Trying to bring back African Catholics

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – The priest had a reason for starting a Mass oriented toward Africans.

People attending it have varied reasons for doing so – including the priest himself.

Father Eric K. Asante, administrator of Sacred Heart-St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, said he added a noon Mass on Sundays, beginning on Epiphany, Jan. 6, this year. 

There are many African Catholics in the Worcester Diocese who attend non-Catholic churches instead of going to Mass, “so we have to find a way to bring them back home to the Catholic Church,” he said. He hasn’t brought these people in yet; “it will take time,” he said. But he’s brought in other Africans.

“It’s a parish Mass, geared toward Africans,” the Ghanaian priest said; it’s not part of the diocesan African Ministry. 

If Father Asante wants it to be part of the African Ministry in the future, “we will humbly embrace them,” said Father Enoch K. Kyeremateng, African Ministry chaplain. “It’s part of evangelization.”

Father Asante said he’s not trying to take people away from the African Ministry’s Masses in Worcester. The multi-country African community at St. Andrew the Apostle, a mission of  St. Peter Parish, has Mass at 11:30 a.m. Sundays, in English and Swahili. The Ghanaian community at St. Joan of Arc Parish has Mass at 2 p.m. Sundays, in Twi with some English. 

Some Africans don’t know Swahili or Twi but they like “African style” worship not found in local English-language Masses, Father Asante said. 

“If they are not feeling what they used to feel at home” in Africa when they attend Mass, and they get invited to a non-Catholic church with “African style” worship in a language they know, they go and stay, he said. 

So he’s trying to welcome them to a Mass where they’ll feel comfortable. The Mass is in English, with some prayers and songs in French and some songs in African languages, he said. 

A couple members of St. Joan of Arc and Deacon Anthony J. Xatse, who’s stationed at St. Paul Cathedral, are helping build the community, Father Asante said.  

When he arrived in July 2018, four African families were members of the parish, Father Asante said. Since then, 28 more African families have joined. 

Sarrah Gohon is to join the Church officially when she is baptized and confirmed and receives her first Communion at next spring’s Easter Vigil. But she’s already involved. 

She said her mother and sister are Muslim, but a neighbor took her to Mass when she was a child in the Ivory Coast. As an adult she attended a Baptist Church there. 

After moving to Worcester she learned about St. Andrew’s, but attended St. Peter’s, which was closer, she said. Then a friend invited her to Sacred Heart-St. Catherine.

“I loved the way we were worshipping, because it reminded me of the way we used to celebrate at home,” she said. “My daughter loves (it) too; she has kids her age.” 

Sept. 1 Ms. Gohon read the Prayer of the Faithful at the noon Mass, when seven African young people received their first Communion.

“Father gave us the chance to get more involved, so it makes me very happy to come to Church,” she said. “I feel … closer to God … because I have learned a lot. … We really feel at home. You can call (Father Asante) anytime and he’s always going to respond and be there for you.” 

Cendrine Nsana, from Cameroon, said she used to go to St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s, and joined Sacred Heart-St. Catherine before Easter. She’s closer to West African people, and there are more of them here, she said. She said she likes the people, the community and Father Asante.

“He knows how to bring people together,” she said.

Father Asante also gave Prosper Kemeh, from Ghana, reason to come to the parish. 

“My kids still go to Christ the King, because Christ the King is closer to us,” he said. So he attends Mass there too, then comes to Sacred Heart-St. Catherine. Sept. 1 he was there with his wife, Salomey Kemeh, and one son. 

“When you come here you see everything looks very lively,” more like in Ghana, Mr. Kemeh said. 

Father Asante raises people’s spirits and makes them more attentive by getting them to sing before he preaches, he said.

“His approach is unique,” Mr. Kemeh said. “You are filled with the Holy Spirit.”

This community embraces all Africans by having an English Mass with some French, since so many countries on the continent use French, he said.

“People from … everywhere in Africa who are Catholics converge here,” said Peter Xatse, a Ghanaian who joined Sacred Heart-St. Catherine several months ago. “That is our strength.” 

If people from different countries come together here “that also strengthens our friendship back in Africa” when they return to visit or to live, he said. “I don’t see fellow Africans as strangers. We come for the same purpose” – Mass.

“Here we don’t hear the Mass in any local (African) language,” but in English with some prayers in French, which works well.

“On the Feast of Pentecost we prayed in local languages,” he said. “It made it lively. People felt at home. We can invite priests from any African country to say Mass. … It makes the people from any individual country feel at home.”

People who’ve been at Sacred Heart-St. Catherine invite others to come and more come each Sunday, Mr. Xatse said.

“That gives me hope that this new African community will grow rapidly and become a recognized part of the parish,” he said.