NCR with Olga Segura: Reclaiming space for Black Catholics

NCR culture/opinion editor Olga Segura speaks to Tia Noelle Pratt, director of mission engagement and strategic initiatives and courtesy assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University, and Byron Wratee, a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at Boston College, about a recent Pew Research Center study on Black Catholics, and reclaiming space for them in both the church and society.

Background reading: 

• A new Pew study highlights the often-distinctive religious beliefs, practices and experiences of the approximate 3 million Black Catholics in the United States — about 4% of the nation's Catholics.

• In a commentary, Pratt says the recent Pew Research Center report on Black Catholics is a call to action for scholars and church leaders alike to understand and minister to this population.

• In Wratee's essay, he says that the rich Black prophetic tradition doesn't maintain a strict contrast between the sacred and secular. The prophetic often manifests in Black Christians' words and deeds outside the institutional church.

• NCR's editorial staff addresses the recent Pew study on Black Catholics in America and calls for a higher prioritization of racial justice in our churches.