College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

By Dave Larsen

University of Dayton theologian Joseph Flipper received a Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant for Researchers to complete a book about the U.S. Black Catholic movement, a period from the 1960s to the 1990s during which new organizations emerged and advocated for the pastoral needs of Black Catholics.

The leaders of this movement included the Rev. Joseph M. Davis, S.M., a native Daytonian and UD alumnus who founded the National Office for Black Catholics in 1970. Davis, one of the first African American Marianists, “was charismatic, very intelligent and good at bringing different constituencies together,” Flipper said.

Flipper, associate professor and the Mary Ann Spearin Chair in Catholic Theology, is a nationally recognized scholar of Black Catholicism in the U.S.. Last June, he received $40,000 to support sabbatical leave during the 2024-25 academic year to complete his book, The Black Catholic Movement and the Fight for the Local Church, which is under contract with New York University Press.

The Black Catholic movement began in response to the second Vatican Council, a 1962 to 1965 gathering of Catholic bishops from across the globe that brought radical changes to the Catholic Church. Organizations such as the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and the National Black Sisters Conference, both founded in 1968, promoted Black self-determination in the Catholic Church.

“This was a time when ‘Black Power’ was in the air,” Flipper said. “What I saw from my research was that it wasn’t just a struggle for self-determination inspired by the Black Power movement, but it was also arising out of the themes of the Second Vatican Council and the missionary culture of the 20th century.”

In the 1920s, U.S. Catholic bishops started to merge different ethnic churches — such as those of the Polish and Irish — together in effort to create an “American church.” At the same time, they created separate, segregated Black institutions.

Flipper said bishops denied these separate institutions were motivated by Jim Crow laws and racism. Instead, they said these “missions” were intended to give them ownership over their own churches. 

“Black Catholics latched on to that because their own institutions, parishes and schools were important to them spiritually, but also for the education and advancement of their people,” he said.

The second Vatican Council reaffirmed the missions’ goal to create flourishing local churches. The new Black Catholic organizations of priests, sisters and laity began to negotiate with U.S. bishops to establish what they called an African American ordinariate to oversee all Black Catholic institutions. That effort failed, leading to the founding of the National Office for Black Catholics by Brother Davis.

“In some ways, this book is about a desire for an independent institution that gets blocked — an unfulfilled desire,” Flipper said. “It is also about where the Church can go from here. We know that the Church in the past has changed to adapt to pastoral needs. What new forms of ecclesial life are needed to meet the exigencies of today?”

The Louisville Institute grant and a research travel grant from the University of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism have allowed Flipper to visit historical archives and interview Black Catholic leaders, others who left the Catholic Church for independent African American churches, and participants in Black Catholic congresses during the 1980s and ’90s, among others.

In late January, he attended the Louisville Institute’s Winter Seminar, a three-day gathering during which award recipients from four of the institute’s programs gathered to share their projects and collaborate with fellow researchers.

“With the ‘polar vortex,’ it was frigid outside,” he said. “But the Winter Seminar was a warm environment indoors. I received incredibly helpful feedback from scholars in my small group.”

In December, Flipper attended the conference of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology in Rome. The network joined a Vatican Congress sponsored by the dicastery for education and culture on the future of theology and had an audience with Pope Francis.

Flipper, who joined the UD faculty in 2021, holds a doctoral degree in religious studies from Marquette University. Previously at Bellarmine University, he was drawn to the University of Dayton for the opportunity to connect with the UD Department of Religious Studies’ graduate and doctoral programs.

He is engaging UD graduate students in his research. For example, Elise Abshire has provided feedback on his text. Others, including Hunter Doiron and Vincent LoBiondo, have helped compile information for the project.

“Joseph Flipper's research in Black Catholic history and theology is crucial for both our department and the Church as a whole,” said Jana Bennett, professor and chair of UD's Department of Religious Studies. “Dr. Flipper is helping to make voices of people heard, who have often been overlooked or silenced. He has initiated a focus on Black Catholic theology in his courses and programming for our doctoral program, so his sabbatical grant ties closely to that work and to our programs. We are looking forward to what he learns in his research.”