The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, November 28, 1985, Image 2

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The Georgia bulletin, November 28, 1985, Image 2

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 2 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 28, 1985 Commission Seeks Office For Black Apostolate BY GRETCHEN REISER Joining with a call nationally by the county’s 10 black bishops, Atlanta’s Commission for Black Catholic Concerns is seeking an archdiocesan office that focuses upon the need to evangelize in the black community. Father Bruce Wilkinson, priest-secretary of the commis sion, said that after four years as an all volunteer group representing six parishes and the Atlanta University cam pus, the commission is recommending hiring a full-time person to staff an Office for the Black Apostolate. The recommendation, which received the support last week of the archdiocesan Priests’ Council, has been submit ted to Archbishop Thomas Donnellan for consideration. Black Bishops' Statement See Page 1 0 The local recommendation followed on the heels of a strong statement issued in Washington, D.C. by the 10 black bishops to their fellow bishops during the annual bishops’ meeting in November. The black bishops said that the church was afflicted by racism and that there was an urgent need to be met among black Catholics and among blacks who are not members of any church. While the number of black Catholics in the United States is increasing, that is because the figure includes blacks born in Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean who are com ing to the United States, Father Wilkinson said. “The number of American born black Catholics is dropping." This loss fuels the bishops’ “sense of urgency, of saying it’s now or never,” Father Wilkinson said. “We’re losing a number of black Catholics." The situation is all the more urgent, he said, because the black Catholic community proportionally is small to begin with. Looking at the number of black Catholics, the church has to recognize, “we haven’t been successful in the past” in evangelizing in the black community, he said. “Now is Father Bruce Wilkinson the time. If we are going to make a commitment, it’s now or never.” On the national level, the black bishops have asked for an office, tied directly to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is concerned with the needs of black Catholics. Locally they have urged that offices be establish ed in dioceses which have a significant black population; they have also urged leadership training for black Catholics and training of clergy who are staffing black parishes to be sensitive to the needs of black Catholics and to evangeliza tion in the black community. Father Wilkinson said the archdiocese of Atlanta is thir teenth in the country in percentage of blacks within its boundaries; there are approximately one million blacks liv ing within the archdiocese, including 10,000 black Catholics. “With it being such a high percentage, the Church is fac ed with a challenge to make a commitment to witness and evangelize to blacks,” he said. For Atlanta there is an added dimension. “Atlanta represents, at least to blacks, a very important symbol of black achievement, black pride,” he observed, “the history of Atlanta with King, with Atlanta University, with SCLC,” the civil rights organization which fueled the desegregation struggle across the South and into the North. One of the reasons the National Office of Black Catholics held its liturgy and worship conference in Atlanta last summer was because of that history, Father Wilkinson said. An office in the Atlanta archdiocese reaching out to the black community “would be an important sign to black Catholics and to blacks who are not Catholic that the arch diocese is focusing attention” upon the black community. Since it was formed in 1981, the Commission for Black Catholic Concerns has drawn together representatives from parishes with significant black communities and in itiated a number of joint works, including an annual Mass marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and bring ing one of the nation’s black bishops to Atlanta to celebrate the Mass. Representatives from Our Lady of Lourdes, St. An thony’s, St. Paul of the Cross, Blessed Sacrament, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville and Atlanta University make up the commission, which has also sponsored three workshops, including the National Of fice of Black Catholics’ 1985 workshop on worship and liturgy. The commission is now beginning a youth program to bring together young people from the different parishes, Father Wilkinson said. The commission has labored to bring about a greater sense of unity and cooperation among the parishes, since all are small and in need of pooling resources where possible. For example, Father Wilkinson noted, that all the parishes on the CBCC, except Blessed Sacrament, have Catholic schools, despite their relatively small size and limited resources in comparison to other parishes. “Each parish is different, yet there are things that are similar in terms of need,” he said. The commission hopes that an office would not only reach out to unevangelized blacks in Atlanta but also serve as a central resource for black Catholics. The black bishops’ statement was made in Washington, following up on an earlier statement on racism. 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