Albertus Charts Path To Black Catholic Sainthood

by LISA REISMAN

There are 11 white Americans and 0 African Americans among the 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

“Zero Black American saints. Zero Americans-of-African-descent saints,” Shingai Chigwedere told a 20-person audience at Albertus Magnus College. “However you want to word it, there are zero.”

That number may soon change, as the local Catholic university shined a light on the six Black Catholics currently being considered for sainthood. Those six were the focus of conversation Wednesday night during the first installment in a series called “Saints Among Us.”

The community event was sponsored by the Eckhart Center and Black Excellence 365, and held at the Albertus Magnus College Campus Center at 831 Winchester Ave.

It featured a wide-ranging examination of sainthood and the byzantine process to get there, film clips on the steps to canonization and Servant of God Julia Greeley, and a lively discussion on what it means to be a saint.

While declaring herself “not an expert, but a person fascinated with this issue,” the Zimbabwe-born Chigwedere, a member of the Dominican Mission and Ministries team and a candidate with the Dominican Sisters of Peace at Albertus, described the process of canonization as “mysterious and laborious.”

It’s one that involves stages from Servant of God to Venerable to Blessed to Saint with proof of miracles, including at least one medical miracle, required at every turn.

It’s long, often lasting decades and even centuries and, with the exception of Mother Teresa, isn’t set in motion until five years after death. Not to mention, as Chigwedere put it, beyond the Pope as final arbiter, “the process is not as transparent as it could be.”

It’s also exorbitant, with costs “ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 to begin the process,” Chigwedere said, including research and documentation for a panel of historians and theologians, as well as reviews of medical events and procedures for the scrutiny of doctors and scientific experts.

“Those expenses alone can present challenges for those worthy people who happen to serve in areas with minimal access to financial resources to fund these types of causes,” she said.

There’s also this. Fundraising campaigns and publicity machines to advance the cause of a saint are seemingly antithetical to the spiritual mission of those involved, Chigwedere agreed.

The cost is steep in another way. “Learning about the exemplary lives of these six inspire us to be the best version of ourselves,” she said. “If we don’t tell their