Dr. Shannen Dee Williams: Why Black Catholic History Matters

2150 Cunningham Drive,Hampton VA 23666

21 January, 2023

Description

For many people in the West, Catholicism is synonymous with whiteness and Europeanness. Such perceptions of the faith, however, erase the Church's early roots in Africa, which preceded the embrace of Catholic Christianity in Europe by nearly four centuries. Contemporary characterizations of Catholicism as a European or white religion also ignore the fact that nearly one-fourth of the Church's faithful in the world today are people of African descent. Come join us as historian Dr. Shannen Dee Williams confronts four core myths about the US Catholic experience that obscure the leading roles that the Church played in the propagation of white supremacy in society and even in the Church itself.