It brings a message of hope and healing for the wounds that plague our culture. And, with that, one of her children, Augustine Tolton, later to become the first African-American to be ordained priest, was freed. Father Augustus Tolton, you whose life demonstrated the fruit of the Holy Spirits gifts of fortitude and perseverance, He suffered genuinely in that these priestly things were administered from a black face, black hands and a black heart. or school. WebTop Augustus Tolton Quotes I've always tried to do the smartest and best thing. Venerable Augustus Tolton. His time in Quincy, though, was short-lived. After he finished his basic education at 18, Tolton received the help of Father McGirr, who began to help him find a seminary. His was a quiet approach, a novel ministry to black and white together and he was, unfortunately, resented for it. She had colored saints Augustine, Benedict the Moor, Monica. Just over three years after his triumphal return, Fr. In the end, to his surprise, he was sent back to where he had come from. Our Lady Of Sorrows help us i. The Church is broad and liberal. Next, the Irish priest wrote to the bishop of the diocese in Alton about Augustus becoming a diocesan priest. I was a poor slave boy but the priests of the Church did not disdain me. He abuses me in many ways and has told the bishop to send me out of this place. A gentleness of spirit best describes his personality in such wise that the inquirer cannot detect any irritability in him. Michael ONeill Michael ONeill is a radio and television host, author, and creator of the website MiracleHunter.com, the top online resource on miracles. Reproduction of material from this website without written permission, or unlicensed commercial use or Yet, essentially, the results of this struggled reasoning are pretty much the same for us as they are for anyone else regardless of faith perspective or lack thereof. WebTop Augustus Tolton Quotes I've always tried to do the smartest and best thing. She is the Church for our people. THEY MIGHT BE SAINTS-VEN. In this Church we do not have to fight for our rights because we are black. Saints are of human stock but have the genius to step forward and bring the gospel message to the contradictions of their time. 0000002077 00000 n Subscriber Service CenterAlready a subscriber? A funeral also occurred at St. Peter Church in Quincy on July 13. %%EOF Another miracle has been recently attributed to his intercession. Tolton, rather, shows us how to wrestle through fear, hurt and disappointment and see these experiences through the prism of the Lords own suffering to redeem a people. In June 2019, Pope Francis advanced the cause when he issued a decree declaring him venerable.. Fr. K. V. Turley is a London based freelance writer and filmmaker with a degree in theology from the Maryvale Institute. Copyright 2023 EWTN News, Inc. All rights reserved. Seven years after Augustine, or Gus as he was known, was born, war broke out between the States. Having already passed the states House of Delegates, the bill has only to be signed by Republican Gov. Finally, a second appeal to the Urban College through the Franciscans lead to Augustus acceptance. We desperately need more priests from the US. Father Tolton modeled all this in its fullness and this is why he is remembered to this day especially in the black Catholic community. That passage from the letter to the Hebrews must have resonated in Toltons heart: Recall the days gone by when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering. 0000051258 00000 n On June 12, 2019, Tolton was declared Venerable by Pope Francis I, the second step towards canonization. print and digital media outlets, dedicated to reporting the truth in light of the Gospel and the This same year, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 21, granting citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States. At 16, he made his First Communion and started to think about the priesthood. His employers liked him; he worked hard and was reliable. Not least by a fellow priest, part inspired by jealousy and part by racial prejudice, that, in the end, caused the young priests removal. His idealism was not political though; it was religious. Some were surprised that he had chosen to be buried in the town that had shunned him. I will pray for your grandson and I know the Jesuits will welcome him with open arms if that is his calling. We gaze at the crucifix to find a source of meaning. ZeS6N ;'pw! People were unable to see the evangelical side to this novel situation of a black priest and the advantages it afforded church and society. BOOK PICK: Father Josh Johnsons On Earth as It Is in Heaven, Hawley asked Garland whether the Department of Justice is cultivating sources and spies in Latin Mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country.. His parents were Catholics, so he too was baptised into his parents Holy Faith. The couple were never to see each other again; the children were never again to play with their father. 0000005833 00000 n His canonization we hope will elicit an appreciation by the wider Catholic community for the contributions that Catholics of African descent offer the Church. The stone rejected had become a living stone, one upon which now future generations would build. Articles on the death of Father Tolton in The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News. He expects to become a missionary priest in Africa. Religious orders were also tried, but to no avail. In this Church we do not have to fight for our rights because we are black. The Gospel offers one approach, one that enjoins loving our enemies, doing good to those who mistreat us, approaching every man, woman and child out of genuine respect, honoring their dignity as a human being and as fellow brother and sister in Christ. In the 1880s, a black man becoming a priest was thought to be impossible and, in fact, might never have been set in motion were there not a few priests and religious of courageous, visionary and unselfish choices made by them; Fathers Peter McGirr and Theodore Wegmann, School Sister of Notre Dame Herlinde Sick, Franciscan Fathers Michael Richardt and Francis Ostrop who were some of the best representatives of Catholics in action for their time. 286 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<302BB52D3863B64BA3B976C1397EBCB0><8D3543A6425E274CB40BF7885AC937E9>]/Index[262 48]/Info 261 0 R/Length 115/Prev 162616/Root 263 0 R/Size 310/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream I was a poor slave boy but the priests of the Church did not disdain me. I would gladly leave here just to be away from this priest. A visiting priest met Fr. This same year, Fr. 1880: Augustus Tolton departs for Rome on February 15 to enter the seminary at the Collegium Urbanum de Propaganda Fide. In the case of Augustus Tolton it is the long period of black slavery in this country and the nations Civil War foisting a resolution to uncompensated black servitude and the tumultuous period of Reconstruction of a nation torn to shreds over this issue. 1870: Augustus Tolton was confirmed in St. Peter Church at age 16 and likely received his First Communion. Nonetheless, as detected in his handwritten letters to personages and church authority figures, he felt keenly the humiliations inflicted by others, that underneath he felt deeply the sting of verbal assaults and impatience others threw at him, the harshness and humiliations inflicted upon him, and he felt deeply the indignities and insults his people suffered. As he did so he gazed at the three children sleeping and began to talk of his hopes for their future, one in which they would be free. It baffles my mind to see or hear of any Christians discriminating against anyone, especially when Christians show racial bias against a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Students should be able to: 1. hb```b``^ @167}beP,`~ F Give a Gift SubscriptionBless friends, family or clergy with a gift of the Register. His congregation was largely poor, ill-educated ex-slaves, with all the resultant ills of depression and violence attending those who, for varying reasons, had given up on life. His parents were both slaves of Catholic families and had been married in the Catholic Church the same St. Peters where Augustus and his two siblings were baptized. This same year, the last ship to bring slaves to the United States, the Clothildre, arrived in Mobile Bay, Alabama. At times you were publicly exposed to insult and trial; at other times you associated yourselves with those who were being so dealt with do not, then surrender your confidence; it will have great reward. Father Tolton could find joy under trial and be himself simultaneously an encourager of others with their trials. 1863: At the age of 9, Augustus Tolton begins working in a Quincy tobacco factory and his brother Charles dies at age 10. Many others thought so: Following the required six years of study, Augustus was ordained a priest with his class Easter Vigil 24 April 1886 at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. 1852:Harriet Beecher Stowes novel about the horrors of slavery, Uncle Toms Cabin, is published and sells 300,000 copies in the first year. Big family! McGirr had wanted to ask him a question. Tolton, a man of deep feeling, viewed himself a priest for anyone and everyone who approached the Church for the grace and mercy of God. That was not an unusual sight; however, that day there was a change. Bishop Baltes then appealed to the Urban College in Rome, but this international seminary also suggested that Augustus attend seminary in the United States. His temperament allowed him to rejoice in the Lord while under trial. It was the same church where he had served Mass and given catechism classes after he had finished his work at the local factory. Suffering can result in strengthened faith or disbelief, agnosticism or outright atheism. We may not be They were being shot at. They had fled Missouri and were crossing over into the Northern state of Illinois, and to freedom. Here and there we are stunned by incidents of intolerance and racial hatred in places. 0000005284 00000 n On the other hand, Christians worship a suffering Messiah and so have theologized about this conundrum over the course of two thousand years and counting. 0 Gus was delighted; for, with all his heart, he wanted to be a priest; it was a sense that had been growing for some years. Father Tolton is a good priest, but he wants to create a kind of society which is not feasible in this place, was the bishops explanation. PRAYERS CARDS, NEWLETTERS, AND BROCHURES: For prayer cards, newsletters, and brochures, call 312.534.8376 or write Bishop Joseph N. Perry at the Archdiocese of Chicago: 3525 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60653. https://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/from-slave-to-priest-1#, http://www.dio.org/tolton/tolton/videos-about-father-tolton.html, https://www.ltp.org/p-2539-father-augustus-tolton-a brief-biography-of-a-faithful-priest-and-former-slave.aspx, Call 312.534.8376 or writeBishop Joseph N Perry, Archdiocese of Chicago, 3525 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60653. 262 0 obj <> endobj When she landed on the northern bank of the river she pulled her children to their knees and prayed: Now, you are free; never forget the goodness of the Lord. Augustus Tolton Quote Catholic Quote Catholic Nursery - Etsy GloryBePrints 4,004 sales | Fr. As Cardinal Gibbons retired to his dais [on the altar at the Mass], the reporters in the improvised press gallery noticed for the first time, not six feet away from him in the sanctuary among the abbots and other special dignitaries, the black face of Father Tolton of Chicago, the first colored Catholic priest ordained in America. We cannot know the Christ unless we know him crucified, says St. Paul. But Father Tolton received no rewards or citations in life. The Faith is more than bricks and mortar, however, and, in 2011, after an initial investigation at the behest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Fr. Forces attempted to derail his priestly service in a creeping milieu of diversity that cried out for social and legal recognition but for which society and church could not respond at that time. Augustus, his mother, and three brothers and sisters escaped to the North where they could live as free But bitterness was alien to Toltons soul. That day, however, there was one who stood apart from the crowd and quietly watched with tears in her eyes as her son returned to her a priest. Father Tolton is a saint for doing things priests do, namely, care for people, ministering to their desperate needs, anointing them with the saving graces of the sacraments, forgiving their sins, preaching a word that works to transform the Church to its more authentic face before the world and describe for people how they can give an authentic response to God in genuine discipleship. Tolton felt unwell. Saints and mystics have left us a legacy of their lifes pattern with some glimpse into the mystery. Mass is celebrated there until 1889. Jesus experienced the worse that a man could deal out to another and, therefore, leaves us an example. God bless your grandson, Mrs. Henderson! Augustine Tolton was alone on a night train in a segregated carriage heading to Chicago where he had been assigned to care for that citys growing black population. 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