The black Catholic experience celebrated at Sacred Heart in Joliet

JOLIET – A revival in a Catholic church? How can that be?

Extra-liturgical devotions and programs typically associated with Catholicism are adorations, rosaries, retreats and missions.

But Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Joliet will host its 25th revival, “Let the Church Say Amen,” on Nov. 21 and 22.

Everyone is invited, committee Chairwoman Jennifer Johnson said, regardless of faith denomination. Although the revivalist is Catholic, this is an ecumenical celebration.

Johnson said to expect plenty of foot-tapping music and spontaneous “Amens!”

“This is the black Catholic experience,” Johnson said. “[The revival] leaves you with a purpose. Everyone will get something different out of it, depending on what they’re going through.”

Sacred Heart is 50 percent black, 40 percent white and 10 percent Hispanic.

This year’s revivalist is the Rev. Paul Whittington of St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church in Chicago.

“We look for the preacher, not just the teacher,” Johnson said. “He has to be more than learned. He has to get people fired up.”

One of the featured choirs is the Joliet Central High School New Era gospel choir, led by David Jones, the school’s vocal music director.

Being black and Catholic

Black Catholics are in the minority, Sacred Heart pastor the Rev. Ray Lescher said, especially in the Diocese of Joliet. Johnson, who grew up Catholic, said she was 12 before she ever encountered a black priest – and that occurred at an out-of-state church and he was not saying Mass.

In addition, the exuberant worship style typically associated with the black community was slow to find expression in the Roman Catholic Church, as opposed to expressions associated with European cultures or even that of the Philippines, Lescher said.

But 29 years ago, the Rev. Dick Bennett, pastor of Sacred Heart for 12 years, decided to change that perspective, at least in Joliet, Lescher said. The demographics of the surrounding neighborhood had changed and the future of the church – which will celebrate its 130th anniversary in 2016 – appeared bleak, Lescher said.

So Bennett spent several summers at the Black Catholic Studies program at Xavier University in New Orleans and immersed himself in black culture, black spirituality and black Catholicism, Lescher said.

“He came back with a new vision: The future of Sacred Heart is going to be as a black Catholic church,” Lescher said, “and so he put his emphasis on that. He started the first revival 25 years ago, and I’ve kept it going.”

The new identity – and community presence

For Lescher, the concept of being black and Catholic is not as mysterious as it seems to others. A priest for 29 years, Lescher was once married to a black woman and they worshipped at a black Catholic church in Minnesota.

The annual revival, Lescher said, is just one way Sacred Heart serves the black community. The church also feeds the hungry each Tuesday and opens its hall for community events.

Every two years, Lescher said he invites a black bishop to administer the sacrament of confirmation, thus ensuring that – at least once – the church’s youth will meet a black bishop.

“People see us serving the community,” Lescher said. “That’s probably been the best thing that has broken the ice.”

Aside from the obvious spiritual renewal an ecumenical black Catholic revival offers, both Lescher and Johnson feel attendance from the greater community helps to break down stereotypes and promote understanding – between black Protestants and their Catholic brethren and between black Catholics and Catholics that only know a white Euro-American church.

So what else to expect at the revival? The kiss of peace for one. Altar calls for another.

“It’s very beautiful and solemn,” Lescher said of the altar calls. “The priest prays over the people. It’s not the sacrament of confession, but it’s healing. Sometimes oil is used along with individual prayers on the person. We encourage it. It’s always very meaningful and most of the people will come forward.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: ‘Let the Church Say Amen’

WHEN: 7 p.m. Nov. 21 (youth night) and 5 p.m. Nov. 22

WHERE: Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 337 S. Ottawa St., Joliet

CONTACT: 815-722-0295