NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTRY: I discovered the Eucharist in my college chapel during my senior year. The chapel is small and relatively simple, a huge difference from the stone Gothic parish church in town, with its deep organ and bell tower. The post-Vatican II chapel is in a semicircle around the altar, with a metal tabernacle in a small alcove on the side. Red carpet lines the chapel, and stained-glass windows with semi-accurate paintings of saints (St. Therese of Lisieux looks about sixty years old) fill the church. On the last day of every term, right before finals, the Catholic student center hosts an all-night adoration, where the monstrance is illuminated at the center of the darkened chapel, and students filter in and out for prayer and worship. It was there I realized the goodness of the Eucharist. Read More

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY: A parish church in St. Louis that primarily serves the African American community was announced Feb. 24 as a recipient of a preservation grant to support the restoration of the historic building’s stained-glass windows. St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church, known in the community as “The Rock” because of the church building’s rock-hewn appearance, was one of 30 Black churches throughout the country chosen to receive a grant this year from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, an independent nonprofit organization. Read More

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY - A fourth-century monk who became a revered saint in both the east and west will be the subject of a new film told through the lens of a modern-day gangland drama. “Moses the Black” is scheduled to start production later this year, according to Simeon Faith, an equity film fund managed by Simeon Entertainment that focuses on financing and producing faith-based films with worldwide studio-level distribution. The announcement was made March 13 that Omar Epps, Chukwudi Iwuji, and rappers Wiz Khalifa and Quavo will star in the film. Read More

A Black American priest who left his country because prejudice wouldn’t allow him to practice his ministry in the United States is ironically the seventh and most recent African American to be considered for beatification. The Servant of God, born in 1918 as Matthias DeWitte Ward in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood to an interracial couple, grew up as a Methodist. During his childhood, he, his parents and 11 siblings moved to Washington, D.C., where he experienced prejudice from both whites and Blacks. Read More

By Vatican News: Pope Francis at Rome's Gemelli Hospital continues to receive high-flow oxygen therapy during the day and non-invasive mechanical ventilation at night. Also today he followed the spiritual exercises taking place at the Vatican. Physical and respiratory therapy continue. Read More

Deviating from the traditional music often heard during the weekly televised Mass from Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral, in Phoenix, the Umoja Gospel Youth Choir from St. Josephine Bakhita Mission Parish led attendees and viewers in worship, singing music derived from African-American spirituals as part of the Diocese of Phoenix’s first-ever Black History Month Mass celebrated on Feb. 9. “Enslaved people denied earthly freedom still found the liberation in the Gospel. Their spiritual songs like ‘Wade in the Water’ and ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot,’ and our closing song today, ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,’ they were not just points of music,” said Bishop John Dolan in his homily. “They were prayers, affirmations of faith and cries of justice.” Read More

OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- An Oak Park church is honoring the life and legacy of a former Chicago priest during Black History Month. Father Augustus Tolton was the first Black Catholic priest in the United States. ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch Saint Giles Catholic Church showed a documentary Sunday named "Tolton Speaks: The Life and Letters of Father Augustus Tolton." Father Tolton was born a slave. He was a devout Catholic, and eventually became an ordained priest. Read More

On a bright but cold Saturday morning, Catholics from across The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington gathered at the Church of the Incarnation in Washington, D.C., for the annual Mass celebrating Black History Month. The church’s rainbow-colored stained-glass windows cast multicolored light across the sanctuary, while images of seven U.S. Black Catholics on the path to sainthood – known as the “Saintly Seven” – were displayed at the altar. Read More