US Embassy to Holy See marks Black History Month

February is Black History Month in the United States.

All throughout the month, events are organized to set the heritage, the achievements and contributions of African-Americans to American and world society.

This year, the US Embassy to the Holy See invited Sr. Jamie T Phelps, a Dominican and Katharine Drexel Professor of Systematic Theology at Xavier University of Lousiana, to speak about the experience of being black and Catholic in America.

“[US Ambassador to the Holy See] Miguel [Diaz] wants to familiarize the broader Catholic Church with Catholicism in the United States, and the kinds of particular celebrations that we emphasize, which have cultural implications,” explained Sr. Phelps in an interview with Vatican Radio’s Chris Altieri on Thursday, ahead of her scheduled lecture. “What we do in this month,” she said, “is to try to celebrate what we call the gift of blackness: the gift of blackness that we give to the Church, that we give to the world.”

“Black people are deeply religious,” said Sr. Phelps, “because they are truly an African people, and African people, unlike some of the world at this time, still have not [introduced] the dichotomy between the [sacred and the secular].” Sr. Phelps went on to say, “The sacred is not a realm in juxtaposition with the secular. The sacred is the depth dimension of the secular. Noting that the depth dimension of human being is spiritual, Sr. Phelps said, “Because we have that…unity, there’s no such thing as a secular human being.”

Listen to Chris Altieri’s extended interview with Sr. Phelps: