The Archdiocese of Newark celebrated Black History Month with a special Mass Sunday that included the nation’s only Black cardinal, a special display honoring candidates for Sainthood, and the first liturgical dance ever performed at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the seat of the diocese and New Jersey’s most vaunted Catholic church.
The archbishop of New Jersey’s largest Catholic diocese, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, set the tone by welcoming his special guest from Washington D.C., Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, as “my brother,” before a predominantly Black crowd of hundreds of worshipers, including a contingent from Newark’s Nigerian Catholic community.
Gregory offered a forward-looking message of hope culled from the books of Matthew and Luke to Catholics of color concerned about present-day politics, a reference to President Donald Trump’s moves to end or limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the role of the federal government in education, and other areas.
“Both texts suggest that we must maintain hope, that the present does not, and will not determine the future,” Gregory preached. “This was of critical importance to people of color in the past, as well as those of us living in today’s world.”
“Black history,” he added later, “is as much about tomorrow as it is about yesterday.”
Pope Francis named Gregory the first Black Catholic Cardinal in the United States in 2020, while he was serving as archbishop of Washington, D.C., a position he had held since 2019. Gregory, a longtime advocate for social justice, was also the first Black president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Sunday’s Mass was livestreamed and can be viewed on the diocesan YouTube channel.
The liturgy included a balletic performance by a female dancer in a red dress, amid banners placed just below the church sanctuary with the names of Black candidates for sainthood, including Mother Henriette DeLille, Pierre Toussaint, and Julia Greeley.
The attendees included Michelle Lewis, resident of Union who’s a parishioner at Blessed Sacrament Church of St. Charles in Newark, a predominantly Black parish, though she sometimes attends services at a church closer to home.
Standing amid the honey-stained oak pews before the service, Lewis said she was looking forward to seeing and hearing the nation’s lone Black cardinal.
“It’s always nice to see ourselves in leadership, especially in the current political climate,” said Lewis, 59, a compliance officer in the pharmaceutical industry and a licensed professional counselor. “And I think it’s nice to know that we can all unify under God.”
The program for Sunday’s Mass included an appeal for unity by the Catholic diocese to “our fellow Christians.”
“We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us,” the program read. “We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ’s prayer for us ‘that they may all be one.’ (John: 17:21)”
Vierson Ilg personifies that interdenominational vision.
Ilg, 22, is a Catholic who regularly attends services at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bloomfield, where he lives, though he occasionally attends services at Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
A restaurant worker of Eastern European descent, Ilg was heartened to see such diversity in Sacred Heart’s pews.
“The Catholic Church is very big,” he said. “Very big.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com