Hidden Catholic histories come alive in new Black and Native American films

CNA Staff, Dec 7, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Black and Indian Mission Office in Washington, D.C., recently released two documentaries — one highlighting African American Catholics on the path to sainthood and the focusing on Native American Catholic communities in the United States. 

“Trailblazers of Faith: The Legacy of African American Catholics” tells the inspiring story of how African Americans found a home in Catholicism without abandoning their identity or culture. 

From the pioneering Oblate Sisters of Providence and St. Frances Academy to the lives of Venerable Henriette DeLille, Julia Greeley, Father Augustus Tolton, and Sister Thea Bowman, the documentary celebrates a legacy of leadership and faith.

The second film, “Walking the Sacred Path: The Story of the Black and Indian Mission Office,” uncovers the often-hidden story of Native American Catholics in the United States. The film explores the powerful intersection of faith and culture — where the beauty of Native traditions and the universality of Catholicism meet — and highlights more than 140 years of the Black and Indian Mission Office’s mission to walk alongside Native American communities. 

Father Maurice Henry Sands is the executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office. He told CNA in an interview that these documentaries were created “to educate people about these two groups of people that a lot of people don’t know much about,” as well as “to educate people about the work that our office is doing with these two groups of people.”

The Black and Indian Mission Collection was the first national collection established at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 and is still taken up yearly funding the Black and Indian Mission Office.

The United States bishops recognized the need to support missionary work among African American and Native American Catholics and since its creation the collection has allowed for grants to be given to dioceses across the country to operate schools, parishes, and other missionary services that build the body of Christ in Native American, Alaska Native, and Black Catholic communities.

Sands shared that it is important for Catholics to walk alongside these communities because “we are all part of the human race that the Lord directs his work of salvation towards.”

“It’s important that we learn how to live together and walk together because as human beings we do put up walls and barriers and we see differences among ourselves,” he said, adding that racism “has caused a lot of difficulties for the two groups of people.” 

“So, we have a fundamental call as disciples of Christ, as Catholics, as Christians, to help the Lord and his work of salvation to love one another and to have a special concern for those of our brothers and sisters who are disadvantaged and in need,” he said.

Speaking specifically to the documentary on the African American Catholics on their way to sainthood, Sands explained that the six individuals included all serve as great role models for the faithful because “each of them had very challenging beginnings but went on to be great lovers of Our Lord and were a great witness to others and helped people in need as they saw the needs of people around them and were very effective in doing that.”

He added that the early Church missionaries who served Native Americans also serve as role models in how to “help people where they are to come to know Christ, to love him, and to have a relationship with him.”

Sands said he hopes viewers will feel moved to “learn more about how they can support the ministry to these two groups of people and to learn more about how they can support the work that we are doing in our office.”

Both documentaries can be viewed on Formed.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/268249/hidden-catholic-histories-come-alive-in-new-black-and-native-american-films