October 29, 2024 // FEATURE

Small Victories: Black Catholics and St. Augustine Parish

Deacon Mel Tardy

About 96 years ago, Holy Cross Father George O’Connor caught word of the plight of seven or eight families who had migrated north from Pascagoula, Mississippi. While Catholic, they had yet to be officially welcomed as parishioners at any Catholic Church in South Bend (although St. Joseph Parish on Hill Street did allow them space in a building behind the parish for worship). The sole reason for their plight – for their spiritual homelessness – is that these Catholics happened to be Negroes. From South Bend’s segregated Negro community, these families endured a unique hardship: walking several miles, crossing the river – and passing many fine parishes along the way – in order to celebrate a segregated Mass in a building behind another segregated parish. This story could have ended as many stories of disaffected Catholics end – namely, with them leaving the Catholic Church. Their faith, however, endured due to the small victories of several dedicated folk.

When Father O’Connor was a child in Des Moines, Iowa, his family befriended some neighbors, and they all became close. The O’Connor family happened to be white. Their neighbor family happened to be Black. After his own family perished in a storm, young George was essentially taken in by the neighbors, and he never forgot their kindness. Decades later, when hearing of the racial injustices toward Black Catholic families from Mississippi, he remembered the affection of his former neighbors and knew God was calling him to do something. Having just established a parish for area farmers in Granger – today known as St. Pius X Parish – O’Connor turned the remaining 11 years of his life to establishing a parish home to serve “Negroes in all of South Bend.” The parish, established in 1928, was named after the great Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo, Africa.

From the very beginning, there was severe hardship – for parishioners and pastors. A year after its founding came the Great Depression of 1929. New pastors were known to weep upon surveying the deprivation of the parish. In 1934, when Bishop John Francis Noll was asked to purchase a site for the growing parish, he instead suggested a move to the German parish of St. Mary’s on Taylor Street (which had a school), but significant opposition from that community scuttled the plans. In 1937, the parish finally moved to the west side of South Bend, to a rented, dilapidated storefront property at 1228 W. Washington St. That very first Sunday, it rained, and the roof leaked water onto the altar, ruining the linens. Within months, the parish relocated to 1238 W. Washington St., the former site of Happy Days Tavern, and began intense fundraising for a destination site of its own. On Thursday, November 24, 1940, they broke ground for the current site at 1501 W. Washington St. Bishop Noll dedicated the building on June 15, 1941, stressing in his homily that “the church has no color line.”

In 1942, when Father Vince Thilman became pastor, like many early St. Augustine pastors, he had an evangelizing spirit. He befriended the surrounding African American neighborhood, encouraging folks – Catholic or not – to come to St. Augustine. This led to many baptisms in those years. In his writings, Father Thilman described his ministry at St. Augustine as “a matter of ‘small victories’ and making do with them – someone got a job, someone got a bucket of coal, someone got a place to live. Nothing major. Just small victories.”

Once, the bishop issued a letter to be read at all parishes about the “grave responsibility of parents” to send their kids to Catholic schools. At first, Father Thilman responded by writing, “How Do You Read a Bishop’s Letter?” With collections averaging just $34 a week, how could he afford to send even one parish child to Catholic school? Even so, none of seven nearby Catholic parishes seemed to be accepting Black students. Still, not wanting to disobey his bishop, he was suddenly inspired to appeal to the ultra-competitive spirit of two pastors. He convinced the pastor of St. Joseph Parish that he should admit seven Black Catholic students because the pastor of nearby St. Patrick was considering doing so before St. Joe. He then convinced St. Patrick’s pastor to one-up St. Joe by admitting eight such students. He similarly appealed to two other parishes; so that, within a week, four parishes wound up admitting Black students. Only then did he read the bishop’s letter to his parishioners. Small victories indeed!

In the years to come, many other things took place to buoy the faith of parishioners. Many folks, both Black and white, became involved in the civil rights movement. Forty years after the founding of the parish, a man named Martin Luther King was assassinated. This sparked outrage and a racial reckoning in this nation, including for Black clergy and religious. In April of 1968, half of the nation’s Black priests and some religious brothers caucused for the first time in Detroit to discuss their roles and the role of the Church in the Black community in light of the crises. That led to the formation of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, which was the beginning of the Black Catholic movement in the United States. The movement saw the establishment of other groups such as the National Black Sisters Conference, the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons, and the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, ultimately leading to the reestablishment of the National Black Catholic Congress. 

St. Augustine Parish produced leadership and participants in all of these organizations and activities, including two of the three African American deacons ordained for our diocese (Deacon Francis Hubbard, who founded the soup kitchen at St. Augustine, and Deacon Mel Tardy), two presidents of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (Holy Cross Brother Roy Smith and Deacon Tardy), and many Sunday liturgies where Blacks and whites, parishioners and visitors, were treated to vibrant liturgies and uplifting Gospel music.

In 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus designated November as Black Catholic History Month due to the number of important dates to Catholics of African descent that fell within this month, including:

• The Church celebrates All Saints’ Day on November 1, providing an opportunity to review the lives of hundreds of saints of African descent.

• The Church celebrates All Souls’ Day on November 2, a time to remember the souls of ancestors whose lives of faith endured the suffrage of racism and poverty.

• The Church celebrates the feast of Saint Martin de Porres on November 3, the first Black saint of the Americas (Peru). He is the patron saint of interracial harmony and mixed-race heritage.

• The birth of St. Augustine on November 13, 354 – a Doctor of the Church from North Africa.

• The November 20 death of Zumbi of Palmares in Brazil, founder of a free state for Blacks.

November thus becomes a moment for us to consider the many contributions of Black Catholics to the Church, but also of the pastors and allies who have been integral to many small victories along the way. From the beginning, St. Augustine was a place where both Blacks and whites could embrace as friends and allies, a place where we can truly aspire to be a Church universal where all are welcome.

As we celebrate Black Catholic History Month, St. Augustine has two events of note coming up to mark the occasion. On Sunday, November 3, following the 9:30 a.m. Mass, the teenagers of St. Augustine will offer a short Black Catholic History Month program to educate folks on the parish history as well as the “Saintly Six” African American candidates for sainthood. On Saturday, November 16, there will be a social gathering of Black Catholics at St. Augustine Parish from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for fellowship and dialogue, sponsored by the diocese’s Black Catholic Advisory Board.