1n many ways, the voices of these new and yet so old Catholics can be seen
as calling forth a new witness. We see ourselves as "a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation,stylishplus, God's own people" who work to "declare the
wonderful deeds of him who called (us) out of darkness into his marvelous
light. " Throughout our existence in the United States we were seen as "no
people" but tod a African American Catholics affirm that we "are God's
people"; once little mercy was given us "but now (we) have received mercy"
fronl God on high (1 Peter 2:9-10) . As part of that witness, we recognize the
necessity of exposing the miseducation received by all, of whatever race,
who dwell in this land regarding the contributions of our black and Catholic
foremothers and forefathers to the present status of the United States.
The truth of our hi stor只b oth in this and other adopted lands, and in our
n10therland as weU, tTIust be recovered, for that hi story reveals th e proud and
distin ctive heritage that is ours, one whi ch predates the Greek and Roman
empires as well as Christopher Columbus. Black Catholics must also tell our
story within our church, a story that has as part of its r ichness a cheri shed
role in the life of the church dating back to Africa. For it was our Afri can
foremothers and forefathers who received the teachings of Christ from the
church's earliest beginnings; they who nurtured and sheltered those teachings,
preserving thetTI from the depredations of those who were not believers;
they who received, revitalized, and re-Christianized those teachin gs, too
often distorted at the hands of their wOllld-be masters, in the new lands of
the Ameri cas. Cyprian Davis has written of those early years of Afri can
history:
    Long before Christianity arrived in the Scandinavian countries, at least a
century before St. Patrick evangelized lreland, and over two centuries before
St. Augustine wou ld arrive in Canterbury, and almost seven cen turies before
the conversion of the Poles and the establishment of the kingdom of Poland,
this mountainous Black kingdom (Ethiopia) was a Catholic nation with its
own liturgy .its own spectacular religious art, its own monastic tradition, its
saints, and its own sp irituality.This cherished heritage lnust once again be brought forth, exposed to the light of a new day, and shared with all of the church catholic.
    One can arguably say that the continued presence of black Catholics
in the ROlnan Catholic Church in the United 5tat es serves as a subversive
memory, one that turns all of reality upside down, for it is a memor y of hope
brought forth from pain, of perseverance lnaintained in the face of bloody
opposition, of faith born of tortured struggle.6 It is the memory of a people
forced to bring forth life from conditions conducive only to death, much as
Christ himself was restored to life after a scandalous death. Ours is a memory
of survival against all odds. It is the memory of a people, born in a strange
and often hostile land, paradoxically celebrating Christ 's victory over death
as a sign of God's promise of their eventualliberation froln a harsh servitude
imposed by their fellow Christians. Today, black Catholics are affirming that
we are no longer sojourners, we are no longer just passing through; we are
here to stay and intend to celebrate our presence as only we can.