Image of Father Albert McKnight courtesy of The Congregation of the Holy Spirit
Parishioners in rural Kaplan, La., just west of Lafayette, must have found their sophisticated new priest, Father Albert McKnight, a curious figure upon his arrival there in 1957. He was a priest who would later argue that the Catholic Church was fundamentally racist, all the while remaining a faithful member of it and working for healing and justice.
The Brooklyn native, one of the few African-American Holy Ghost (Spiritan) priests in the United States at that time, was possessed of a good education and a powerful intellect. One year after his ordination in 1952, he was assigned to a parish in Lafayette, deep in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country. He also found himself serving communities like Kaplan with illiteracy rates of up to 75 percent.
The Tablet March 1, 2021
The following is the full text from homilist Father Franklin Ezeorah, for the Feb. 28, 2021 Black History Month Mass:
“I like to begin by thanking your excellency Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, the Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn Diocese, and the Very Reverend Father Alonzo Cox, the Vicar for the Black Catholic Concerns of the Diocese of Brooklyn, for graciously allowing me to be the homilist of this year’s Diocesan Black History celebration. This Diocese is arguably the most diverse in the US because of its openness to welcome immigrants and its diversified nature of pastoral ministration… and the credit goes to you, Bishop, and your collaborators for realizing that there is strength in diversity. We essentially embrace diversity because although we have different people globally, we have only one human race.