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Saint Paul
Thursday, March 28, 2024

St. Paul parish rooted in Black Catholic ministry

Father Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, talks with parishioner Eveline Mba, right, and her son, Elvin, after Mass Nov. 8. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

In a year when the quest for racial justice reached center stage locally and nationally, one parish in St. Paul has continued its mission set in the late 1800s: to reach out and be the faith home for African American Catholics. St. Peter Claver parish also welcomes Catholics of all races and ethnic backgrounds, as reflected in the diversity of its parishioners, including white and Asian worshippers, and large numbers of African immigrants.

One parishioner, Loralean Jordan, lauds the parish’s social justice ministry, which she said has always been a critical part of the parish.

The parish held a prayer service for justice and peace in 2016, she said, following the shooting death of 32-year-old African American Philando Castile by a police officer. The prayer service has become an annual event.

The officer-involved death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African American, in May “just accentuated the things that we were already doing as a parish,” Jordan said.

“We continue to … lift up racial justice in our Church and in our world as best we can,” said Father Erich Rutten, the parish’s pastor, who has led the congregation since 2016.

“Members of this parish have really, truly been leaders in our archdiocese, in the archdiocesan Commission for Black Catholics for many, many years (and) in terms of our representation at the national Black Catholic Congress every five years,” he said.

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Father Rutten also is proud of the parish’s “ministry of hospitality.” “We have a well-deserved reputation for (being) a welcoming place for anyone who walks through the door,” he said. “And people feel a spirit here … (and) very little pretense.”

The parish’s roots go back to 1888, the year Bishop John Ireland was elevated from bishop to archbishop of St. Paul, and Jesuit Father Peter Claver was elevated to sainthood. In 1888, the archbishop also named St. Peter Claver patron for a local congregation of Black converts.

Ordained a priest in 1861, then-Father Ireland held classes after the Civil War about the Catholic faith for Blacks who attended the former Cathedral of St. Paul and other nearby churches. Seeking more converts, he organized a mission in a rented Swedenborgian church across from Rice Park. Those converts soon became charter members of a new congregation, St. Peter Claver.

Early members of the St. Peter Claver choir, which was organized around 1896, are pictured on the steps of the church’s former location at Aurora Avenue and Farrington Street.

As numbers grew, the parish built a church near the corner of Aurora Avenue and Farrington Street in 1892, the same year the parish was officially formed.

One beloved pastor in the parish’s history was Father Stephen Theobald, who was born in British Guyana in 1874. Few seminaries accepted students of color at the turn of the century, but St. Paul Seminary accepted Theobald in 1906 and he was ordained for the Diocese of St. Paul in 1910.

An early civil rights advocate, Archbishop Ireland reportedly often said, “There is no room for prejudice in Christianity!”

After Father Theobald’s 1910 ordination, he served briefly as assistant priest at the Cathedral of St. Paul and canonical advisor to Archbishop Ireland. He also was pastor of St. Peter Claver, and was recognized nationally for his writings and lectures on civil rights.

Father Rutten said the parish was founded to support the Black Catholic community in the Twin Cities. Most parishes were very much neighborhood parishes then, he said, with the original St. Peter Claver location serving African Americans living in St. Paul’s former Rondo neighborhood.

In addition to family homes, Rondo served as the business and cultural center of St. Paul’s African American community. The parish completed its present church at 375 Oxford St. in 1957, shortly after construction of Interstate-94 began in 1956.

Government officials reportedly chose the specific I-94 route based on efficiency in connecting downtown St. Paul with downtown Minneapolis. Unfortunately, it cut the Rondo neighborhood in half, fragmenting the community, its economics and families, Father Rutten said.

The neighborhood was in trauma, he said, because so many people lost their homes, were forced to move, received pennies on the dollar for their homes and needed to start over. “There was lots of turmoil,” he said, “and I imagine that the parish … was a source of refuge or, at least, social and emotional, spiritual support during a difficult time.”

According to information published by the Minnesota Historical Society, one in eight African Americans in St. Paul lost a home to I-94, and many businesses never reopened.

Elaine Benner-Minus, 71, grew up in a large house in Rondo that her grandmother bought around 1924. Benner-Minus’ mother was determined not to have her home razed. “My parents had it picked up and moved to the doorstep of the church,” Benner-Minus said. Her sister lives in the family home today.

Benner-Minus is a third-generation member of St. Peter Claver. Her daughter, Ericka, and her children mark generations four and five. Both women describe the parish simply as “home.”

One reason Benner-Minus is so attached to her parish is the reminders it holds of her family’s connections. “Everything about (it) has been touched by some family member,” she said. Her mother designed the altar and had the vision for embellishing the crucifix. “And she was one of the leaders of almost every committee that they had,” Benner-Minus said. When she looks at the school, she sees her mother’s “handiwork,” too, because her mother pushed for it to be established.

Jordan said she didn’t know where she would be living when she moved to Minnesota 20 years ago, but she knew where she’d go to church. Having previously visited St. Peter Claver parish at a friend’s recommendation, she said, “I just felt welcomed and it felt like home.”

Jordan said the faithful will find a rainbow of people at St. Peter Claver parish. “St. Peter Claver is so unique in our demographics and … we worship in its traditional African-American style,” she said. “When I was chair of the parish council, I got more business done during the (sign) of peace,” she said with a laugh. Then after Mass, people linger for coffee “and talk and catch up and make connections,” Jordan said.

Annie Porbeni, 48, represents the changing demographics at St. Peter Claver. She emigrated from Nigeria about 17 years ago.

She and her husband and their three children live in Woodbury near “fantastic churches,” but she wanted a church where her children could meet kids that look like them. A bonus for her is St. Peter Claver’s Black culture and history.

Having African Americans, Caucasians and biracial families was important to her, her husband and children, she said, as well as the parish’s different style of worship — “and knowing that … we’re able to add value to the space that we find ourselves,” she said, “but also we are taking things … that truly enrich our souls.”

St. Peter Claver today is no longer a neighborhood parish, Father Rutten said, but a destination parish. “We’re drawing people from all over the metro.”

St. Leonard of Port Maurice was established in 1940 to serve African American Catholics in Minneapolis. Today, several parishes in the archdiocese serve large Black communities, including Ascension in north Minneapolis (which incorporated St. Philip in 2011) and St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center.

“St. Alphonsus is probably far and away right now what you might call the most significant Black Catholic parish — again, largely African immigrant,” he said. “We (St. Peter Claver) probably still to this day would be considered the strongest example of an African American parish.”

About 16 years ago, Meg Hobday and her husband, both white, were “church shopping.” They live in a predominantly white neighborhood in St. Paul and wanted to connect with more people from different backgrounds. Shopping stopped when her sister invited her to a Thanksgiving Mass at St. Peter Claver.

“The Mass was a really spiritual experience,” she said. “The people were so warm and welcoming. And I was struck by the racial diversity in the church, which I had never experienced at a church in my life. So, I knew that’s what I needed.”

Hobday participates in the church’s social justice committee. She noted its book series discussions (curtailed somewhat by COVID-19) and its work with racial justice. Over the past year, Hobday said a main focus of the committee was ministry to those who have been incarcerated, and the parish offers a support group for families impacted by incarceration. Before this year’s presidential election, a lot of attention was given to getting out the vote, Hobday added, including information about how, when and where to vote.

The Hobdays’ two children attend a racially diverse high school, as well. “I wanted them to grow up with that value of connecting with people from all types of backgrounds,” she said.

That type of connection underscores parish life at St. Peter Claver. The big vision of Church that Catholics all need, Father Rutten said, especially in the modern era, is truly a ‘catholic’ vision, a vision of everybody. “And the Church has been really clear that enculturation is not only acceptable, but an important part of the life of our faith,” he said.

People celebrate their Catholic faith coming out of who they are, he said, and that doesn’t mean its expressions will look the same.

“The Church is always seeking unity,” he said, “but the Church has never demanded uniformity.”

 


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