PASCAGOULA – For 100 years, the Knights of Peter Claver, Father Charles Council #4, named after the pioneering African American Josephite Father Charles Randolph Uncles, has been performing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
On February 14, Claverites from inside and outside Council #4, as well as members of the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, gathered at St. Peter the Apostle Parish to celebrate their centennial.
St. Peter the Apostle pastor Father Charles McMahon, SSJ, who is also a Claverite, was principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass.
Father McMahon said that each Claverite, upon being inducted into the order, is given a book outlining the duties of a Knight of Peter Claver, which is the largest historically African-American Catholic lay organization in the United States.
“I’ve read the book. A lot of it is about how we’re to salute and how we’re supposed to carry our sword and how to wear our fezzes and everything like that,” he said. “That’s fine. That’s the external. But what does it say about the internal for all of us? We exist for service to God and to our neighbor.” Service to God? What on earth could we give to God? He has everything. No, he doesn’t in one sense. He doesn’t have our lifting up of our hearts and minds to him in prayer and honoring him. All the externals are wonderful but, if they don’t have an internal foundation, don’t you think they’re a little hypocritical?”
The Knights of Peter Claver, he said are about “service to God and His holy Church.”
That motto, Father McMahon said, can also be used to describe Father Uncles, a native of Baltimore who was the first black American trained to be and ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the United States, having been ordained in Baltimore in 1891 by Cardinal James Gibbons.
Other black men were ordained before Father Uncles, but, as Father McMahon explained, prejudice prevented those men from being trained and ordained inside the United States.
Father McMahon shared an interesting story about Father Uncles’ journey to priesthood.
“In 1888, before the American Josephites were born, we had a seminary in Baltimore. We founded our seminary in 1888,” he said. “Charles Uncles came to that seminary. It was right next door to St. Mary Seminary, which is the oldest seminary in the United States. Charles Randolph Uncles comes on the scene. St. Mary’s was an all-white seminary. Were they willing to accept him? There was a quandary among the powers-to-be. They seemingly wanted to accept him, but they were afraid of the students. So what they did was take a poll on whether they should accept Charles Randolph Uncles into St. Mary’s Seminary. It was a big seminary. They had a lot of students. God was there because the students voted unanimously to accept Charles Randolph Uncles into their seminary and he was the first black priest trained and ordained in the United States. That’s his claim to fame.”
Father Uncles taught his whole life, mainly in Baltimore and Newburgh, New York and died in 1933.
“He taught in our seminary. He taught many (Josephite) men who came to the seminary,” Father McMahon said.
Today, Father Uncles’ legacy endures through the good works of Father Charles Council # 4, which was formed on February 13, 1909 when 34 men were initiated in what was then known as the Scranton community.
Athanase Jones, district deputy for the Knights of Peter Claver Gulf Coast District, said Father Charles Council #4 has been a trailblazer, leading the way for the overall organization’s growth.
“When we formed the first four councils of the Knights of Peter Claver, three of them were in the Mobile area.,” said Jones, a native of New Orleans whose mother and grandfather were from Pascagoula and who also lived in Pascagoula for a period of time as a child during the 1970s, when he was brought into the Junior Knights by Jackie Elly a member of Father Charles Council #4 and a past Supreme Knight.
“This was the first one outside the Mobile area. I consider it to be sort of the first expansion council, if you will. Once it expanded it past Mobile, Louisiana came and Texas came, followed by the west coast and the northern states. This was the stepping off point. Had it not spread here first, it may not have spread as rapidly as it did.”
Today, the Knights of Peter Claver, named for Peter Claver (1581-1654) a Spanish Jesuit priest who for 33 years ministered to African slaves in the New World, and tried to stop the slave trade, even has a unit in San Andres, Colombia, South America. That particular unit was established in 2006.
The Knights of Peter Claver consists of six divisions: Knights of Peter Claver, Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, Junior Knights, Junior Daughters, 4th Degree Knights and Ladies of Grace. The Knights of Peter Claver helps the sick and disabled, including victims of Sickle Cell Anemia. It also provides scholarships and other educational programs/services for youth and is a strong supporter of the United Negro College Fund as well as a driving force in promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Gilbert Alton Smith has been a member of Father Charles Council #4 for 50 years.
“The Knights of Peter Claver mean a whole lot to me,” said Smith, who joined because his grandfather was a Claverite and his mother was a member of the Ladies Auxiliary. His brother was also a Claverite.
Elly, who has also been member of the Knights of Peter Claver for more than half a century, said the Father Charles Council’s 100th anniversary is cause for great celebration.
“You think about all those people who came before you and what they went through in the Church and, for an organization that is predominantly African American to survive after all these years, took a lot of faith, hope and love with everybody working together,” he said.
Now, as the Father Charles Council # looks ahead to the future, the key to its growth, Elly said, is getting the word out about the great works being done by the Knights of Peter Claver.
“Membership is the big thing,” said Elly, who is Grand Knight for Council 4. “There’s so much competition out there. “With us being predominantly African American, we don’t have a lot of the resources other organizations have, so the only thing we can offer is ourselves. We believe that, if we can sell ourselves to people, then we can get more members. We don’t provide a lot of the economic benefits, but we have ourselves and that’s the best thing we can give.”
To learn more about the Knights of Peter Claver, including the many worthwhile programs the organization offers, visit http://home.catholicweb.com/kofpc/index.cfm?reinit=y
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