ROCKVILLE CENTRE — As Loretta Lucas scanned St. Agnes Cathedral on Feb. 11, she couldn’t help but smile at what she saw — predominantly black faithful in a predominantly white church.

“When I came in here today, I said, ‘Thank God we’re bridging the gap,’ ” said Lucas, a parishioner at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in Brooklyn who often tunes into St. Agnes Cathedral Mass broadcasts. ­­­

Lucas traveled to the Rockville Centre cathedral for the annual Mass of Thanksgiving in Celebration of Black History Month, put on by the Diocese of Brooklyn Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns and the Diocese of Rockville Centre Office of Multicultural Diversity.

The Sister Thea Bowman Mass Gospel Choir set the tone with passionate vocals and colorful dress. Bishop Robert Brennan was the celebrant, with Josephite Father Anthony Bozeman, the academic dean at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Washington, the guest homilist.

Bishop Brennan was joined on the altar by Auxiliary Bishop Robert Coyle of Rockville Centre, as well as black clergy from both dioceses. In a way, the Mass was a homecoming for Bishop Brennan. He was ordained both a priest and a bishop at St. Agnes Cathedral.

Speaking with The Tablet after the Mass, Bishop Brennan highlighted the importance of the dioceses coming together for different causes, like Black History Month, because they can each contribute in a unique way.

“Each diocese has its own set of gifts and talents to contribute to the whole, and one of the hallmarks of the Church is our collaboration in ministry, our working together,” he said. “Getting the two dioceses together … we increase the joy, you might say, by working together.”

From the pulpit, Father Bozeman delivered an impassioned message on the importance of celebration for how far Black Catholics have come and the work that still needs to be done for the Church to be truly inclusive. His words garnered applause and shouts of “Amen!” throughout.

Speaking with The Tablet, Father Bozeman said that the Church needs to understand Black Catholic history in order to grow, explaining that history shows Catholics — regardless of race — are “all a part of the same family.”

“If you don’t know your family, how can you love them? How can you help them?” Father Bozeman asked. “Until the Church recognizes that all of us are many parts of this one body, we’ll never be truly Catholic.”

He and others at the Mass also emphasized the role dioceses “not can, but must” play in building up Black Catholic parishes and communities through respect, education, and funding.

“Respect is the first thing to realize that a lot of people don’t know the history of pain and struggle,” Father Bozeman said. “We’ve been in the Church since the beginning, so don’t think we’re an appendage. We’re coming fully gifted, and you as a Church have got to be able to, in order to be a Catholic Church, welcome all of our giftedness and work together.”

Darcel Whitten-Wilamowski, director of the Diocese of Rockville Office of Multicultural Diversity, said it’s imperative for dioceses to listen to the needs and perspectives of young Black Catholics and to educate them about Black Catholic history so progress doesn’t “stagnate” and they can carry on the work of the Black Catholic ministers before them.

Whitten-Wilamowski, who founded the Sister Thea Bowman Mass Gospel Choir more than 30 years ago, added that progress will be difficult without funding.

“We need funds in order to be able to bring the best that’s out there into the dioceses so that they can help us with our young people, and if this happens, you could find priests, you could find sisters,” she said. “We cannot allow the stagnation that has begun, and that is going on with our young people, to continue.”

Victor Antoine Jr., who participated in the Mass with the Knights of Peter Claver, said the Church needs to grow and become more inclusive. He said the Feb. 11 Mass was a reminder that Black Catholics are active Church members.

“This is an expression for us to say, ‘we’re participants, we’re involved,’ ” Antoine said. “We have an active role in the growth of the Church, and that’s what this is all about.”

Bishop Brennan noted that Black Catholic history is a rich part of the Church’s legacy, adding that “there are lessons that we need to learn from that legacy.

“Some painful reminders within that history, examples of either racism or neglect, and those are things we have to learn from, atone in a spiritual way for and really work harder and harder to see the dignity of every human person,” Bishop Brennan said.

By Bill Miller and Jessica Easthope

JAMAICA ESTATES — Efrain Hernandez and his new friend, Antonio, are from different countries, but they both grew up in rough circumstances — on the streets.

Hernandez is from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, while Antonio is from Venezuela. He left there last September to seek asylum and a better livelihood in the U.S. 

Both men had scant economic opportunities growing up, so they entered lives of crime. Hernandez, 38, calls it “doing all the wrong things for the right reasons,” but the consequences outweighed profits. 

“I used to be on the street selling drugs,” he said. “And a couple of my friends died. I was incarcerated for a while.” 

Later, Father Jim O’Shea, provincial of the Passionists for the Eastern U.S., challenged Hernandez to turn his life around. “I thought I’d give it a shot, Hernandez said. 

So, in 2010, he and Father O’Shea co-founded the nonprofit “Reconnect,” which helps turn former “disconnected” youth into entrepreneurial adults by teaching technical and social skills.

In January, Reconnect pivoted to add services for asylum-seekers like Antonio, 33, who is now learning English and culinary skills.

Antonio hopes to one day be a chef, with the means to reunite with his wife and two children. He also aims to become a U.S. citizen. He asked that his surname and hometown not be published to protect his family back home.

Originally, the nonprofit was called Reconnect Brooklyn because it was started in that borough. Now it is just called Reconnect and is located at Thomas Berry Place, a retreat center on the grounds of the Passionist Monastery on Edgerton Boulevard. 

About 50 participants each year, whether they’re immigrants or from local neighborhoods, learn culinary skills under the mentorship of Anthony O’Connor, the campus chef. They can also learn facilities management and repairs, organic produce farming, and custom printing of T-shirts. 

Reconnect’s new program for asylum-seekers began with eight men who are currently living in a Queens hotel that has been repurposed as a refugee center. Their Reconnect training is four days a week for 16 weeks. 

Father O’Shea said he is pleased with the program, noting that it is a work in progress. He said the asylum-seekers were referred to Reconnect by other service providers that previously collaborated with the group and knew about its training opportunities and community-building framework. 

“Reconnect is bringing in those who are easily forgotten on the margins who, because of that, often suffer consequences,” he said. “But here, we’re bringing people into a community that helps them to see that they’re safe, they are welcomed, and they’re good.” 

Father O’Shea said the asylum-seekers arrive alone and vulnerable, and  Hernandez added that the newcomers are now “family.” 

“The next step is to get these guys their working papers,” he said. “If they get working papers, hopefully, they can get into some good-paying jobs.” 

Hernandez interpreted for Antonio, who described how his mother struggled to raise him and his siblings with no father in the home. Juvenile delinquency prevailed. 

“Same thing,” Hernandez said, comparing his life to Antonio’s. “Doing all the wrong things for the right reasons.”

Later, Antonio set out to be a responsible husband and father, but making a living is tough while roving gangs of armed militiamen prey on the Venezuelan populace.

So Antonio joined the recent mass migration from South America to the U.S. and traversed several countries, including his homeland as well as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. 

The going was tough, Antonio said, and tragic. Like many have recounted before him, Panama was especially harrowing, where thick jungle, downpours, floods, and mudslides mired the travelers. He saw mothers swept away with their children and drowned. He saw another woman holding a child who died of hypothermia. 

Antonio said his journey took much of the month of September. Still, he knows of other travelers who departed Venezuela at the same time as he did but have yet to arrive. 

When asked if the struggle was worth it, Antonio brought his hands together in the universal symbol of prayer. Again, Hernandez interpreted. 

“He said, first and foremost, he would like to thank God and to thank the United States of America for giving him the opportunity to come into this community,” Hernandez shared. “He never thought that he would land in a place like this — a brotherhood.” 

Speaking for himself, Hernandez added, “We live in a world now where everything is tough. Everybody’s always beating down on people, and we basically just don’t do that. 

“We find the good in you. It’s just straight-up positive energy every single day.”