Black Catholics during the Jubilee Year and beyond need to continue focusing on multicultural evangelization in their parishes and communities, said speakers at a Nov. 18 evangelization conference sponsored by the Black Catholic Council of the Diocese of Sacramento.

Bishop William K. Weigand, in welcoming remarks to the more than 70 conference participants gathered at St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento, noted that Pope John Paul II has continually urged Catholics to celebrate their cultural differences.

Black Catholics, he added, “must assume leadership in society and within our church communities. You must help bring others to Christ, touching hearts and bringing grace to God.”

In a keynote address, Father Kenneth Westray, Jr., pastor of St. Sebastian Parish in Greenbrae in Marin County, urged parents to assume the primary responsibility of passing on their Catholic faith to their children.

Father Kenneth Westray, Jr. of the Archdiocese of San Francisco said parents must assume the primary responsibility in educating their children in the Catholic faith. Ernesto Flores/Herald photo

He said it is crucial for parents to introduce their children to God and to continue their formation in their faith through their teenage and young adult years. Children need to observe that parents are “comfortable” with their faith.

“Take your children to church with you and don’t sit in the back,” he urged. “Bring your children to the front, so they can see what’s going on.”

Workshops during the conference included “Spirit Alive: How to Thrive in Today’s Society,” with Father Innocent Emechete, who serves as chaplain for the Black Catholic Council and at the Vacaville Medical Facility; “Young, Black and Catholic: Can You Hear Me?” with John Groce, director of religious education at Divine Savior Parish in Orangevale; “Faith-based Strategies for Effective Catholic Parenting,” with Rawn Harbor, a student at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley; “Who and Whose Am I? Resources for Learning About Our Church,” with Dominican Sister of San Jose Regena Ross; and “Our Black Catholic Heritage and How to Build Community,” with Sisters Lucy Dei and Mary Angela Itiat of the Hand Maids of the Holy Child Jesus and teachers at Immaculate Conception School in Sacramento.

Julia Haskell, a member of the Black Catholic Council who coordinated the workshops, noted that black Catholics “have many gifts to give to the church. Each of our speakers brought forth the idea that evangelization starts in the home, with knowledge about the church, African-American history, spirituality and bringing our culture into the liturgy of the church.”

The conference concluded with a gospel Mass concelebrated by Father Emechete and Father Brendan O’Sullivan, pastor of St. Anthony Parish, assisted by Deacon Allen Pierre. The Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir, a ministry of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Carmichael, provided music for the Mass.

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