy Ghost Seminary in Conn. On June 1, 1950, he was ordained at St. Mary’s Seminary, Norwalk, Conn., by Bishop Joseph E. Byrne, C.S.Sp., Vicar Apostolic of Kilimanjaro, Africa. On June 3, 1950, he offered his first Solemn Mass in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston Bishop John J. Russell of Charleston presided and gave the sermon. Father Cunningham was assigned to Holy Ghost parish in Detroit, where he served until 1960.
Father Cunningham returned to South Carolina and became a Trappist Monk at Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, S.C. about 40 miles from Charleston. In 1968, he took a leave of absence for medical reasons. For seven years he celebrated Mass on Sunday at the Charleston Air Force Base and headed the Union Heights Community Center in North Charleston. During his time in the poor and primarily African American community of Union Heights, Father Cunningham assisted with everything from housing to food. In 1977, he ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives on a platform seeking public housing for the people of Union Heights. He lost the election, however his efforts secured public housing for the community.
In 1977, Father Cunningham returned to Mepkin Abbey. He remained there until his death on December 5, 2010. His Mass of Christian burial was on Dec. 9, at the Mepkin Abbey Church. His final place of rest is in the Mepkin Abbey Cemetery, Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, S.C.
Father Martin Maria de Porres Ward, OFM Conv. (March 20, 1918 – June 22, 1999) – Matthias DeWitte Ward was born in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, to an interracial couple, William Henry Ward and Clara Irby. William was a butler for a private family. Matthias was the eldest of 13 children. William and Clara raised their children in the Methodist faith. They later moved their family to Washington, D.C.
He attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, graduating in 1939. During his high school years, he began attending St. Augustine Catholic Church. On May 6, 1937, at the age of 17, Matthias converted to Catholicism. He was confirmed at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on May 30, 1940.
In response to a call to religious life, he entered the seminary of the Salvatorian Fathers in St. Nazianz, Wis., from 1942 to 1945. Due to medical complications, he left the Salvatorian seminary in 1945. In May 1945 he applied for entrance to St. Francis Seminary of the Conventual Franciscans on Staten Island.
In a touching letter to Vocation Director Father Celestine Regnier, O.F.M.Conv., he reveals that he is “colored.” He wrote:
“I received your application blanks but before I have them filled out, Father, I wish to state that I am colored. I do not know if I mentioned this before, but you did not ask nationality. Now kind Father Celestine I would not want to cause an embarrassment on anyone’s part. Dear friend, if you think it not wise to accept me, I shall not in any way feel hurt, but perhaps, it might be your policy not to accept colored just now. Please write very soon to me concerning this Father. I will return the application blanks if you cannot accept me. Now good Father Celestine, don’t feel hurt to tell me the truth please. God bless you dear Franciscans. I am sincerely yours in St. Francis, Matthias Ward.”
Father Celestine responded on June 8, 1945, indicating that, “In the past we have not had the occasion to consider this important point of accepting colored applicants, since none were received.” He also mentioned that recently “we have been working in fields that might promise an open door to colored applicants.”
Upon completing his novitiate, Ward took the religious name of Martin Maria de Porres, in honor of the mulatto Peruvian Dominican friar St. Martin de Porres and the mother of Jesus. He was ordained a priest by Bishop William A. Scully in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, N.Y., on June 4, 1955. Two of his sisters and their families attended his priestly ordination and reception.
Most Catholic bishops in the United States refused to allow colored priests to serve in their dioceses because of their race. Most of the early Negro priests were ordained for religious communities and were steered toward foreign mission work. After ordination, Father Maria de Porres volunteered for the missions in Brazil.
He arrived in Andrelândia in 1956 and worked at the São Boaventura School. He quickly learned Portuguese and became an educator in South America, where he also served as a pastor, chaplain, and vocations director. He later worked in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Goiás.
On June 20, 1999, Father Maria de Porres suffered the symptoms of a heart attack during Mass but continued the liturgy. He suffered a second heart attack en route to Rio de Janeiro the next day and died on June 22, 1999.
Father Stephen L. Theobald (Jan. 5, 1874, to July 12, 1932) – Father Theobald was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, South America. He began his education at a Jesuit College in Georgetown, named St. Stanislaus. There, he received a solid education in the rudiments of the faith and the letters of the church. After finishing his philosophical studies, he transferred to Queen’s College in Guyana, a government-run institution. He was preparing himself for law school. After passing the entrance exam and having a brilliant scholarly record, he secured entrance to Cambridge University in England. He graduated in 1905 with a Law Degree.
After reading the stirring speeches of Archbishop John Ireland of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minn., he discovered his vocation to practice the higher law of God. He wrote to apply for admission to St. Paul archdiocesan seminary. Archbishop Ireland took him under his wing as a special protégé. He was thirty-two when he entered the seminary.
Father Theobald was ordained on June 8, 1910. Upon his ordination, he became the first colored secular (diocesan) priest trained in a United States seminary. His first assignment was to serve as a canon lawyer on the Cathedral Staff. His first parish assignment was as pastor of St. Peter Clavier, a twenty-two year old parish with a mixed white and colored congregation, where he remained for all twenty-two years of his priestly ministry.
Father Theobald had a deep devotion to the parish patron, tracing his origin back to his early days in British Guiana, not far from Cartagena in Colombia, South America, where the saint labored forty years for the negros. He raised enough money to have three white marble altars installed in the sanctuary. The main altar was set off by two high reredos and a large mural depicting St. Peter in his apostolate to the negros in Colombia.
He became known for his leadership, quiet influence, and diplomacy. Because of these characteristics, he was invited to work with Dr. Thomas W. Turner and other negro Catholic leaders on the formation of the Federated Colored Catholics.
In October 1924, he was scheduled to lead a parish mission at St. Monica in Kansas City, Mo. In an article in The Catholic Telegraph, he was identified as one of four Negro priests in the United States, and it stated that this was the first time a Negro priest had ever conducted a mission or any other service in Kansas City. Father Constantine Schaaf, O.F.M., rector of St. Monica, stated that he believed it was the first time a Negro priest had ever been in the city.
At the 1931 Federated Colored Catholics annual convention in St. Louis, Mo., he was chosen to be the celebrant at the opening Mass. Archbishop John Glennon spoke at the Mass on the unity of all races in the Church and referred to the kiss of peace between Father Theobald and Father Edward Kramer, the Deacon of the Mass, as a symbol of peace between white and colored Catholic groups.
Father Theobald passed away on July 12, 1932, after suffering a ruptured appendix on July 8. His funeral was attended by more than one hundred priests and five bishops. More than a thousand mourners were turned away as they endeavored to get one last glimpse of their beloved and humble pastor.
Editor’s Note: Deacon Martin Brown serves multiple parishes in Gary. He will share more information on these individuals and others during a presentation following the Mass in Honor of Black Catholic History Month on Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary.
