Free Republic

Servant of God, Mother Mary Lange   She was born Elizabeth Lange in the around 1794 in Santiago de Cuba, where she lived in a primarily French speaking community. She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s Elizabeth left Cuba and settled in the United States. Elizabeth came to Baltimore as a courageous, loving, and deeply spiritual woman. There was no free public education for African American children in Maryland until 1868, so she responded to that need by opening a school in her home in the Fells Point area of the city for the children.  Providence intervened...

Silent No More: A Major Crisis in the African-American CommunityBy Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJRoman Catholic ChaplainHoward University, Washington, DC Do you know what the leading cause of death in the African American Community since 1973 is? Think about it for a minute. Is it heart disease-2,266,789 deaths since 1973, cancer-1,638,350, or accidents-370,723? Is it AIDS-203,695, or violent crimes-306, 313? There is one possibility that is often overlooked. It happens 1452 times a day in our community. It has taken over 13 million Black lives within the last 30 years. It has taken 1/3 of our present population. What...

As the debate continues over what to rebuild in New Orleans, the fate of the city's black Catholic community may be one of the more poignant tales of loss and uncertainty in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It is also one that points to a challenge for the wider Catholic Church in America. New Orleans, along with Baltimore and New York, is one of the precious few strongholds of black Catholics in the United States, a venerable old community facing challenges beyond the storm's toll. Katrina dispersed much of New Orleans's Catholic population, including many African-Americans. Even now, seven months...