A Colorful, Vibrant Church
By Jency Clement
I always knew that when I went to college, I really needed to go. I needed to get out of my bubble, go somewhere different, somewhere where I could challenge myself, and really grow up. And that hopeful call led me 2,492 miles away, to a little college in Ohio where I was one out of maybe 4 brown people within a 5-mile radius.
Man, was it weird to be the only one. Everyone was welcoming and kind, yet I still struggled with feeling like I didn’t belong. It was off-putting to be an Indian Catholic in what felt like a white Catholic’s world. It wasn’t just walking into church and seeing a sea of white people I didn’t think I fit with. It was bigger than that. It was also scrolling through Catholic Instagram feeds and only seeing pictures of white people. It was finding Catholic videos or podcasts featuring mainly white Catholic artists and speakers (with the exception of Fr. Josh Johnson, I love that dude).
Back at home, it was different. I was from the Seattle area, so it was totally normal to walk into a church and see people from all over the world. Our parish celebrated its ethnic diversity, which was particularly evident during Marian feast days. For instance, on the Feast of our Lady of Velankanni, all of us Indians decked out in our traditional clothing, processed around the Church carrying a statue of Our Lady of Velankanni, and celebrated the Mass with readings and songs in different languages.
To be honest, when I was younger, I thought it was fun mostly because of the party we had after (there was so much good food!), but as I grew older, I finally started to realize what a gift it was to grow up in a Catholic Church that embraced its diversity. So even though the Catholic media I consumed didn’t include people like me, that was no big deal. I could just walk into church and see it for myself: the Church was home for everyone.
But all of a sudden, in this church in Ohio, I couldn’t “see it for myself.” All I saw was white people, white Jesus, and white Mary. And in this vibrantly beautiful Catholic community, I had this growing fear that I was an imposter. What was I doing here? Indian people didn’t just up and go to tiny schools in Ohio because they loved Jesus. This school was a white people school. This church was a white people church. Being super Catholic? That was a white people thing. People assured me that no one cared that I looked different, but I cared. I was different.
Yet I was born and raised in a community that showed me how vast the Church was. I knew that Catholicism wasn’t a white faith, it was a universal faith. And I saw glimpses of that in Ohio: when I walked into the chapel and saw a painting of Our Lady of Guadeloupe whose skin was a familiar shade of brown, or when a white priest gave a homily on racism and suffering and St. Bakhita, I finally felt seen. Because someone was finally acknowledging that race was a real thing, racism in the Church was a real thing, and the Church saw. The Church noticed that we existed.
Sometimes I make the Church really small. I think of it in terms of the walls I’m in, whether it be a white church in Ohio or a diverse church in Seattle. But the truth is, the Church is bigger than all of us but it belongs to each of us. So what if I was the only Indian Catholic attending mass at that church that day? I knew that around the world, there were millions of Catholics of every color attending Mass too. Christ didn’t just make the Church for some of us; He made it for all of us. So wherever you go, whoever you are—never forget: the Church is your home.
Jency is from the Seattle area, meaning she enjoys the rain and thinks umbrellas are for the weak. She's a sophomore at Franciscan University, where she is double majoring in Psychology and Multimedia; post-grad, she plans on pursuing a career in UX Design. In her spare time, you can find her taking long walks while listening to podcasts, laughing at puns, or beating her friends at ping pong.
We would like to feature a series of articles around the topic of race. If you would like to contribute, please email us at hello@theycw.com. Even if you have only a few sentences to share, whatever color your skin is, we want to hear from you.
