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Work to promote African-American canonisation causes has received a boost with the opening of a resource centre at Xavier University in New Orleans.
The resource centre will be constructed by the university’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies.
It will include compilations and educational exhibits of the lives of African-Americans whose sainthood causes are open.
When formally announcing approval for the new resource centre on Tuesday, Xavier President Reynold Verret said the stories of these African-Americans are important to every Catholic, no matter their background.
“It speaks profoundly…to the resilience of Catholic faith, even as it was oppressed in the 19th and 20th century,” he said.
The resource centre will display information on five black Catholics from the 18th-20th centuries.
It will also include information about St Katharine Drexel who founded Xavier University of Louisiana, and St Kateri Tekakwitha.
Other stories of potential saints will be added as new causes open.
Auxiliary Bishop Fernand Cheri of New Orleans moderated the event, which included numerous speakers including Bishop Perry and advocates for each beatification cause.
The project will also “promote the stories of those saints to the larger Catholic community,” Verret says.
“By this I don’t mean just the black Catholic community … but also the larger Catholic community of any ethnic origin because their examples are powerful examples of living a life of devotion,” he says.
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