Bless our families, heal our land: The legacy of Black Catholic families

By Charlene Howard
Executive Director
Pax Christi USA

For Black History Month 2025, Pax Christi USA will offer a weekly reflection focused on a well-known person or aspect of Black Catholicism in the United States.

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February 2, marked the 36th celebration of the National Day of Prayer for the African American and African Family established in 1989 by Fr. James Goode, OFM, to give thanks to God for Black and African families and to ask for healing for those in need from the sin of racism.

My family history contains accomplishments of Catholic men and women who have served God faithfully and whose legacy I am charged to continue. In the spirit of this year’s theme – Bless our families, heal our land – I share my family’s story in hopes that by doing so, healing through understanding may increase.

Catholicism emanates from my paternal grandmother. A native of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Eleanor V. Wood was the granddaughter of an enslaved Catholic convert. That makes me a fifth generation cradle Catholic. She had a deep devotion to St. Martin de Porres, the Blessed Mother, and charitable service as one of the founders of the St. Martin de Porres Society in DC. 

Sr. Angela White – Subversive Habits by Dr. Shannen Dee Williams notes that Sr. Maria Angela de Porres White desegregated the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in Ohio in 1956. She is my father’s paternal first cousin. My middle name was given in honor of her. After 12 years of religious life, she discerned a call to married life with Bob Davis, brother of Joe Davis, the first African American Marianist brother.

Sr. Eleanor Marie Wedge – Sr. Eleanor Marie, my father’s maternal first cousin, was a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Founded in 1829 by Mother Elizabeth Lange, the Oblates welcomed Sr. Eleanor Marie on September 8, 1952 and she made final vows August 15, 1960. She served in many capacities in the motherhouse where she died last December.

Deacon Robert White, Sr. – Deacon Robert White has faithfully served much of his over 25 year diaconate at St. Martin of Tours Church in Washington, DC. An accomplished preacher and teacher, Deacon Bobby also has a heart for restorative justice and worked for years with returning citizens through the Archdioceses of Washington Office of Prison Ministry. He is Angela White Davis’ nephew and my third cousin.

Charles F. Wood – My father grew up in the original St. Augustine (previously St. Martin de Porres) parish and school in Washington, DC, built by and for Catholics of African descent. He was a draftsman in the US Department of Labor and served as a shop steward in the labor union. His leadership as a coach, usher, and one of the few African American members of the Knights of Columbus in the predominantly white parish which our family attended taught my brother and me that faith and culture were inextricably bound together.

Fr. Charles A. Wood – As the pastor of St. Helen of Hungary parish, my younger brother has been a member of the People of Praise, a charismatic Christian movement, since he was 16 years old; he was the first African American priest to be ordained for the diocese of Portland, OR. In his early life he also served as a journalist with the Catholic Standard, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.

I am fortunate to be a part of a legacy of faithful witness by Catholics in my family who responded to God’s call to serve. I am the product of a kindergarten-through-graduate school Catholic education; have been blessed to send my four children to Catholic schools; have had the great grace to be an advocate for people with intellectual, physical and other needs; was the first African American principal of St. Francis de Sales Catholic School and first African American woman to be campus minister for Archbishop Carroll High School, both in the archdiocese of Washington; served Pax Christi USA as national chair and now as executive director while continuing to be an active and involved parishioner, catechist, retreat leader, and child of God. I am truly a blessed and highly favored child of God.

Reflection

• How has your family cultivated faith, culture and social justice in you? In what ways do you continue that legacy?

Prayer

Prayer for the African American and African Family by Fr. James Goode, OFM

God of Mercy and Love, we place our African American and African Families before You today.

May we be proud of our history and never forget those who paid a great price for our liberation.

Bless us one by one and keep our hearts and minds fixed on higher ground. Help us to live for You and not for ourselves, and may we cherish and proclaim the gift of life.

Bless our parents, guardians and grandparents, relatives and friends. Give us the amazing grace to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Help us, as Your children, to live in such a way that the beauty and greatness of authentic love is reflected in all that we say and do. Give a healing anointing to those less fortunate, especially the motherless, the fatherless, the broken, the sick and the lonely.

Bless our departed family members and friends. May they be led into the light of Your dwelling place where we will never grow old, where we will share the fullness of redemption and shout the victory for all eternity. This we ask in the Precious Name of Jesus, our Savior and Blessed Assurance.

Holy Mary, mother of our families, and St. Joseph, the patron saint of our families, pray for us!