By Ryan Brady
Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez walked up to the lectern in Cure d’Ars Parish to give a homily Monday, on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. He began with a light-hearted joke about the bitterly cold weather but soon turned towards the gravity of the moment as he explained that he suggested they cancel this year’s Peace and Justice Mass due to the weather.
He said Kateri Williams, the Archdiocese’s Director of Black Catholic Ministry, responded, “No, these are courageous people. They’ll be here.”
He was met with nods and smiles from the pews.
It was indeed bitterly cold out. Temperatures were in the single digits when Catholics from around the archdiocese began to arrive at 8:45 a.m.; still, they would not be deterred. Dangerous weather or not, this event draws the community together every year.
The Peace and Justice Mass has been hosted by the Archdiocese’s Black Catholic Ministry for thirteen years — always on the holiday commemorating the life and work of Rev. Dr. King, Jr. — and that morning welcomed dozens from various backgrounds, both longtime parishioners and many from other parishes.
Bishop Rodriguez has celebrated the Peace and Justice Mass for the past few years and expressed a deep love for each experience in his homily. He spent much of the homily meditating on the mysterious interplay of a dream, like Dr. King’s, and the Christian virtue of hope.
He explained that a dream can, and unfortunately often does, remain “just a dream,” while hope — the hope given by God — is certain. It is “real, and will come true,” the bishop said. He went on to ask if “we have a dream for our country,” echoing Dr. King’s famous declaration of his dream. Once again, those in the pews nodded in agreement, especially when Bishop Rodriguez spoke about the migrants and immigrants that all Americans are called to welcome today.
Gabe Yesho, a parishioner from Ethiopia, is one of those immigrants. He arrived in the United States — and at Cure d’Ars — decades ago and spoke about both the meaning of the day’s Mass for people like him, as well as its value for all people in this country.
He sees the Peace and Justice Mass as “‘the dream’ come true,” and went on to say, “It really is. I came to this country for a Catholic all-boys school, as a Catholic from Ethiopia, but I am also Black. The Black people in this country paved the way for me. I am different from them, but today, I can live as a Black and a Catholic.”
Parishes with strong ethnic identities are sometimes rare in America, but the close tie between Black and Catholic identities was a consistent theme throughout the day. A predominantly African American parish, Cure d’Ars is adorned with many pieces of sacred art in African or African American style (including a Ugandan crucifix carved by the late Denver artist Oye Oginga). The community is proud of its unique mixture of Black traditions and the Catholic faith, having worked to make their church a “home” while at the same time engaging in outreach to Black, White and other Catholics alike outside of their parish. Attendees expressed their appreciation for the community both before and after the mass.
The bond of Black and Catholic became the cap on the morning as well, when Kathy Holmes, a Cure d’Ars parishioner, invited attendees to the first regional Black Catholic Congress, which will be held at Queen of Peace Parish in Aurora on February 15th. A delegate to the last National Black Catholic Congress, held every five years, she represented the Archdiocese there in 2023 and is a member of the archdiocesan committee that has worked to arrange the upcoming regional congress with hopes to engage a myriad of local Catholics from all backgrounds who identify with, support or simply want to learn more about the Black Catholic community.
In that very spirit of unity — the one that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., himself encouraged — the diverse congregation gathered for the 13th Annual Peace and Justice Mass shone as an example of the truly universal Catholic Church in a society so injured by racial strife in recent years.
Those racial tensions may have cooled slightly, but at the end of his homily Monday, Bishop Rodriguez again reminded those gathered that the work of peace and justice is always ongoing. Catholics and all their Christian brothers and sisters may have to lay down their lives for it, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., did, or at least follow his example of passionate pursuit of the vital virtues.
The bishop, closing Mass with a few final words for those men and women who braved the cold to pray together that day, reminded his flock that “people committed to the cause of peace and justice need to be courageous people.” Pausing for a moment to look out over the congregation, he added, “And you are.”
