The Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, this week officially closed its proceedings regarding the potential sainthood of Servant of God Sister Mary Thea Bowman, a Catholic convert whose work during the 20th century helped the U.S. Catholic Church refine its ministry toward Black American Catholics. <\/p>\n
Jackson Bishop Joseph Kopacz celebrated a Mass on Feb. 9 as part of the closing ceremony of the diocesan phase of Bowman\u2019s cause for canonization. <\/p>\n
The diocese, which opened Bowman\u2019s cause in 2018, officially sealed the documents and other materials it gathered over the course of that phase; the records will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis moment marks an important milestone in the Church\u2019s careful and prayerful discernment of Sister Thea Bowman\u2019s witness to the Gospel,\u201d\u00a0 Kopacz said prior to the ceremony. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer life continues to inspire faith, hope, and joy, not only within our diocese but throughout the Church in the United States and beyond,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Born Dec. 29, 1937, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Bowman \u2014 whose grandfather had been born into slavery \u2014 converted from Methodism to the Catholic Church when she was 9 years old. <\/p>\n
She joined the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at age 15, enrolling at the same time in Viterbo University, which was run by the Franciscan sisters. The school retains its Catholic identity in the present day. <\/p>\n
While studying at The Catholic University of America \u2014 from which she earned a doctorate in English in 1972 \u2014 Bowman helped found the National Black Sisters\u2019 Conference. She would go on to teach for years in La Crosse, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
She was a major contributor to the development of \u201cLead Me, Guide Me,\u201d the Black Catholic hymnal first published in 1987. <\/p>\n
She would eventually become known for her wide-ranging evangelization efforts; theology professor Christopher Pramuk wrote in 2014<\/a> that she \u201cawakened a sense of fellowship in people both within and well beyond the Catholic world,\u201d in part because of her \u201cwillingness to speak the truth about racial injustice\u201d both in the Church and in society. <\/p>\n Addressing the U.S. bishops\u2019 conference in 1989 and reflecting on \u201cwhat it means to be Black in the Church and in society,\u201d Bowman famously sang several lines from the Negro spiritual \u201cMotherless Child\u201d while declaring: \u201cJesus told me that the Church is my home.\u201d <\/p>\n