FAIRFIELD, Ala. | He started out as just some guy joining us for lunch. Mr. Joe sat down with us at St. Mary's Parish in Fairfield for a traditional Indian lunch prepared by the pastor, Fr. Alphonse Nelson, a Passionist priest and one of a growing number of Indian clergy being brought to the Birmingham Diocese to help minister amidst a shortage of priests. Like everyone else gathered for the monthly meeting for clergy and representatives of the African American Catholic paris

It's a question that kept ringing through my mind as we toured the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and saw the news reports and testimony from people who were in Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and so many other places in the Deep South in the 1950s and 60s. The museum is located next door to the 16th Street Baptist Church, where on Sept. 15, 1963, a bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded, killing four girls and injuring 22 churchgoers. The bombing is largely co

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | Passionist Fr. Bob Crossmyer 's seen a lot in his more than 30 years of ministry in the African American community. After a career as a teacher in the Detroit public school system, Fr. Bob was ordained in the mid-1980s and assigned to St. Clotilde Parish in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood. There, he found some distinct differences in his flock. At his early Mass, the pews were filled with African Americans of Creole origin, coming from Louisiana. With a long

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | It wasn't a towering basilica. The windows were simple. The sanctuary had a simple altar of white brick, a few wooden candlesticks. The people, though, were undoubtedly Christ for us, and in a way you won't find in a mega parish or tourist church. As we rolled in to Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, one of Birmingham's historic African American parishes, many of the neighboring homes were abandoned. James Watts, the diocesan director of Black Catholic

BESSIMER, Ala. | There's something to be said about Southern hospitality. After about 12 hours on the road, we began trickling into St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bessimer, Ala., and were immediately greeted by parishioners in the parking lot who invited us inside and encouraged us to make ourselves at home. There was a warmth in their welcome that was so genuine, so unique, so special. Founded in 1940 by Conventual Franciscans, the parish was established to respond to the n