Black priests

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday deemed the first known black Roman Catholic priest in the United States to be “venerable,” positioning the former slave for possible sainthood. The pontiff’s designation of the Rev. Augustine Tolton as venerable, meaning the church intensely scrutinized his life and recognizes it as one of “heroic virtue,” […]

  Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray was a feminist and civil rights icon, blazing a trail for racial and gender equality in a time where women, especially Black women, were seen as woefully inferior. The late Rev. Murray might be best known to some as the first African-American woman to be ordained a Episcopal priest, but […]