As director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Adrienne Curry’s mission is to foster the spiritual, cultural and economic lives of the diocese’s roughly 25,000 people of African descent.
The job has had many dimensions for Curry, a lifelong Catholic and longtime social justice advocate: affirming the archdiocese’s legacy as a cradle of Black Catholicism, helping it confront and overcome lingering racial disparities, and elevating the unique contributions of its African and African American communities.
Perhaps above all, the Chicago native believes that building bridges between groups accustomed to seeing themselves as different can remind Catholics that “we all bleed the same; we’re all people” — all precious in the sight of God. The theme has helped drive a fast-growing ministry.
In three-plus years on the job, Curry has organized cross-cultural competency training sessions, staged diocese-wide mental-health events, and popularized potluck dinners connecting Black, white and Hispanic members of the faith. She has helped create a newsletter and podcast on Black Catholic life that the archdiocese’s digital news site, the Catholic Review, brings to its half-million members, and founded a Black Catholic choir that performs Gospel-adjacent worship music in parishes and at special events.
And a five-year strategic plan Curry recently developed — formed after consultation with clergy and lay Catholics from across the archdiocese — aims to serve as a force multiplier, calling for developing more Black Catholic clergy, offering more youth programs and expanding evangelization efforts into the wider community.
“Once you get to know people, you realize there’s a lot of commonality,” she says. “I’m proud to say we’re growing every year.”
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