SAN DIEGO — The Diocesan Commission for African American Catholics will host a Juneteenth Mass on Sunday, June 18, at 10 a.m., to be celebrated by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy.
The Mass marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Texas learned that they were free, marking the end of slavery in the United States.
Everyone is invited to the Mass, to be held at St. Rita Catholic Church, at 5124 Churchward St., in Southeastern San Diego.
The commission works to share the history, faith traditions and concerns of African American Catholics with the broader community.
In recent years, members have promoted the canonization causes of six Black Americans. They are: Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized American Black priest; Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a former enslaved person who became a philanthropic leader in New York; Mother Mary Lange, the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the world’s first religious community for Black women; Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; Julia Greeley, known as Denver’s “Angel of Charity”; and Mother Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family.
