Segregation and religious orders

[HollyDolly]

I guess in the old days women tended to join communities founded by people from their own culture and such.My great aunt Eva joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee.
I'm not sure why she picked them.It might have been since Milwaukee in the old days was primarely German,with also Poles,Czechs,and other such groups.The sisters came to America from Germany and had undoubtly a majority of Germans in the convent,so maybe that's why she felt comfortable there. My great aunts once said that those relatives we had in the convent were mainly Sisters of Charity and School Sisters of Notre Dame.I don't recall any other communities mentioned.Though I'm sure back in Medieval Bavaria ,where my dad's family is from,there may have been some Benedictines or other groups in the family.
It would be fasinating to find out through family history research what communities your ancestors belonged to. My mom was hungarian,and haven't even tried her side yet.Just sticking with my dad's for now.

[she_who_is_not]

[quote name='passionheart' post='1010120' date='Jun 21 2006, 07:53 PM']
Pardon for this interlude

I would have say from personal experience, people think that being black and catholic is an oxymoron. Growing up, I felt as if I was an outsider in this church as if I was some exception. As I was asked in catholic school point blank if I was a Baptist!!

What help me overcome my isolation was reading church history and the finding out about the black saints.The saints taught me that God didn't view me as "less" and with this foundation, I could move along the road with Him.

It is difficult to draw vocations from this isolation not to mention the isolation the during the formation. Yet I believe the time is helping to heal these old wounds and open the foundations.
[/quote]

I've always been fascinated by this. I mean, St. Augustine was an African bishop! My family is from New Orleans and they are many black Catholics there so it never seemed weird. Honestly, in the rural south just to be Catholic is kind of weird. And when I heard all the history about the integration of our local basilica and the "black" Catholic church in town I was kind of astonished. But it was really cool to me that the Church was multi-racial. The Episcopal parishes in my diocese have never really gotten along to integrating so attending the Catholic mass was really exciting in the many races and nationalities represented. I guess it is a very uniquely American experience as I have never experienced racial divisions in Anglican or Catholic churches in Europe. However, I'm sure in other former colonies the experience is similar. But ?
God's Peace,
Amanda

[jkaands]

The Episcopal Church in the USA has traditionally been the church of white money. Just check out the 1928 Prayer Book, the one that the dissident Anglican groups want to keep using.

It's still Archbishop Cranmer (ie King James Bible vintage) English, wonderful in its day, but pretty highfalutin'/ and obsolete-sounding now.

Example: Congregation: " It is meet and right so to do."

Celebrant: "It is very meet, right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to thee, Almighty God..."

The Episcopalians didn't mean it this way, but that's the way it turned out. And the episc. ch was especially powerful in the south.

It doesn't surprise me that African-American Catholics will preferentially worship in a Protestant A-A church than a white Catholic one. In my experiences livingin Atlanta for 18 years, I learned that for African-Americans, race trumps almost everything else.

[quote name='she_who_is_not' post='1010408' date='Jun 22 2006, 11:14 AM']
I've always been fascinated by this. I mean, St. Augustine was an African bishop! My family is from New Orleans and they are many black Catholics there so it never seemed weird. Honestly, in the rural south just to be Catholic is kind of weird. And when I heard all the history about the integration of our local basilica and the "black" Catholic church in town I was kind of astonished. But it was really cool to me that the Church was multi-racial. The Episcopal parishes in my diocese have never really gotten along to integrating so attending the Catholic mass was really exciting in the many races and nationalities represented. I guess it is a very uniquely American experience as I have never experienced racial divisions in Anglican or Catholic churches in Europe. However, I'm sure in other former colonies the experience is similar. But ?
God's Peace,
Amanda
[/quote]