Black Catholics Tell Of Bias -- Racism Survives, Archbishop Hears

What was it like growing up black and Catholic in Seattle in the '60s and '70s.

It was knowing you weren't really wanted as an altar boy at St. Catherine's; that Blanchet High School wasn't ready for a black student-body president; that you weren't tossed the basketball when college recruiters were in the stands; and that you were advised to go to vocational school, not to the University of Washington.

Seattle police Detective John F. Hayes Jr., an Emerald City native, recounted these and other personal examples of discrimination within the church at a listening session sponsored by the 25-member Pastoral Council of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

The council, which will deliver a new five-year plan of church goals to Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen by September, convened the all-day session last Saturday to hear the concerns of the church's African-American members. Similar listening sessions have been held or are scheduled for other groups within the church.

The council heard from students, adults and clerics from a dozen Seattle and Tacoma parishes which have substantial black memberships, while Hunthausen and Coadjutor Archbishop Thomas Murphy listened.

Hayes told the group that when his family bought a house right across the street from St. Catherine's in Seattle's North End in the late 1960s, ``we had to petition to get into the school.'' There were protests, he recalled. ``Signs went up to keep us out . . . You knew you weren't wanted.''

Hayes did attend the University of Washington, on a track scholarship, and earned two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree. He now works with juvenile gangs in the Police Department's Crime Prevention Division.

While the racial climate may have improved since he graduated from Blanchet in 1973, Hayes said that in many ways, ``not a lot has changed . . . I think black Catholics feel extremely isolated in the church.''

Walt Hubbard, a longtime Seattle civil-rights activist and executive director of the National Office of Black Catholics, said church leaders have recognized that ``racism exists in the church. Anyone who objects to that is just out of touch.''

The archdiocese, which stretches from the Canadian border to the Columbia River and from the Pacific Ocean to the crest of the Cascades, counts more than 317,000 members. Its statisticians estimate about 5,000 are African-American. Among 22 ethnic and racial groups, Hispanics, estimated at about 89,000, are the largest minority.

Twenty years ago the archdiocese counted about 2,600 black members. There are twice as many now because the black population in the area has doubled, the statisticians note.

In Western Washington there is one black parish priest, the Rev. John Cornelius at Seattle's Immaculate Conception Church in the Central Area. The only other black priest in Western Washington is the Rev. Joseph McGowan, S.J., head of the campus ministry at Seattle University. There is only one black principal in the church school system, Wayne Melonson, at Seattle's St. Therese, also in the Central Area.

Hubbard said the Catholic school system needs higher expectations of its black students and more black staff members and it should reflect black history and contributions for black youths.

``In addition, there isn't one African-American agency director in the Archdiocese of Seattle,'' Hubbard said. ``We feel that's long overdue . . . We certainly have people qualified . . .''

The president of the Seattle Black Catholic Lay Caucus, Sherrill Adams, principal of Peter Kirk Elementary School in Kirkland, wasn't too optimistic after last Saturday's session.

``Saturday was at worst an exercise in futility and, at best, possibly a crack in the door was made,'' Adams said.

She said that after months of trying, members met last fall with Hunthausen. She said that she and other caucus members believe the archbishop felt uncomfortable with the delegation. She said he told them ``he preferred to hear about black concerns through the individual parish councils.''

The caucus is asking for:

-- Establishment of a separate African-American secretariat outside the archdiocese's multicultural ministry.

-- Funding for leadership workshops to provide role models to encourage youths to become involved in the church.

-- Restructuring of the school system to meet the needs of black students.

-- Leadership from Hunthausen ``to pressure his pastors to address racism in the church on a continuing basis as a means of holding its members accountable for living a Christian life.''

Not all blacks in the church agree with these priorities, especially setting up a separate black-concerns office in the archdiocese.

``That's real important for people in Seattle but not for people outside,'' said Alberta Canada of St. Leo's Parish in Tacoma's Hilltop district.

``More important for me is to see 40 black kids enrolled at Bellarmine High School in Tacoma because 40 years later they will turn around the whole leadership,'' Canada said.

St. Leo's is one of those parishes where blacks are made to feel they are a part of the parish life, serving on its councils, committees and action groups, she said.

``You'll find us in the pulpit. I've been there myself,'' Canada said. ``I won't say it's good theology but it's real spiritual . . .''

Esther Lucero, a Hispanic, heads the archdiocese multicultural ministry, established four years ago to be a link between the archbishop and the various ethnic communities in the archdiocese, including Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and others. The five-member staff includes two black people.

``We have limited resources,'' Lucero said, ``and our challenge is to be as equitable as we can for the broad needs that we see.''

But Lucero said, ``I've sent at least 15 Afro-Americans to national leadership events.'' She said her doors are never closed but cooperation is the key.

``From a faith perspective we're called to love each other and work with each other,'' Lucero said. ``We have to respect the differences that exist among us, but the bottom line is we're Catholics and Christians.''

The archbishop agrees.

Reviewing what he heard at the listening session, Hunthausen acknowledged, ``There is some distance to go.'' But he added, ``We're doing our honest best to do a number of things.''

He cited multicultural studies introduced in archdiocese schools, scholarships for black students and a commitment to affirmative action. He underscored that the archdiocese's contribution to the National Black Catholic Office was one of the highest in the country ($25,000 last year).

But the archbishop also stressed that he is trying to address the needs of all the ethnic groups in his flock.

Hunthausen said his archdiocese is one of three in the country chosen to participate in a two-year pilot project to include all cultural and racial groups in the life of the church under the sponsorship of the church's national office for interracial justice.

Funding arrangements are still being worked out, but Hunthausen hopes the project can be in place here by fall.

At Seattle's Immaculate Church, Father Cornelius said a lot of people ``who had been wounded and angry'' spoke up at the session.

His role is to be a reconciler and healer, Cornelius said, but as the only black priest in an archdiocese parish ``it's my responsibility to challenge the church toward its fullness.''

``Where are we going?'' the black priest asked. ``We are not going the way of George Stallings (the Washington, D.C., dissident black priest who recently left the church to form a separate denomination). We've come too far by faith. When you've come this far, you don't give up - you still stay in the challenging phase.''

John Hayes agrees.

``I am of a serious belief that the archbishop is concerned,'' the Seattle police detective said. ``I have a lot of faith in the Catholic Church.''