DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — The congregation at Holy Cross Catholic Church is an anomaly in one sense: a historically Black congregation led by the Rev. Pius Wekesa, one of just 250 or so Black priests in the United States.
Many Black Catholics, a minority within a minority, rarely see a Black priest celebrate Mass at their church. Founded by the Jesuit order in 1939, Holy Cross has about 400 families, 70% of whom are Black. But it never had a Black priest before Wekesa became pastor last July.
Wekesa, and some in his congregation, are typical of Black Catholics in one way: They are immigrants.
Black Catholics, at about 3 million total, comprise only 6% of U.S. Blacks, most of whom are Protestant. And they’re an even smaller share of U.S. Catholics — 4%, according to a new analysis of Black Catholics published Tuesday (March 15) by Pew Research.
The study, which included 562 Black Catholics among 8,660 Black adults, found that most Black Catholics worship in predominantly white churches. Only about 25% of Black Catholics attend churches where the majority of congregants are also Black.
The Catholic Church has 798 predominantly African American congregations across the country, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Most of those are on the East Coast and in the South.
The study, originally fielded in 2019 and 2020 , found that 68% of Black Catholics are U.S.-born. A growing number — about 12% — are, like Wekesa, from Africa. The rest were born in the Caribbean (11%) or in other parts of the Americas (5%).
Wekesa, 59, was ordained a priest in his native Kenya and came to the Diocese of Raleigh in 2005 to work with the growing numbers of Swahili-speaking Catholics.
The Diocese of Raleigh, which spans the 54 easternmost counties of the state, has 12 Black priests.
The bigger reason why Black Catholics are such a small population is that they are the least likely of all Catholics to remain in the fold. While Catholics generally are prone to religious switching, Black Catholics have the highest rates. Only 54% of U.S. Black Catholics who were raised in the faith remain so as adults (compared with 61% of white Catholics and 68% of Hispanic Catholics.)
Some Black Catholics explain this number by pointing out that they tend to be more liberal than their mostly white Catholic counterparts when it comes to immigration and race (possibly because there are more immigrants among Black Catholics than among white Catholics).
Most Black Catholics say that opposing racism is important to how they think about being Christian. About three-quarters of Black Catholics (77%) say opposition to racism is essential to what it means to be a Christian.
Black Catholics are also more liberal on abortion and homosexuality: 71% said abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 78% said homosexuality should be accepted in society.
