Reflections from the National Black Catholic Congress XIII

The Impact of the National Black Catholic Congress on a HBCU Campus Minister

By Preslaysa Williams
Campus Minister for Norfolk State University and Hampton University

In November 2022, I started going to weekly Adoration. By that time, I was already a daily Mass goer, and so adding in an hour a week with the Blessed Sacrament was the perfect way to deepen my devotion to the Eucharist.

Little did I know how those two habits combined – weekly Adoration and daily Mass – would lead me on the path to becoming a Campus Minister at two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs): Hampton University and Norfolk State University.

Many told me about how hard it would be as a Campus Minister at two HBCUs: about how I would have to re-start the ministries from scratch, about how I would have to find students and build a community, about how I’d have to navigate a myriad of obstacles and setbacks. All of that proved to be true!

In many ways, I feel like John the Baptist in the wilderness. However, this wilderness experience has refined my soul and showed me the beauty of Black Catholic spirituality.

Six months into my job as Campus Minister, I attended the National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC). Even though I was a cradle Catholic, this was my first NBCC. My Black father isn’t a religious person, and so I inherited all of my Catholicism from my Filipino mother. Attending the NBCC gifted me with a large community of Black Catholics, and it reinvigorated my love for Black expressions of faith and community worship.

The NBCC did something more too.

During the event, I attended three separate sessions on Catholic Campus Ministry at HBCUs, and I learned of one statistic that struck me:

There are 107 HBCU campuses in the United States, and of those 107 HBCUs, only eleven have active Catholic campus ministries.

I was shocked! I started my job as a Campus Minister in January 2023, and so prior to that date, only nine HBCUs had active Catholic campus ministries. If I hadn’t said Yes to God during my weekly Adoration times, that number would’ve stayed at nine.

On top of that, many of the HBCU Catholic campus ministries have a stop-and-start history. They exist for a few years, and then they end for a myriad of reasons. So there isn’t any generational momentum to continue to form HBCU Catholic students in their faith, and there aren’t any consistent evangelization efforts to non-Catholic students at HBCUs.

As a result, many HBCU Catholic students stop practicing their faith or leave Catholicism for another faith tradition or spirituality. Additionally, non-Catholic HBCU students will never get to encounter a Catholic Campus Minister who could be the loving face of the Church in their lives, a loving face that could quite possibly save their life.

Attending NBCC solidified my commitment to Catholic Campus Ministry at Hampton University and Norfolk State University. Yes, I have a very difficult road ahead, but l know that this path will continue to refine my soul. Hopefully, this ministry will refine the souls of the HBCU students that I encounter during the course of ministry too.

And maybe one day I, along with my current and future Catholic Campus Ministry students, will hear the Lord say to us: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Because that’s what this is all about anyway.

Preslaysa Williams is the Catholic Campus Minister at Hampton University and Norfolk State University. In addition to her ministry work, she’s a multi-published author and a college writing instructor. You can connect with her in any of the following ways:

Email: pwilliams(at)richmonddiocese.org
Instagram: @nsuhamptoncatholics
Facebook: @nsuhamptoncatholics
Twitter: @nsuhamptonccm
Website to come!