Father Cyprian Davis

By Catholic News Service
ST. MEINRAD, Ind. (CNS) — A funeral Mass was celebrated May 21 at St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad for Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, who died May 18 at Memorial Hospital in Jasper. He was 84.
Father Davis wrote six books, including “The History of Black Catholics in the United States,” published in 1990. He was working on a revised edition of the book at the time of his death.
He also had also written what is considered the definitive biography of Mother Henriette Delille, the black foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in antebellum New Orleans. Her sainthood cause was opened in 1988 and she was declared venerable in 2010.
Born Clarence John Davis Sept. 9, 1930, in Washington, he joined the Catholic Church as a teenager. He studied at St. Meinrad Seminary from 1949 to 1956, was invested as a novice monk in 1950, professed simple vows in 1951, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956.
Father Davis received a licentiate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America, Washington, in 1957, and a licentiate and doctorate in historical sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1963 and 1977, respectively.
He began teaching church history at St. Meinrad in 1963, and in 2012 became the school’s first professor emeritus. Father Davis was an archivist of the archabbey. He also belonged to the American Catholic Historical Association and the Society of American Archivists.
He also served as archivist for the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, of which in 1968 he was a founding member. Father Davis contributed to the second draft of “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” the U.S. bishops’ 1979 pastoral letter on racism, and helped write the initial draft of “What We Have Seen and Heard,” the 1984 pastoral letter on evangelization from the nation’s black Catholic bishops.
His other books include “Christ’s Image in Black: The Black Catholic Community Before the Civil War,” “To Prefer Nothing to Christ,” and “The Church: A Living Heritage,” He was co-author of “Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States,” with Georgetown University theology professor Diana Hayes, and “Stamped With the Image of God: African Americans as God’s Image in Black,” with Dominican Sister Jamie T. Phelps.
“Father Cyprian Davis was a significant leader as a Benedictine monk and priest of St. Meinrad Archabbey and as a spiritual writer, historian, and advocate for the vibrant presence of African-American Catholic leaders,” said a May 18 statement from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.
“Most of all, Father Cyprian was a humble child of God who sought in an unassuming way to live a life of holiness and to place his considerable talents at the service of Christ and his church,” Archbishop Kurtz added.
Father Davis was honored numerous times. In 2007, he received the Marianist Award from the University of Dayton in Ohio. In 2003, he was awarded the Johannes Quasten Medal for Excellence in Scholarship and Leadership in Religious Studies by Catholic University. In 1992, Father Davis won the American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize for “The History of Black Catholics in the United States,” for making the most original and significant contribution to the historiography of the Catholic Church. He also won the Brother Joseph Davis Award in 1991, and was given an honorary degree in 2001 by the University of Notre Dame.
In a 2007 interview with Catholic News Service, Father Davis said his love of history is what helped motivate him to join the church. “I would never describe my odyssey as being an intellectual journey. It was more or less a falling in love with history. It made me fall in love with one of the things history talks about, and that would be the Catholic Church,” he said.
He added his interest in U.S. black Catholic history started upon his return from his studies in Belgium in 1963. “All those times were in ferment, especially in regard to civil rights, and that’s when I began to realize its importance. People began to come and ask me about being black and Catholic: ‘What is my place in the church?'” he recalled. “That’s when I began to realize that this is important. … That’s when I began to do my own research.”
Interviewed at length by CNS in 1999, Father Davis said, “I think to a large extent the mentality of many black Catholics has been that we are a people who are almost like still on mission.” However, he added, “we also should have an understanding of contributions that have been made and are being made. And that there is more to being black and Catholic than the fact that we’ve got nice music,” he noted, laughing, “and that we probably do very, very wonderful liturgies. … There is more.
“There are more things that are out there. And we should be aware. And that we are a part — we are an integral part of the church. That is very important part. We’re an integral part of the church, and we’re not negligible.”
In a 1992 critique of the U.S. bishops’ 1990 pastoral letter “Heritage and Hope: Evangelization in the United States,” written, in preparation for the fifth centenary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Americas, Father Davis said: “What the pastoral fails to say is that both in North America as well as in South America, the Hispanic culture bore the marks of a Catholicism that was African as well as Native American, was black as well as brown.”
Also missing, he added, was acknowledgement that “bishops, priests, religious men and women, and institutions such as convents, monasteries and seminaries in the United States had their slaves.”
In a 2004 column for CNS, Father Davis said, “In another decade or so U.S. Catholics will learn that our church is more black, brown and in-between than Caucasian and more catholic than they dreamed. Will we be prepared for what that will mean?”
He is survived by a cousin and a niece.

DENVER – The Redemptorists of the Denver Province are proclaiming the 2016 Jubilee Year of Our Mother of Perpetual Help on Sunday, April 26 – the exact date the ancient icon of the Mother of God that enjoyed ‘great veneration and fame for its miracles’ was first presented for public veneration a century and a half ago in the Redemptorist church of Sant’Alfonso in Rome.
The Jubilee Year of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is being ushered in with two special events: noted iconographer Brother Dan Korn will share the spirituality of the beloved icon with the hundreds of people expected to attend the Seelos Healing Mass in New Orleans; and a special replica of the original Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, written by a Polish Redemptorist specifically for the Jubilee Year, will be presented to the Redemptoristine community in Liguori, Mo., for veneration. The Redemptorists plan a three-year celebration of the 150th anniversary of the date Pope Pius IX gave the congregation the beloved icon with the mandate, “Make her known throughout the world!”
Year I (2015) is a preparation year for renewed devotion to Mary as Our Mother of Perpetual Help.   The spirituality of the icon is being shared at presentations throughout the Denver Province. Earlier this year, Br. Korn presented a reflection on the icon at Locus Benedictus Retreat Center in Greenwood.
Year II (2016) will focus on the anniversary celebration for the entire worldwide congregation and those who have a special devotion to Mary as Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Highlights of this 150th Jubilee Year include a Denver Province celebration at the site of the first public Tuesday novenas to Our Mother of Perpetual Help – St. Alphonsus “Rock” Church in St. Louis – on Monday, June 27, 2016.  It was from this historic church that the world-wide practice of ‘weekly’ novena prayers spread throughout the entire country. The Most Rev. Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Indianapolis, will preside at the celebration, which will be telecast to every ministerial site in the Denver Province. Each ministerial site plans a procession of the icon and a special viewing of the celebration in St. Louis. Pope Francis will be invited to participate in the worldwide celebration at the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help at Sant’Alfonso Church in Rome.
Year III (2017) will be a renewal the Redemptorist ministry to proclaim the Gospel, especially through the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help as a tool of evangelization. The Jubilee Icon will be sent as a ‘missionary icon’ to each ministerial site in the Denver Province, as well as to other churches and arch/dioceses that request the presence of this miraculous icon.
For more information about events planned throughout the Denver Province, please contact local Redemptorist ministerial sites.
The Redemptorists are a religious congregation of Catholic priests and Brothers founded in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Liguori in Naples, Italy. Approximately 5,000 Redemptorists are currently working for the poor and most abandoned in nearly every part of the world. More than 400 Redemptorist priests, Brothers and students represent the Denver Province in much of the United States, as well as Brazil and Nigeria.

Bishop William Benedict Friend, the founding Bishop of the Diocese of Shreveport, died at his home in Coral Springs, Florida, Thursday, April 2.  Born Oct. 22, 1931, in Miami, Bishop Friend was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in Mobile, Ala., on May 7, 1959. He and retired Bishop William Houck of the Diocese of Jackson, were good friends.
After lengthy service as a parish priest and pastoral research specialist, Father Friend was named as Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria, La., in 1979, becoming bishop of Alexandria in 1983. Under the direction of St. John Paul II, Bishop Friend founded the Diocese of Shreveport in July 1986 and remained bishop of that diocese until his retirement in 2006 after 47 years of active priesthood, 36 of those years serving as a bishop. He leaves behind a remarkable legacy of public speaking, pastoral experience, teaching and educational administration as well as published works on both professional and research levels.
Bishop Houck remembers a joyful man who “lived up to his name,” befriending all who knew him. “He was a capable and dedicated leader. He had a joyful and generous manner of using his values, talents and abilities in service to others,” said Bishop Houck. He added that Bishop Friend was a great supporter of Catholic schools. “He contributed greatly in research and planning, which he used to help the church and society at large,” added Bishop Houck.
“He left me a diocese in wonderful shape,” commented current Shreveport Bishop Michael Duca.  “His many years of work to create an active and dedicated community of priests and lay faithful is a tribute to his enormous skill and pastoral leadership.  All of us within our worship community remain grateful for his ministry to us.”
The Funeral Mass was Tuesday, April 14, at the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans located in Shreveport. The diocese has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Catholic Charities.

By Matthew Gambino
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) – Organizing for the World Meeting of Families and the visit by Pope Francis to Philadelphia in September has taken a major step forward with the announcement of the 15 committees and leadership charged with spearheading operations in hospitality, liturgy, volunteers and more.
Executives for the events including Auxiliary Bishop John J. McIntyre and Independence Blue Cross CEO Daniel Hilferty, who is a co-chairman of the World Meeting of Families-Philadelphia, unveiled the committees and introduced their chairpersons at the IBX headquarters March 11.
The congress has already registered approximately 7,500 attendees, according to officials. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people from the United States and 150 countries are expected to register for the Sept. 22-25 congress. Up to two million people are also anticipated for the papal events, including a cultural celebration and Mass celebrated by the pope, Sept. 26-27.
The Diocese of Jackson has partnered with Proximo Travel to offer three different trips to the event. Unfortunately, fewer than two dozen people are currently signed up to go. One trip is an eight-day trip by air and includes hotel, most meals, registration to the World Meeting of Families and Mass with Pope Francis. The second trip is five days and includes airfare, hotel rooms, tours of Philadelphia, some meals and Mass, but does not include attendance at the conference. The final trip is a five-day trip by bus which includes Mass with the pope. The bus must be full in order to make the trip so it is important to reserve a seat early. Air travelers can fly out of any airport in the continental United States so parishes in any part of the diocese can arrange to fly out of the airport nearest to them. Exact details of each trip are posted on the Diocesan News section of www.jacksondiocese.org.
“I just think this is such a unique opportunity to get in touch with what we call the one, holy, Catholic church,” said Kami LeVern, of Proximo Travel.
“For some, the chance to see Pope Francis will be a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” she added. As an added bonus, Proximo is donating profits from the trip to Catholic Charities.
The World Meeting of Families, held every three years, will come to the United States for the first time since it was begun by St. John Paul II in 1994. The aim of the congress is to strengthen the bonds of family life and highlight its value to society throughout the world.
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said in a statement that he was grateful to the people serving on the committees. “I’m confident that we will create a beautiful and memorable week for our families here in the Philadelphia region – and for families from around the world,” he said.
To join the diocesan trip to the World Meeting of Families, call LeVern at Proximo travel, 855-842-8001.
(Maureen Smith, editor of Mississippi Catholic, contributed to this report.)

By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — U.S. millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, don’t want to be pigeonholed into categories.
They are predominantly religiously unaffiliated and not identified by any political party. They are more ethnically and racially diverse than the general population.
This group of 18- to 35-year-olds doesn’t like to be labeled as “pro-life” or “pro-choice.” They mostly approve of the use of contraception and they support policies to make contraception more widely available and affordable. They also have a predominantly positive view of marriage, not viewing it as old-fashioned or out of date.
These findings are from a study released March 27 by the Public Religion Research Institute, which surveyed 2,314 young adults online in February. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. The study, “The 2015 Millennials, Sexuality and Reproductive Health Survey,” looked at how race and religion shape attitudes on these topics.
During a presentation in Washington to review the results, panelists including health care advocates and Robert Jones, the research institute’s CEO, emphasized that today’s young adults tend to form their views on sexuality and reproductive health based on those of friends and family.
They said millennials focus on relationships and tend to take a more liberal view such as supporting same-sex marriage or accepting those who are gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual. The group, as a whole, also tends to be pragmatic. As one panelist pointed out, millennials have always lived in a world where HIV/AIDS exists.
“Experience trumps ideology,” said more than one panelist, noting that often young adults base their opinions on experiences of people they know.
According to the survey, 71 percent of millennials said the use of contraceptives was morally acceptable and 9 percent said it was morally wrong. Fourteen percent said it depends on the situation.
When the survey group was broken down by religious and ethnic traditions, white evangelical Protestants stood out as the only group that views abstinence as more effective than contraceptives.
Seventy-two percent of white Catholics and 74 percent of Hispanic Catholics said an emphasis on safe sexual practices and contraception was more effective than abstinence. The Catholic Church teaches that artificial contraception is morally wrong.
On the issue of abortion, millennials reflect the attitudes of the general public. Fifty-five percent of them said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Along religious divides, 80 percent of white evangelical Protestants again said abortion should not be legal. Fifty-one percent of white Catholic millennials and 55 percent of Hispanic Catholics said abortion should be legal.
The Catholic Church believes abortion is morally wrong and that human life is sacred from conception onward.
Compared to other ethnic groups, Hispanic millennials exhibited the greatest moral reservations about having an abortion. Forty-five percent of Hispanic millennials said having an abortion is morally wrong, compared to 35 percent of whites, 30 percent of blacks and 23 percent of Asia Pacific Islanders.
The survey also showed that 73 percent of millennials said sexual assault is at least somewhat common on college campuses and 53 percent said such incidents are somewhat common in high schools.
In another reveal, the survey notes that millennials view men who concentrate too much on work as a more serious concern for families than women who have a full-time job. Forty-nine percent of millennials said that family life suffers when men focus too much on their work, compared to 30 percent who said family life suffers when a woman has a full-time job. Sixty-six percent of millennials disagreed that women working full time is a threat to family well-being.
When panelists reviewing the survey were asked what it is millennials, so often described as nonjudgmental, really want, the consensus was that they want what everyone else does: love, support and companionship.

By Peter Finney Jr.
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) — Let the record show that never before in the nearly 300-year history of St. Louis Cathedral have Catholics seen a dancing bishop.
But when Bishop Fernand “Ferd” Cheri III, a Franciscan priest and native son, made his first remarks to the nearly 1,000 people gathered for his ordination as auxiliary bishop March 23, the hometown boy in him couldn’t resist breaking into several spirituals and even moving a few body parts.
Very reverently.
Bishop Cheri, 63, spoke briefly after giving Communion to his 87-year-old mother, Gladys, seated proudly in the front pew just six weeks after she had fallen and broken her right hip.
Gladys Cheri’s medical condition hardly fazed her as she jumped to her feet and began twirling a colorful “second line” umbrella — a local custom at celebrations — as Bishop Cheri broke out into song during his remarks before the final blessing.
All of the Cheri ladies — the bishop’s four sisters and his mother — were dressed in red, the episcopal color. Bishop Cheri’s brother Richard, a longtime choir leader, watched from the balcony as he directed the Archdiocese of New Orleans Gospel Choir, established 31 years ago by then-Father Cheri.
“I feel like King David felt when the ark of God was being brought into Jerusalem,” Bishop Cheri said, smiling broadly after being ordained the 11th auxiliary bishop of New Orleans by Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, who heads the archdiocese. He joins the ranks of about a dozen U.S. black Catholic bishops.
Two of those bishops, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta and Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis, Tennessee, were co-consecrators. Bishop Joseph Kopacz and Bishop Emeritus Joseph Latino were also on hand.
“Like David, I’m so overjoyed by God’s blessings and God’s grace and God’s mercy. I feel like I have to give a testimony,” Bishop Cheri said.
That drew murmurs from the knowing crowd, many of whom had heard Bishop Cheri speak before in their churches or at Gospel-based revivals.
An organist began playing a few notes, indicating a joyful noise was about to erupt.
It did.
In his remarks, Bishop Cheri used the lyrics of some of his favorite spirituals to express what he was feeling inside. He was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1978 before transferring to the Franciscans in 1992. His most recent appointment was as director of campus ministry at Quincy University in Illinois, a Franciscan university.
“Lift every voice and sing, to give all praise, all glory and honor to God,” Bishop Cheri said, reciting one song. “For I’ve come — we’ve come — this far by faith … treading a path through the blood of the slaughter. … I feel like singing my song, I feel like singing my song. Yes, I’ve been through a lot, and I’m going with Jesus all the way.”
Citing the lyrics of another spiritual, Bishop Cheri said he wanted to give thanks to the many people who had lifted him up during the toughest moments of his seminary and priestly life. When Bishop Cheri faced several racially charged incidents, he said God allowed him to persevere in his vocation by bringing people into his life, especially members of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, who told him personal stories about what they had endured.
“I want to give thanks to so many who have taught me and ‘brought me along a mighty long way,’” Bishop Cheri said.
After Bishop Cheri returned to his chair to extended applause, Archbishop Aymond turned to the congregation and said: “I think this afternoon we have been to church.”
Earlier, in his homily before the rite of ordination, Archbishop Aymond looked at his fellow Notre Dame Seminary alumnus and said: “Ferd, welcome home!”
From one hometown priest to another, it was a touching, fraternal moment.
Archbishop Aymond thanked Gladys Cheri and her late husband, Fernand Jr., for rearing seven children and helping see to it that all “were brought up in the faith.”
All seven Cheri children attended Catholic elementary and high schools, and all seven earned college degrees while Fernand Jr. made ends meet for his family on a postal carrier’s salary.
“Ferd, we also thank you for your faith and your priestly ministry over the years and for faithfully answering God’s call to serve the church as a servant leader,” Archbishop Aymond said.
Archbishop Aymond also noted that Bishop Cheri followed in the footsteps of the late Auxiliary Bishop Harold R. Perry of New Orleans, who in 1966 became the first African-American Catholic bishop in the United States in the 20th century.
“You bring the richness of the African-American tradition to our church,” Archbishop Aymond said. “Bishop Perry led a prophetic life. Ferd, you have the privilege to walk in his footsteps.”
Archbishop Aymond explained three of the outward signs of the bishop’s office: the ring as a symbol of “unconditional fidelity to Christ and his church”; the miter, a bishop’s headpiece, as a sign of the “call to holiness”; and the crozier, or pastoral staff, representing “Christ the Good Shepherd in whose name he will lead.”
“Ferd, sometimes you will find yourself leaning on the pastoral staff acknowledging your dependence on Jesus, especially when you bear the burdens of God’s people,” Archbishop Aymond said. “When you lean on the crozier, be reminded of your motto, ‘God is My Strength.’” Since so much is expected of a bishop, he said, it may seem like an impossible burden.
“Can you do all of this?” the archbishop asked. “Yes, if you stay close to Jesus the Good Shepherd. As you follow him, you will be able to lead others.
“Ferd, we are here today to pray with you and support you. We also promise to be there tomorrow as you fulfill your important ministry as bishop of the church.“
(Finney is executive editor and general manager of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.)