Black Catholics celebrate Juneteenth, reckon with church’s history of slavery“Dearest brothers and sisters in Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Cardinal Wilton Gregory said from the altar at Mount Calvary Catholic Church Sunday morning. “Surely that scriptural quotation must’ve captured the emotions of those formerly enslaved people in Texas as the words of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War finally had reached them.”Sunday’s Mass in Forestville, celebrated by America’s first Black cardinal, is part of a nationwide commemoration of Juneteenth. President Biden first designated the day as a federal holiday in 2021, a year...
