On Sept. 9, 1984, 10 Black Bishops came together and published a pastoral letter as a testament to the Black community. This pastoral letter was titled What We Have Seen and Heard, and in it the bishops convey that evangelization involves both a call and a response; it is not just about preaching, but also about witnessing.

“For so many of us being Black and Catholic means having come into the Church because education opened the door to evangelization,” said Deacon Royce Winters, the Director of African American Ministries for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. “It means, in an age when Black men and black women were systematically kept out of the priesthood and out of most religious communities, there were those who cared and who came and who worked with us, and for us, and among us, and helped us to help ourselves. And now our Black-American bishops in the name of the Church universal have publicly declared that we as people of faith, as a Catholic people of God, have come of age and it is time for us to be evangelizers of ourselves.”

The date of What We Have Seen and Heard is significant, as Sept. 9 is also the Feast of St. Peter Claver.

“The 10 Black Bishops chose the Feast Day of St. Peter Claver, who called himself, ‘the slave of the slaves forever,’ and is a patron saint of African Americans and of enslaved peoples,” explained Rev. Deacon Winters. “We simply cannot begin a reflection and discussion on the gifts of Black people to the Church, without peering through the lens of an enslaved people in America.”

That is why on Sept. 9, 2024, during a memorial of the Feast of St. Peter Claver Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains at 7 p.m., there will be a special recognition celebrating 40 years of the Pastoral Letter. Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr will preside, and Deacon Winters will serve as the homilist. Deacon Winters said he plans to incorporate text from the Pastoral Letter into his homily.

A community choir from various parishes will serve as ministers of music for the Mass. All are invited to attend with a special invitation for the Knights of St. Peter Claver and the St. Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary.

Deacon Winters said there have been some changes in the Church since What We Have Seen and Heard was published, but there is always the opportunity to do more.

“There are Black Catholics in the U.S. Catholic Church, but as in any group of people, there is vast and diverse expression and experience of what it means to be Black and Catholic,” said Deacon Winters. “This experience—our experience—is directly related to whether we have seized or will seize the opportunities expressed by the 10 Black bishops, ‘…urging Black people of these parishes to take to heart our words of encouragement to spread the message of Christ to our own and to those of other ethnic and racial groups. We urge pastors, co-pastors, pastoral assistants, classroom teachers, and directors of religious education—indeed all who are staff and board members in the diocese—to speak the Good News clearly in the idiom and expression of our people. Let it be the responsibility of every parish council and every parish team to ponder the meaning of Black evangelization and the burden of this pastoral letter in each respective community.’” (Conclusion, What We Have Seen and Heard).

“And now our Black-American bishops in the name of the Church universal have publicly declared that we as people of faith, as a Catholic people of God, have come of age and it is time for us to be evangelizers of ourselves.”

This article appeared in the September 2024 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.