Bishop Barber: You Have a Role in Making Saints

Dear friends,

A while back we had the premiere in our diocese of a new documentary film on the life of Father Augustus Tolton, “Tolton Speaks.” I’ve written here about Father Tolton before. 

He was born in slavery in 1854 in Missouri. His mother escaped with him and his siblings and brought them to Quincy, Illinois, a free state. The Tolton family was Catholic and Mrs. Martha Tolton wanted her son to go to Catholic school. 

But not every Catholic school would welcome a black child, and it took Mrs. Tolton a few tries before she found a Catholic priest and sisters who would  welcome her son. His faith grew, and at the end of his teen years, he felt a call to the priesthood. 

His Irish pastor believed in Augustus and in his vocation, but no Catholic seminary or novitiate in the United States would accept a black student in 1880. Young Tolton was accepted in a seminary in Rome, was ordained a priest there in 1886 and celebrated his first Mass in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

Church authorities sent him back to the U.S. to minister to black Catholics. But like Jesus, Father Tolton was not universally welcomed in his hometown. His Masses were popular and he attracted not only African American but also white Catholics who loved to hear his preaching and impressive voice chanting the Latin Mass. White Catholic priests and black Protestant ministers both accused Father Tolton of “stealing their parishioners.” 

The bishop of Chicago invited Father Tolton to establish the first parish for black Catholics in that diocese. He was a very successful pastor, worked tirelessly serving his community and built a new church. He collapsed on a Chicago street and died of heatstroke in 1897 at the young age of 43.

Dr. Chiquita Tuttle, Bishop Joseph N. Perry, and Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ at the premiere of the documentary film on the life of Father Augustus Tolton, “Tolton Speaks.”

​After seeing the impressive film, I’m not exaggerating stating that everyone in the audience thought Father Tolton was a saint.

Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, thought the same thing. In 2010 he initiated the official process for his canonization. After 19 years of research on Tolton’s life, Pope Francis declared Father Tolton 
“venerable” in 2019, affirming that Father Tolton led a life of heroic virtue.

Now comes the hard part. To be declared “blessed,” the stage before “saint,” the Church requires a miracle be granted through the prospective saint’s intercession. This is a sign or a “proof” that the prospective saint is in heaven.

Here is where you and I come in. If you too believe Father Tolton is a saint and should be declared such by the Church, you can pray for a family member or friend’s healing. If you are visiting someone who has a terminal illness, you can place a holy card with Tolton’s image on the person and pray to God to heal that person through Father Tolton’s intercession. If the person recovers, or is healed, please report the fact to the archbishop of Chicago. The more people who pray for healing mercy to be shown to their friends and loved ones through Father Tolton, the more chance there is that one of these cures will qualify as the required miracle.

We do this because it works.

In 1990 a Jesuit priest placed a holy card of Father Claude de la Colombiere on the chest of Father John Houle, who doctors said would die that night. He prayed to Father Claude for healing. 

The next morning the sick priest was sitting up in bed, and there was absolutely no sign of his pulmonary fibrosis. No medications were given. Only prayer. The Holy See investigated and declared there was no medical explanation for the healing. Father Claude de la Colombiere was canonized a saint in St. Peter’s in 1991. I was at the Mass and witnessed Father Houle concelebrate the Mass with Pope John Paul II.

It Fr. Augustus Toltontakes faith. Scripture tells us Jesus could work no miracles in his hometown “due to their lack of faith.” Oakland is full of faith, and I am hoping the miracle for Father Tolton’s beatification will come from our diocese. Let’s start praying through Father Tolton’s intercession that God will show His healing hand on the sick and suffering of our diocese.

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Prayer for Father Augustus Tolton

O God, we give you thanks for your servant and priest, Father Augustus Tolton, who labored among us in times of contradiction, times that were both beautiful and paradoxical. His ministry helped lay the foundation for a truly Catholic gathering in faith in our time. We stand in the shadow of his ministry. May his life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization for the Church we love. 

Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death. If it be your Will, O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton, by granting the favor I now request through his intercession (mention your request) so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved.

Complete what you have begun in us that we might work for the fulfillment of your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but glory to you O God, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and reigning forever and ever.

Amen