Plaque honoring Bishop Joseph Howze, first openly Black U.S. ordinary, to be dedicated in Biloxi

The late Bishop Joseph Howze of Biloxi, the nation’s first openly Black diocesan ordinary, will be honored on Friday, Aug. 30, with the dedication of a memorial plaque at Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, a historically Black parish.

The plaque was unveiled earlier this year by Oran Caravan #67 Order of Alhambra, a Catholic fraternal order that collaborated with Howze during his 24-year stint as the first ordinary of the diocese. They first announced plans for the memorial late last year, during a Mass for the special needs community—with which Howze was particularly close during his tenure.

“The Alhambra organization, Catholic men and women, had the opportunity to talk to [Howze] and tell him about the organization, which deals with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Alhambra member Jim Rigby told WLOX News this week.

“He jumped on that, because the Church is for everybody.”

Howze was a chaplain to the Alhambra Order, having become a member himself during his episcopate. During his tenure, the order commenced plans for a group home serving the local special needs community. The result was the Alhambra House in Gulfport, where it still operates as a four-bedroom facility operated by Brandi's Hope.

It was one of several charitable initiatives collaborated on by Howze, one of several notable Black prelates in his era. Raised a Baptist in Alabama in the early 20th century, he attended a Josephite elementary school before converting to Catholicism as an adult. He later entered religious life with the Josephites before leaving and becoming an educator.

He returned to seminary in the 1950s and was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh in 1959 under the racially progressive Bishop Vincent Waters. Howze was the first-ever Black priest in the state of North Carolina. He was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Natchez in 1972, becoming just the second openly Black Catholic prelate in U.S. history.

When the Diocese of Biloxi was created five years later, Pope Paul VI named Howze as the founding ordinary, a position in which he remained until his retirement in 2001. He was the nation's first Black Catholic ordinary since the late 19th century, when Bishop James A. Healy served as Bishop of Portland in Maine while passing for White.

During his tenure in Biloxi, Howze served as president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, as well as on various committees of what is now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He also received honorary degrees from the University of Portland; Sacred Heart College in Belmont, North Carolina; and Manhattan College. 

As one of the nation’s “first ten” African-American Catholic prelates, Howze was a co-author of the 1984 pastoral letter, “What We Have Seen and Heard: A Pastoral Letter on Evangelization from the Black Bishops of the United States.” He died in 2019 at the age of 95.

Friday’s plaque dedication will take place following a 9am CT Mass celebrated by Bishop Louis Kihneman III of Biloxi at Our Mother of Sorrows. A reception will then take place in the parish hall.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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