Office of Black Ministry

The office seeks to develop multicultural initiatives that will seek greater understanding and cooperation among the diverse Catholic communities of the diocese; discover ways to nurture African-American Catholic cultural heritage; sustain a spiritually beneficial involvement of African-American Catholics in the church; promote the survival, growth and liturgical expression of African-American Catholics in the diocese who originated from Africa, Haiti, North and South America, or elsewhere in the African Diaspora; foster greater African-American Catholic involvement in lay ministry for leadership in the church; and promote vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious congregations among the African-American Catholic community and work to remove barriers where they exist.

History
After the 1987 National Black Catholic Congress, Bishop John McCarthy of Austin established the Office of Black Catholics to address the needs of African Americans in the diocese. He appointed Johnnie D. Dorsey Sr. to coordinate and direct the work of this office. Dorsey subsequently served three decades in this capacity. Over the years, the work of the office has been focused on the call and response of evangelization and the expressed love of God and neighbor in word and deeds. This pastoral office has coordinated diocesan delegation to each of the subsequent National Black Catholic Congresses after 1987 (1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2023).