Fr. Tolton celebration points to grace, unity, inspiration
Click here for an album of photos from this event.
Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton broke the rules that break God’s heart.
The Catholic Church’s first black priest in the United States resisted the societal norms and distorted ideals that impeded his discipleship — offering a clear example to all who would claim their calling as followers of Jesus Christ.
So stated a visiting pastor at the Fr. Tolton Legacy Society’s third annual celebration on April 22 at the St. Thomas More Newman Center in Columbia.
“Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he wrote a new book, he established a new bookmark, he left an imprint, an impact, an impression that remains with us today — an example of all that is possible through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the Rev. James Kimbro, associate pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church in Columbia, said of Fr. Tolton, a Missouri native.
The celebration marked the April anniversaries of Fr. Tolton’s birth in 1854 and his priestly ordination in 1886.
Rev. Kimbro offered a reflection after Dominican Father Richard Litzau’s homily at Mass.
“We celebrate a man who accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, one who received the call, who allowed the Holy Spirit to guide, direct and comfort him through the trials and challenges he experienced while fulfilling God’s purpose in his life and God’s desires for His people,” Rev. Kimbro stated.
The University of Missouri Legion of Black Collegians Gospel Choir, directed by Curtis Taylor Jr., sang several hymns and anthems in the African American Gospel tradition at the Mass and during the luncheon that followed.
Impressive cast
At the luncheon, Fr. Tolton Legacy Society member Ann Schaeperkoetter offered a biographical sketch of Fr. Tolton.
Born into slavery in northeastern Missouri in what is now the Jefferson City diocese, he ministered as a priest in Quincy, Illinois, and then in Chicago before his death in 1897 at age 43.
Ms. Schaeperkoetter noted that when “Gus” Tolton, age 8, his older brother and baby sister escaped with their mother to Illinois during the Civil War, there was a $200 bounty on each of their heads.
Fr. Tolton’s father went to St. Louis to join the Union Army. Mrs. Tolton found out seven years later that he had died of dysentery in a hospital in Arkansas.
Ms. Schaeperkoetter pointed to the “supporting cast of characters” who helped Fr. Tolton know and love God and pursue his priestly calling with singular focus.
Working to help support his family, he attended St. Peter School when he could and later served as a catechist.
Becoming aware that God wanted him to be a priest, Fr. Tolton and his friends spent seven years trying to find a U.S. seminary that would accept a black student.
He studied philosophy and liberal arts with the Franciscans at what is now Quincy College. With their help, he was received into the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, an international Catholic mission society, and went to study at the Pontifical Urban College in Rome.
He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on April 24, 1886, in the Cathedral of St. John Lateran in Rome.
He hoped to serve in Africa but instead was missioned back to Quincy.
“The Vatican had faith that grace would win in the United States,” Ms. Shaeperkoetter stated. “The cardinal prefect of the Propagation of the Faith, Giovani Steneoni, emphasized that if the United States was as enlightened as it claimed, Augustus would be accepted there.”
He was, but only to an extent.
“Fr. Tolton grew accustomed to adversity,” said Ms. Schaeperkoetter. “As a priest, he was wedged between the white world of the U.S. Catholic Church and his black congregation. Civil rights were not yet heard of.”
Nonetheless, “Fr. Tolton remained a symbol of fidelity, priestly dignity and constancy in the midst of suffering,” she said.
He eventually sought and was granted a transfer to Chicago, where Cardinal Patrick Feehan invited him to minister to “a fledgling group of black Catholics.”
He started a parish and began construction of a church that was never completed.
“He was alone in shaping some semblance of a Catholic community in the streets and alleys of the black ghetto,” Ms. Schaeperkoetter stated.
He died of heat exhaustion during the summer of 1897, having touched countless souls in his 43-year life.
Ms. Schaeperkoetter held up as role models all the people who helped Fr. Tolton rise above the obstacles to pursuing and living out his priestly calling.
“We, too, can all work for justice in our own time,” she said. “By prayer, acts of kindness and charity and participation in our democratic process, we can work toward a better life for all.”
“Humble charity”
Joan Pottinger gave an update on the progress of the work that officially began in 2010 in the Church to have Fr. Tolton declared a saint.
“The Catholic Church believes that anyone can become a saint — that is, someone who makes it to heaven,” she noted. “The Catholic Church calls all men and all women, whatever their state in life, to seek holiness and sainthood.”
The Church does not “make” a person a saint; it recognizes someone who is in heaven.
“The Church is looking for folks whose lives are worth imitating and to such a degree that they should be held up as an example to the Church,” said Ms. Pottinger.
She outlined the meticulous process the Church undertakes each time a person is proposed as a candidate for sainthood. It includes a scrupulous historical and theological review of the person’s life, in order to determine whether he or she exhibited heroic virtue.
The Church also calls for clear documentation of two separate miracles — usually instantaneous and inexplicable healings — attributed to the person’s intercession before the throne of God in heaven as proof of sainthood.
Ms. Pottinger noted that the Church’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recently accepted the exhaustive historical dossier of Fr. Tolton’s life and virtues.
Based on that, Pope Francis may now choose to advance Fr. Tolton’s cause and grant him the title “venerable servant of God.”
She closed with a statement from Bishop Joseph Perry, co-postulator for Fr. Tolton’s sainthood cause:
“Fr. Tolton shows us the way of love. He shows us how to unite our sufferings to those of Jesus Christ, Who opened not His mouth when He was mocked and reviled.
“He is an example of humble charity born out of love for Jesus Christ, that we need today.”
That they may be one
Yvonne Chamberlain, assistant director of campus ministry at the Newman Center, facilitated a small-group discussion among people at each table on the theme, “We Are One in the Spirit.”
Avila Hendricks Nilon and Michele Sisson-White, co-organizers for the celebration, encouraged everyone to learn more about Fr. Tolton’s life and times, emulate his patience and spiritual tenacity, share his story with other people and pray for his saintly intercession in heaven.
Everyone then joined in praying Fr. Tolton’s canonization prayer, written by Bishop Perry.
“May (Fr. Tolton’s) life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization,” they prayed, “... so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved.”
Hannah Deadwyler, a student at the University of Missouri, contributed to this article.
