November 4, 2025 // Diocese

St. Augustine Parish Marks ‘A Season of Saints’

Ann Carey

Community members and guests of St. Augustine Parish in South Bend marked All Saints’ Day with a joyous celebration that also noted the beginning of National Black Catholic History Month and included a focus on hope – the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Titled “A Season for Saints! How to be Pilgrims of Hope and Holiness in Our World Today,” the program, which was held at the parish on Saturday, November 1, welcomed parishioners and guests to a time of inspiration and participation. The day began with song, an invocation of ancestors, readings from Scripture, and praise dance, followed by a keynote address, small group discussions, brunch, and the conferral of an award on an outstanding Black Catholic. The event concluded with Mass for All Saints’ Day and a reception.

The president of the National Black Clergy Caucus, Father Kareem Smith of the Archdiocese of New York, began his keynote by singing the African American spiritual “Steal Away to Jesus.” The last line of the refrain is “I ain’t got long to stay here.” He said the hymn reminds us that we have “precious time” to do the will of God and glorify Him because “our time here [on earth] is short, and the mission is great.”

Father Smith reminded the attendees that we must remember not only “who we are, but whose we are.”

Catholics esteem the saints, Father Smith continued, but we often forget that “sanctity is not a relic of the past,” for saints are not just marble statues but are also contemporary people walking among us, as well as souls in heaven who are not canonized but are with God because of their virtuous lives.

The history of Black Catholics is not found at Ellis Island, he explained, but rather lies in sunken slave ships. Yet, that history is “our own story of salvation,” and “when the African slaves gathered in hushed harbors to pray, they were already pilgrims of hope, believing in a freedom they could not yet see.”

Hope is to walk with the assurance that “God has not abandoned His people,” Father Smith advised, for there will never be a post-Christian era because “Jesus is alive.”

Honoring Brother Roy Smith

After the keynote, the inaugural Hope and Holiness Award was presented to Holy Cross Brother Roy Smith by the Black Catholic Advisory Board of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Bestowing the award was board member Wendy Summers, who said that the award was established “to highlight modern-day examples of holiness and hope regarding Black Catholic evangelization, pastoral care, education, history, and vocation.”

Summers said that the board wanted to honor people who have made a “sustained contribution to the faith by living the Gospel message and active involvement in a variety of Church and community service projects,” while also demonstrating compassion and service throughout a long period of time.

Brother Roy professed vows at the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1962. Currently the development director for the Midwest Province of Holy Cross, Brother Roy’s professional career was as a social worker at a variety of Catholic institutions in the Midwest, including Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. He is a past president of the National Catholic Clergy Caucus and a founding member of the diocesan Black Catholic Advisory Board. He also has been a tireless worker for civil rights and evangelization in this country and in Africa.

Summers said that Brother Roy answered the call to religious life and has the heart of a servant, living a life of humility and always putting others’ interests before his own. She said that the plaque will hang in St. Augustine’s Community Room to highlight a member of their community who has answered the call to holy living.

The day concluded with the All Saints’ Day Mass celebrated by St. Augustine pastor Father Bill Schooler and concelebrated by Father Smith and Father Augustine Onuoha, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in South Bend. A small section of the parish gospel choir provided the music.

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“When the African slaves gathered in hushed harbors to pray, they were already pilgrims of hope, believing in a freedom they could not yet see.”

—Father Kareem Smith

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Goals for the Celebration

The celebration was sponsored by the diocesan Black Catholic Advisory Board and was prepared by Deacon Mel Tardy, administrator of St. Augustine Parish, and a committee led by his wife, Annie Tardy. Deacon Tardy has been a member of St. Augustine Parish since 1988, when he was studying for his master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame. He was ordained a deacon in 2011. He told Today’s Catholic before the event that he had three hopes for the celebration:

First, in a “season of division,” he hoped to gather people through the “unifying Gospel of agapeic love and mercy” and remind people that the Catholic Church is universal and welcomes all people. He also hoped to celebrate the history of God’s hand at work in the African American community and help people understand that the Church is more truly universal “when the hour of worship on Sunday is no longer the most segregated hour in America.”

Second, Deacon Tardy wanted to remind people that God has been uniquely present in the history and culture of African American Catholics, as He has been in other ethnic and national groups. Each group has particular gifts, and “we are better as a Church when we use all the gifts for healing and building up the Body of Christ,” he said, noting that one gift passed along by ancestors to African American Catholics “is the gift to have joy in the midst of sorrow; to endure in faith even when it seems all hope is lost.”

Third, and lastly, Deacon Tardy said he wanted to showcase “exemplars of hope and holiness from both history and the modern day,” hence the award to Brother Roy. He explained that he hoped people would see that “it is not a season for division and despair but a season for God to better reveal the saints already among us. … We want people to know that, even today, it is possible – indeed, necessary – to hold onto hope and holiness. It is possible to hold fast to joy!”