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As many of you are aware, over the past two years our community has been praying for the expedited canonization of six African Americans who we feel strongly about being deemed Saints by our Holy Father Pope Francis. This month I wanted to feature Venerable Fr. Agustus Tolton to bring awareness of how your prayers and efforts can help this cause.
The other five candidates are Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, Servant of God Julia Greeley, and Venerable Henriette DeLille.
Early last year, the play written about Father Augustus Tolton was presented to the Diocese of Oakland and was well received. Father Tolton has been identified as the first African American priest in the United States. He is the direct descendant of slaves. His story is incredible. Father Agustus Tolton (1854-1897) left behind a legacy of serving brothers and sisters despite hardships, a legacy of good overcoming evil in the name of Christ Jesus, and a legacy of a son born of slaves.
Earlier this past month (https://www.instagram.com/p/C-qr9ayiwys/), The Tolton Spirituality Center (http://www.toltonspirituality.org/) in partnership with Saint Columba Parish, The African American Pastoral Center, and the Racial Justice Task Force, presented the Tolton Speaks documentary shown at the Oakland Museum of California as its first West Coast premiere.
Bishop Joseph N. Perry joined the premier to share the challenging work it took to gather all the written documents by Fr. Tolton to produce this incredible documentary. In addition, Bishop Perry was able to respond to questions regarding Fr. Tolton’s life, hardship, struggles and the process and stages of canonization.
A detailed description of Father Tolton’s life is reproduced from the Tolton Spirituality Center brochure which can be read by clicking on the following LINK.
One way in which we can aid in promoting the cause for Father Tolton is by praying on his behalf (and on behalf of the others considered for canonization) and by creating ambassadors at our parishes. The African American Pastoral Center has committed to working with the parishes to build the Ambassador Project as a movement on behalf of Fr. Agustus Tolton. Below is a description of the Tolton Ambassador program. I invite all of you to partake in this effort. It is vitally important that we have our Six candidates canonized by the Pope.
Should you be interested in joining us on this journey, kindly contact me at ctuttle@oakdiocese.org.
I invite you to read the following from Bishop Joseph Perry on Father Tolton’s cause: https://tolton.archchicago.org/about/biography
You can read more about the Tolton Ambassador program here:
https://www.toltonspirituality.org/partnerships
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