Tea at Trianon: A Mission for Justice

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 6, 2016

A Mission for Justice

In a time of civil unrest and racial tensions it is most refreshing to read a book which documents the triumph of faith over hatred and prejudice. Mary A. Ward's A Mission for Justice tells of the first African-American Catholic parish in Newark, New Jersey, called Queen of Angels. Throughout the 1920's and 30's African-American families were leaving the Deep South and migrating north in search of jobs in the cities. Many found themselves living in poverty in slums and without the community networks they had originally had. Many Christian sects stepped in to fill the gap, especially the Baptists and the African Methodist Episcopal church, which gave economic as well as moral and spiritual support to the black community. However, African-American Catholics had no place to worship, unless they became Protestant, which they chose not to do. There were Catholic churches but they were in different neighborhoods and often blacks were marginalized in parish life. A small group of intrepid African-American women used their scant resources and boundless trust in God to plant the seeds of a Catholic parish in the inner city. They began by meeting in each others' homes and renting store fronts, where they began thrift shops, sodalities, catechism classes, and nursery schools. The ladies who did such work shine forth as truly great members of the Catholic Church in America, and I am grateful to Dr. Ward for keeping their memory alive. They insisted upon their children being respectful and well-behaved. A nun named Sr. Peter Claver helped them as did a series of priests who embraced the sacrifices that a poor parish entailed. Sadly, over the decades, Queen of Angels was often overlooked by the local diocese.

The parish thrived in the forties and fifties, providing a vibrant social life for the local black community as well as actively caring for the poor, all of which surrounded the powerhouse of prayer, devotions and the sacraments which was Queen of Angels. In the sixties, church members participated in the Civil Rights movement; in fact all the African-American churches helped to organize rallies, marches and protests. It is heartbreaking to read how in the seventies the neighborhood sank into misery as crime became more and more of a problem; parish membership declined although the beautiful church of Queen of Angels stayed open for a few more decades. It is now closed.

For an inside look at contemporary African-American history, I highly recommend A Mission for Justice. Dr. Ward's meticulously researched and documented work is a fascinating read which challenges the smug assumptions of both the left and the right.

Share