SAMUELS: In the presence of a future saint: Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman

Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, is shown during a talk she gave at St. Augustine Church in Washington in 1986. Sister Bowman, who died in 1990, is one of six African American Catholics whose causes for canonization are being considered by the Catholic Church. Her sainthood cause was opened in 2018 and she has the title "Servant of God." (CNS photo/Michael Hoyt, Catholic Standard)

On a pilgrimage to Rome in 2004, I witnessed the great pontiff John Paul II lead the Angelus prayer from the entrance of Castel Gandolfo. A year before his death, I saw the living future saint in action as he gave his blessing from a wheelchair on the steps of the building.

Many faces in Houston have had the great pleasure of witnessing a future saint of the Church in action, Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A.

Bertha Bowman was born Dec. 29, 1937, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Her grandfather was a slave, her father was a physician, and her mother a teacher. She was raised Protestant until the age of nine. As a child, she converted to Catholicism through the inspiration of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity. They were her instructors and religious leaders at Holy Child Jesus Church and School in Canton, Mississippi.

At 15, Sister Bowman joined the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she would be the only African American member of her religious community. At her religious profession, she was given the name “Sister Mary Thea” in honor of the Blessed Mother and her father, Theon.

In 1965, she received a bachelor’s degree in English, Speech and Drama from Viterbo College in La Crosse. In 1969, she received a master’s degree in English and, in 1972, a Ph.D. in English Language, Literature and Linguistics, both degrees from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

After 16 years of teaching at the elementary, secondary and university levels, Sister Bowman was asked by then Bishop Joseph Bernard Brunini of the Diocese of Jackson to direct the Office of Intercultural Affairs for the Diocese. In this position, Sister Bowman continued to assail racial prejudice and promote cultural awareness and sensitivity. She was a founding faculty member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans.

In her role as a consultant, Sister Bowman gave presentations across the country and around the world that combined singing, preaching, prayer and storytelling. Her presentations were directed to break down racial and cultural barriers, and she encouraged people of the Church to communicate with one another to understand other cultures and races.

In June 1989, Sister Bowman addressed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their annual June meeting. In this historic program and groundbreaking presentation, Sister Bowman spoke to the bishops as a sister having a “heart-to-heart” conversation with her brothers. She spoke of the Church as her “home,” as her “family of families,” as her trying to find her way “home,” and what it meant to be African American and Catholic.

She enlightened the bishops on African-American history and spirituality. Sister Bowman urged the bishops to continue to evangelize the African-American community, to promote inclusivity and full participation of African-Americans within Church leadership, and to understand the necessity and value of Catholic schools in the African-American community.

Sister Bowman died on Mar. 30, 1990, in her hometown of Canton from breast cancer at 52. Due to her work and actions in the Church, the U.S. bishops endorsed the sainthood cause of Sister Bowman on Nov. 14, 2018, during the bishop’s fall assembly in Baltimore. Sister Bowman is now called Servant of God Thea Bowman and is on her way to being declared a saint of the Church. 

Father Reginald Samuels is the vicar of Catholics of African Descent and pastor of St. Hyacinth Catholic Church in Deer Park.