Twenty-five years ago, on Dec. 3, 2000, three Kentucky-founded congregations — the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Dominicans of St. Catharine, and the Sisters of Loretto — gathered at St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown to publicly acknowledge their communities’ involvement in slavery during the 19th century. Nearly 400 people attended the service, including many from Black Catholic parishes across the region.
Sister Maria Vincent Brocato, then president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, opened the gathering by naming the sorrow the congregations carried for the ways their predecessors supported a system that denied human dignity to so many. Reflecting today, she remembers how the Sisters entered that day knowing they needed to speak truthfully: “We regret that our communities were involved. We’re sorry. We do not judge why it happened or what happened. That’s God’s prerogative. That’s God’s mercy.”
She recalled standing before the many Black Catholics who had traveled in the snow to be present and feeling the weight of the moment as they listened. “They walked up to us and embraced us as if to say, we understand, we appreciate, we know you’re sorry. I carried that with me, and I think I’ll always carry it with me in my heart.”
Recently, Sister Maria Vincent sat down to reflect on that historic service held more than two decades ago:
The gathering had emerged after years of research among the congregations. Records had shown that enslaved people were sometimes given as part of dowries for young women entering religious life. They worked in fields and households and were part of community life in ways that exposed the Sisters’ ties to the broader sin of slavery. Records also show that some enslaved persons were baptized, married, and buried through the Church. “That comforts me, because it means we treated them respectfully… we honored their relationships,” Sister Maria Vincent said.
Even so, this truth demanded a public response: “We owed it to them. We know that the institution of slavery was wrong, was very wrong, and we regret that it existed on our premises.” She also spoke of later injustices, including segregation and how at the time, a woman of color who wanted to enter religious life may have been sent to a community of African American persons because they would not be comfortable in this congregation.
The Sisters planned the service during the Church’s Jubilee Year in 2000, a year marked by repentance and renewal. “We had been called to conversion, to forgiveness, to right relationships, to repentance, reconciliation. The idea of having the reconciliation service fit perfectly with that closing month of the Jubilee Year,” she said.
“We have the responsibility to be the light in the darkness of sinful systems that keep people weighed down.”
The service sparked further commitments within the congregations. The Sisters reexamined their historical ties, expanded multicultural efforts, and strengthened outreach. She recalled one moment from that Jubilee Year when the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker returned to Nazareth: “They rang the bell, and sisters came from doors all over the campus to greet them and welcome them. It was such a connecting, welcoming moment.”
Looking ahead, she expressed deep confidence that Sisters and Associates who follow will continue this work of truth and reconciliation: “I think they have a gift for putting it out there. Whatever the truth is, it’s there — to accept, to regret, to rejoice in. I have great confidence that the truth is in good hands for the future. … We want to embrace a multicultural attitude. That simply is, we believe, the call of the Gospel.”