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January 13, 2023, Rome – Pope Benedict XVI was an “accomplished pianist and scholar” who set a precedent for future popes in his surprising decision to retire from the papacy and leave it to another to lead the Catholic Church.

Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP

That’s how Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP, Dominican Representative to the UN, remembered Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. She was among a group of Catholic Sisters who reflected on his contributions to the Church shortly after he died on December 31, 2022.

Sister Durstyne was quoted in a January 5, 2023, Global Sisters Report article saying she believes that Pope Benedict will be remembered “as a shy scholar who led the church for eight years,” and as a “student of the Word [who] desired to know Jesus intimately.” She noted his three-volume work on Jesus, which he wrote while in retirement.

Like many others, Sister Durstyne pointed to the importance of his decision to retire. “It paves the way for any pope in the future to do likewise,” she said. “Perhaps this is one of the additional gifts Benedict leaves the Church today.”

Read more of Sister Durstyne’s comments and the reflections of other Sisters in the Global Sisters Report article by Chris Herlinger and Dan Stockman.

March 22, 2022, Baltimore, Maryland – As the United States and the world come to grips with the evil of racism, Black Catholics in the United States have been involved in a letter-writing campaign to correct a blatant form of racial discrimination in the Catholic Church. No Black Catholics from the United States have been canonized as saints.
 
A CNN video describes the activism of Ralph E. Moore Jr., a lay man who grew up in an African-American Catholic parish in Baltimore in which all of the priests were white, and no Black images were included in the church. Moore organized the letter-writing campaign to canonize six African Americans. Some 1,500 letters were sent to Pope Francis in December 2021.
 
The six U.S. Black Catholics recommended for canonization are: Servant of God Mother Mary Lange (1794-1882), founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Baltimore, Maryland; Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1863), a philanthropist who, in spite of raising funds for St. Patrick Cathedral in New York, was not allowed to attend the dedication because of his race; Venerable Sister Henriette DeLille (1812-1862), founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans; Servant of God Julia Greeley (c. 1833-1918), of Denver, a philanthropist with special concern for the poor; Venerable Father Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), of Chicago, the first recognized African American priest in the United States; and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990), of Jackson, Mississippi, an educator, evangelist, and social justice activist who spoke out against racism in the Catholic Church.  
 
In the Catholic process of canonization, a Servant of God is one whose cause for canonization has begun. Once a person is recognized by the pope as having lived a life of “heroic virtue,” he or she is named Venerable. The next step, Beatification, requires an arduous investigation into the candidate’s life and writings and one authenticated miracle resulting from prayer to the candidate. Full canonization requires two miracles. 
 
More information on the six candidates for sainthood – as well as on other prominent Black Catholics – can be found on the Black Catholic Project Equity and Inclusion page of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ website. The page is organized by the Toward Communion: Undoing Racism, Embracing Diversity Committee formed in response to the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2016 Enactment on Racism and Diversity.
 

Feature photo: Depicted on a bookmark are African American candidates for sainthood, from left, Father Augustus Tolton, Sister Henriette DeLille, Julia Greeley, Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, and Sister Thea Bowman.