Cardinals Welcome Bison Catholic for Gospel Mass
Image courtesy of Isabel Fay.
By Griffin Cappiello
“People of every nation and tribe / From generation to generation!”
Joyful voices filled the St. Vincent de Paul Chapel on Monday night as the weekly 5:10 p.m. Mass took on a slightly different form. Regular Mass-goers were joined by members of Bison Catholic, Howard University’s Catholic campus ministry program, for a gospel Mass to commemorate the feast of St. Martin de Porres and to kick off Black Catholic History Month.
The Bison Catholic choir led the congregation in gospel-style hymns — “You Are Good” and “Somebody Prayed for Me” — as well as praise and worship classics — “Here I Am to Worship” and “Goodness of God.” The choir also sang the musical settings of the liturgy, such as the Gloria and the Sanctus, in a gospel style, complete with jubilant clapping and beautiful harmonies.
Rev. Robert Boxie III, Howard’s Catholic chaplain and the principal celebrant of the Mass, gave a homily in which he outlined the life of St. Martin de Porres, a Dominican lay brother and the first Black saint of the Americas.
St. Martin, Fr. Boxie explained, is a tremendous example of living a life of faith and joy in the face of immense oppression. The illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a formerly enslaved woman in Peru, St. Martin was prohibited from joining the Order of Preachers because he was mixed-race. Despite this, he pursued a life of joy, piety, and faithfulness, and the Dominican prior eventually allowed him to join the Order.
Fr. Boxie suggested that we ought to use St. Martin de Porres and other holy Black men and women, such as Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman, as examples to guide how we live our lives; when we face oppression, turning to these saints is a path forward. Throughout Black Catholic History Month, we should make an effort to remember the lives of these great Catholics.
“Father always gives a great service,” junior politics major Mike Desnoyers said following Mass. “He’s always good at giving a homily that hits you where you needed it to hit. It was really speaking to me, I think it was speaking to everybody else.”
After Mass, Cardinals and Bison alike gathered for a soul food dinner in the Great Rooms of the Pryzbyla Center, courtesy of Catholic’s Black Student Alliance and Campus Ministry.
Students were able to share a meal with their fellow Catholics from another D.C. university and form bonds with students that they may not ordinarily have had the opportunity to meet.
“D.C. isn’t just our city; it’s everyone’s city. I think as Catholics, we should reach out to everybody we can,” said Desnoyers, the treasurer of the Black Student Alliance. “Why not invite other people from different schools, different orgs [organizations]? It was real fun to have them [Howard] come and give their gifts to us, and we give ours.”
