Scecina students learn about Father Augustus Tolton during Black History Month

Bishop Joseph N. Perry, a retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, right, speaks during a Black History Month event on Feb. 18 at Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis about Venerable August Tolton, the first Black priest in the U.S. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Bishop Joseph N. Perry, a retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, visited Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis on Feb. 18 to help the diverse student body on the city’s east side observe Black History Month.

He continues in retirement to be the principal promoter of the beatification and canonization cause of the Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, the first Black Catholic priest in the history of the U.S.

“I think what makes Black History Month so special is the fact that we can raise up to our awareness people who normally would not be in our history books, but people who have made a contribution to the fabric of American life anyway,” Bishop Perry said in his presentation to the student body. “And I like to think that Augustus Tolton is one such person.”

Frome slavery to the priesthood

He shared the story of Father Tolton, whom he often referred to as “Gus” in his presentation. Father Tolton was born into slavery in 1854 in Missouri. Baptized as a Catholic as an infant, Father Tolton escaped with his mother and siblings to freedom in Quincy, Ill., in 1863 during the Civil War.

While experiencing much racism in his new home, Tolton eventually received a good education at St. Peter Parish in Quincy.

“Gus could learn to read and write there,” Bishop Perry said. “These surroundings turned out very positive for Gus. He could even sit in the front row of the church with his fellow classmates. He had new friends. The church members seemed not to care about the color of his skin. In God’s eyes, they were all friends.”

Growing in his faith at St. Peter, Father Tolton eventually felt a call to the priesthood. But because of his race, he was denied entry into all seminaries in the U.S. to which he applied.

Father Tolton was eventually accepted as a seminarian at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. Ordained a priest in Rome in 1886, he returned to minister in Quincy.

“No one in America had seen a priest’s collar on the neck of a Black man before,” Bishop Perry said. “For whites, it was a strange sight, and for Blacks, it was a news sensation.”

Continuing to experience racial prejudice in Quincy as a priest—just as he had as a child—he was later invited by the archbishop of Chicago to serve there.

At St. Monica Parish on the city’s poor south side, Father Tolton welcomed worshippers of all races.

“Anyone and everyone could sit and kneel and pray together and receive holy Communion from his hands,” Bishop Perry said. “He assisted former slaves to settle in a new life, [and] helped Blacks adjust to the realities of post-war emancipation realities that meant life was hard and uncertain for many.

“Father Gus wanted to help make our country a better place where all people can feel at home in our Church regardless of who they were.”

Although Father Tolton continued to experience racism in Chicago as he had elsewhere, Bishop Perry explained that the priest “never said anything untoward to anyone. He only showed people the Bible and taught them how we should all treat one another as brother and sister in the name of Christ.”

During a heatwave in Chicago in the summer of 1897, Father Tolton collapsed while walking back to his home and died on July 9. He was 43.

‘He lived life as Jesus would want us to’

Bishop Perry went on to explain how the beatification and canonization cause of Father Tolton was launched in 2011. In 2019, Pope Francis declared him “venerable,” the second of four stages in the Church’s process of declaring a person a saint.

Saying that Father Tolton demonstrated holiness by living “a Christian life amidst the harsh realities of [his] time, the ordered separation of the races,” Bishop Perry showed the Scecina students how the priest’s example is one they can emulate today.

“He lived life as Jesus would want us to,” Bishop Perry explained. “Many find him an example of how to live as a good man, a great Christian in his service to God, to the Church and the people of all races, doing unto others as we would have them do to us, a golden rule.”

Father Tolton continues to show how faith can help people today overcome hardship, Bishop Perry noted.

“For Father Tolton, you would figure the word ‘no’ was probably slammed in his face more often than the word ‘yes,’ ” he said. “But Tolton never retaliated with any anger. He suffered internally from self-doubt and the disrespect of others, but he took this to God with his prayers and his tears and kept serving others as a good priest.”

Speaking directly about their lives as high school students, Bishop Perry suggested that Father Tolton can encourage them to “make sure that you include everyone in your friendship, to have an eye for the stranger and the one excluded from the crowd.

“ … If you come upon someone who is alone and without friends, invite him or her into your circle of friends,” Bishop Perry shared. “That’s what Christians do. Make everyone you come in contact with feel comfortable. It’s the way of Jesus.”

‘I felt inspired’

Speaking with The Criterion after celebrating Mass with the students, Bishop Perry explained why in retirement it continues to be important for him to travel to schools far beyond his home archdiocese, like Scecina, and that such visits are “energizing” for him.

“It’s important for our Catholic young people to plug into the whys of what we do and believe, and the personages who really left these steppingstones for us in hopes that these young people can do a little bit better than we’ve done,” he said.

Ashaundi Copeland is a sophomore at Scecina and a member of its fledgling Black Student Union.

She was glad to learn of Father Tolton.

“To know Black history is a huge part of my culture. I felt very inspired,” she shared. “It makes me really want to help Scecina know more about Black history, which a lot of people don’t know about because it’s not been popular.”

Ian McKiernan, a Scecina junior and a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis, saw in Father Tolton’s story lessons for him to take to heart today.

“There are wars always happening and hatred toward certain people and groups,” he said. “These stories that we learn are important because they teach us what we can do. Being kind is something I always try to do. It doesn’t matter what you look like or who you are, just be kind.”

Ben Potts, Scecina’s director of campus ministry, had known Bishop Perry when he previously ministered in the Archdiocese of Chicago. So, he was glad to welcome him to Indianapolis and grateful for the message he shared with the students to whom he ministers.

“I hope it reinforces the universal call to holiness, that, no matter where you’re coming from, God has great plans for you,” Potts said. “As long as you’re open to it, God will lead you in the right direction.” †