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Touchy Subject


mulls

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ok so i guess my experience is an east coast phenomena

No its not, It happens here in California, but catholicism here is predominately hispanic not white, so I guess it does really depend on which part of the country your in. But I do believe the history of Black Americans has a lot to do with the subject.

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Well, in B'ham, we had a good number of blacks in our parish, and we had an amesome black priest.

I must interject though that the protestant church I went to had zero blacks (except the ones that cleaned the building). So for me it was a big change, and a change I heartily welcomed.

Here in Fort Walton, we have an even more diverse parish, with many many oriental, spanish, mexican, black, jamaican, indian, etc. people. Oh, and our bishop is black. Apparently there is a high number of blacks in our diocese.

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The reason there are not many black cathloics goes back to american history.

Most african americans are decendents of slaves, with upper class protestant white masters. Yes upper class, only about 20-25% of the population of the slave states owned slaves.

These masters often shared thier religion with them seeing it as a way to stabalize them and keep them under control.

Catholics in this country were of very small #'s in the early colonies, except for a few spanish coloinies and mexican ones.

The form of Christianity that blacks came in contact with more often was the a protestant form around the 1800's. We all know that religion is something that usally stays as a family heritage. Thus today many blacks that are christian are protestant.

Well that my theroy anyway. :mellow:

Lets not forget they used a protestant bible to teach them english and how to read.

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well, i would have to say my parish is pre dominately white, with some Native Americans. But there is another parish here (actually two) that serve more minorities.

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well, i would have to say my parish is pre dominately white, with some Native Americans. But there is another parish here (actually two) that serve more minorities.

how many minorities are there in Montana anyhow?

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most of the minorities are Native American, but it depends on where in Montana you're at. In my town, we have a lot of N.A. and hispanics. In other town, a lot of people from (I'm not sure) China? It's a foreign country that they're from I just can't think of it. We do have a lot of reservations in Montana, so it's mainly Native Americans.

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ummm, Martin de Porres was not African American. He was African Peruvian . . . unless you're somehow using American to mean South American.

I was.

Here's a thought...

If in fact the religion of most blacks in America was handed down by their slave masters, isn't it a GOOD thing that there are not a lot of Black Catholics?

Protestant slave masters = black Protestants

Catholic slave masters = black Catholics

More black Protestants than black Catholics = more Protestant slave masters than Catholic slave masters

:gradtalk: I'm smert.

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Dust,

You are correct but because I like to be as historically accurate as possible...

It cost money to own slaves. Most Catholics were not rich in the early days of Amercia. So, I wouldn't stress the point too much that we weren't slave owners. However, if you were to point out that Catholic institutions were years ahead on integration in the 40's and 50's, you would be absolutely correct.

peace...

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Here in Fort Walton, we have an even more diverse parish, with many many oriental, spanish, mexican, black, jamaican, indian, etc. people. Oh, and our bishop is black. Apparently there is a high number of blacks in our diocese.

You mean Fort Walton, Florida? That's where my youth minister is from!

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Mulls,

There is a USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) Committee on African American Catholics which focuses on ministry, evangelization, and ministry in the African American community (http://www.usccb.org/saac/index.htm).

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