Daniel Rudd, in the late nineteenth century, believed that the Catholic Church held the most promise for former slaves. He believed that the Catholic Church would someday be the prominent Church for Black folk in America. I guess nothing can be further from the truth, at the present time.

I was talking with friends this weekend about the recent, in my view, silly, hymns exemplified by the Gather Hymnal, and my friends pointed out that the impetus for many of the hymns was the desire to create American hymns. Commendable in many regards, but what kills me is that there was already an existing tradition of American born hymns in Black spirituals and music. Black culture was ignored then as it is now, and it hurts the Black Catholic community.

African American Catholics, among African American Christians, are the most likely to remain faithful to their denomination, which explains why the community still thrives despite the blatant racism, in the Catholic Church for centuries and it still persists now. Unfortunately, such patience does not exist among their children and African American Catholics could become relatively extinct someday. There are about 2 million now, what will it be in 50 years?

I think the number will remain relatively steady but that African American Catholics would be at less than 1 percent of the U.S. Catholic population, which in 50 years may very well be close to 100 million (unscientific projection). What makes this particularly embarrassing for the U.S.Catholic Church is that our society reflects, or should reflect, true unity in diversity and true catholicness. This "catholicness" of American society coupled with the Catholicness of the Catholic Church should give us in the U.S. catholic church a double leg up. The U.S. Catholic church should be the best example in teh world, and possibly, ever, of what a diverse and multicultural and truly Catholic church should be. Unfortunately it is not and the trends are not looking good
Is there the will or the interest to do anything about this?