Bishop Robert Boxie reflected on why the United States has so few Black Catholic bishops, citing “racism” as the short answer.
“I really enjoy the gift of a Black Catholicism, Black Catholic spirituality, and it certainly does have a place in the universal Church,” said Boxie, an auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Boxie is a former lawyer and graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Law School. He is now the youngest bishop in the United States.
“The last time that an African American bishop had been ordained was 10 years prior. When I was appointed a couple of months ago, I became the second African American bishop in the entire United States,” Boxie explained in an interview with “Vatican Access,” a Catholic News Service podcast.
“We have a total of four active Black bishops, but there are only two African American bishops,” he said. “We need Black bishops in the United States … And I am OK with being a voice for the Black community that needs to be in the hierarchy of the Church.”
When asked why there are so few Black bishops, Boxie said: “The short answer is racism.”
“People may not want to hear that. People may not agree with that. But the short answer is racism.”
“For a long time, Black men were not accepted or allowed in seminary,” he said. “We had the first recognized African American priest, Father Augustus Tolton, Venerable Augustus Tolton, whose cause for canonization is currently underway … But it took so much more than an arm and a leg for him to even be … allowed to study for the priesthood.”
“So after him, it was a while before dioceses, and bishops, and religious communities would accept African American men. And when they did accept them, they experienced racism and discrimination and injustice and all the things that we would not associate, or should not associate with, the Church.”
Racism within the Church
Boxie shared his own personal experience with racism in the Church, even during his time in seminary.
“There was a time in seminary where my next-door neighbor … had a Confederate flag in their room and … I was totally taken aback by that,” Boxie said.
“I would never go in his room … We would talk outside in the hall. I wouldnʼt go in his room as long as he had that flag up,” Boxie said.
“Eventually he did take it down and he eventually discerned out of seminary. And so we didnʼt really talk … much about it.”
About seven years later, “during COVID, during 2020, and the summer of George Floyd … all of these things were sort of being revealed and uncovered in the United States — disparities within our country.”
During that time, he said, “I got a Facebook message from him saying that … he was working at a Catholic school with a large minority population, large number of African American students and Hispanic students.”
“He realized, for himself, how wrong that was seven years prior for him to have that Confederate flag in his room, especially at a seminary. And he wanted to have a conversation to apologize.”
“We had a really wonderful conversation” and “I accepted his apology,” Boxie said. “We had a real honest conversation about race, the Church, and how we can be healers.”
The conversation addressed “how we can help to bridge these gaps, these disparities, the misunderstanding, all the things that pull us apart, how we can in fact be healers and bridge builders in the Church,” Boxie said.
In the interview, Boxie noted other areas where Black Catholics lack presence in the Church, specifically noting “images” in Catholic churches.
“In our churches, we often only see white saints,” he said. “I have no problem with that. Thereʼs nothing wrong with that. But thatʼs not the only view, or the only image, or icon of holiness that we can aspire to.”
He noted that seven Black Catholics who lived in the United States are currently in line for canonization.
“I feel as though every parish in the United States should have images of them in their church in some form or fashion, because these were Americans who were raised and formed in this country who have an authentic … Catholic American spirituality,” he said.
The Church has the answers on race
Boxie has previously said that “culture does not have the answers” in regard to race. In his recent interview, he was asked whether the Church has the answers, to which he said that it does.
Itʼs “not just Catholic social teaching, which … Pope Leo very beautifully expresses in Magnifica Humanitas, but this goes all the way back to the very beginning … just the dignity of the human person.”
“Thatʼs a core tenet of what we believe as Catholics and certainly part of the foundation for Catholic social teaching.”
It is about “the human person being made in the image and likeness of God, with an inherent dignity, an infinite dignity, a magnificent dignity that transcends race and culture and geography and language and land,” Boxie said.
“The Church has proclaimed, from the beginning, the dignity of the human person — thatʼs from her teaching, her doctrine, Scriptures. The problem is that we have not always been faithful to that.”
“When we have turned away from that, or when we have been unfaithful to that teaching and gone astray, then thatʼs when problems such as this racism have arisen,” Boxie said.
Being labeled a ‘DEI bishop’
Boxie also addressed the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which he said has been “hijacked.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are “biblical” concepts and are “part of our Catholic tradition,” he said. DEI was originally “trying to correct a number of institutional wrongs that have occurred in our country,” in employment, education, housing, healthcare, and other “disparities.”
Now, Boxie said he believes there is a “negative association” with DEI.
It is now seen as taking “something away from a white person who deserves it, who merits” and “giving it to a Black person, or a brown person, or a minority who doesnʼt deserve it, who doesnʼt merit it. Thatʼs what the association is right now, and itʼs just not true.”
“Some people may believe that I have been selected, picked, because Iʼm Black,” Boxie said about his appointment as bishop.
“Iʼve thought about this, Iʼve reflected on this. And you know what? Iʼm actually OK with that … because I think my background, my formation, my experience, even though it has been … limited, I think it has prepared me for this moment.”
“I do fundamentally believe that even though in my mind … we never feel ready for whatever the Lord calls us to, but I know that he … has been providing the grace.”
Also, “we need Black bishops in the United States,” he said. “We need the voice of African American bishops, men in the hierarchy in the Church structure to be more of an advocate for the Black Catholic community.”
“I think that the pope has realized that this voice needs to be at the table. And what better way to have a Black Catholic voice than a Black Catholic bishop?”