Word: blacking
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Stallings is regarded by critics as an inveterate grandstander whose grandiose actions could lead to his excommunication -- and eventually a schism within the church that could spread beyond Washington. He was recently president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and built a nationwide following through appearances in black parishes. He claims that he remains within the Catholic Church but rejects its hierarchical rule, charging that the bishops are imperialistic and the church racist. Imani Temple, vows Stallings, "will ask the people what we should be all about...
Catholicism, he believes, should allow experimental worship with broader appeal to the black community, including African-American Masses complete with recitations from black literature. Such an African-American liturgy with an all-black priesthood, Stallings believes, might be patterned after the Eastern rites within the Catholic Church. He seeks to combine "Baptist practices with the beauty and tradition of the Catholic faith." As a young Catholic in North Carolina, Stallings often attended an enthusiastic black Baptist church with his grandmother. Says he: "The church is failing to bind together the church with the needs and aspirations of African Americans...
...Detroit imbroglio, Cardinal Szoka threatens to shut down another 25 parishes by next year unless offerings and memberships increase. Though many white worshipers too are hurt by the retrenchment, the archdiocese's 65,000 black Catholics especially feel that the church is abandoning them. Marian Gabriel, co-chair of a local black Catholic organization, considers Szoka's decision "blatantly racist." Says she: "This is the most disgusting thing I've ever run up against...
Poignantly, these events are occurring just after a meeting of the nation's bishops that endorsed a blueprint for stepped-up evangelism among blacks. A special report to the hierarchy warned that experts are deeply concerned about attrition among black Catholics "leaving the church for Protestant denominations where they will feel more at home." As developments in the two cities indicate, the losses could just be beginning...
...Price's region is central North Carolina, where he has lived for most of his 56 years. His father Will was a traveling salesman who fought a lifelong battle against alcohol and financial insecurity. His mother Elizabeth was one of the genteel metal magnolias who, despite generosity to their black servants, Price notes, were the "chief conveyors" of the racist code that cursed the pre-King South...