The St. Charles Lwanga Center, which for more than 45 years has served as the hub for Black Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, underwent major changes over the summer without the consent of its board, which was summarily dissolved by the chancery.
Members of the former body spoke with Black Catholic Messenger concerning the change, in which the Lwanga Center was merged with the Office of Racial Harmony (ORH) amid longstanding tensions between the former and archdiocesan officials.
Auxiliary Bishop Mark Rivituso and ORH director Joyce Jones, who is Black, announced the merger to the unsuspecting board in June, following the retirement of Lwanga Center director Fr Art Cavitt. The reorganization went into effect July 1.
“My sense is that they did this strictly for money reasons,” said Carolyn Yandell, who served on the board for more than three decades. After members received no response from the archdiocese about their concerns with the merger, Yandell co-authored an open letter to the archdiocese calling the move a “takeover” that is “perpetuating acts of injustice towards Black Catholics and their leadership.”
“We think that there are also some revenge things going on,” she added in comments to BCM.
The Lwanga Center, so named for the lead saint among the Ugandan Martyrs canonized in 1964, was founded in 1978 amid the burgeoning Black Catholic Movement, which had a strong contingent in the St. Louis region. Yandell, who is 75, was among them and served on the local delegation to the first National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) in 1987.
The Lwanga Center, among its various duties, oversaw implementation of NBCC initiatives in the archdiocese and took on the title of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries in 2017. That change came under board president Lynn Squires, and was one of several moves that reportedly rankled other leaders in the archdiocese.
By 2021, the role of NBCC implementation was removed from the auspices of the Lwanga Center and placed under the Office of Racial Harmony, which was founded in 2019 under the leadership of Jones. The ORH also took over an annual Lenten Revival that had formerly been organized by the Lwanga Center.
Rita Montgomery Hollie, a Black Catholic attorney who also served on the Lwanga Center board, said that members had hoped for collaboration with the ORH, but they were instead served with the June announcement of their dismissal.
The unilateral dissolution of the board came just days after Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski praised the Lwanga Center at their 40th annual testimonial dinner. Members say the change was not given in writing and six months later there has been no public announcement.
“I think people are just kind of disheartened, disgusted, tired, in terms of what the church really has in mind for African Americans,” said Hollie.
“You talk about merging and you use an office or business model for pastoral means. You talk about evangelization without paying attention to what's going on in the individual parishes. So we’re once again uprooted.”
The archdiocese, in response to questions from BCM, did not directly address the sentiments of board members, alleged tensions with the archdiocese, or the secrecy of the merger. Bishop Rivituso did note, however, that an announcement of a new Lwanga Center location is forthcoming in 2025.
As of Monday morning, the archdiocesan webpage for the Lwanga Center still refers to a board of directors that “continues the vision” of the organization’s founders.
“Under the new structure, the archdiocese made the decision to sunset the Center’s Board of Directors function,” said Rivituso.
“In conveying this decision at their board meeting, archdiocesan leadership also expressed its profound gratitude to the members for their service and extended an invitation for them to continue serving in the Lwanga Center’s programs, activities, events and ministries.”
According to Rivituso, the Lwanga Center will be housed at the former St. Rita Catholic Church in Vinita Park, a predominantly Black suburb west of St. Louis. The geographical move had been in planning “for several years,” said the prelate. St. Rita was closed in summer 2023.
The dissolution of the Lwanga Center board and the transfer of its work from the Office of Human Dignity and Intercultural Affairs to the newly merged Office of Racial Harmony and Black Catholic Ministries was done, he says, “to provide more focused resources to this important ministry.”
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
