Sainthood cause of Lakota catechist moves forward
BALTIMORE (CNS) — The U.S. bishops voted Nov. 14 to move forward the sainthood cause of Nicholas W. Black Elk, a 19th-century Lakota catechist who is said to have introduced hundreds of Lakota people to the Catholic faith.
At the annual fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, the bishops “approved by voice vote the canonical consultation,” or support for the cause. The episcopal consultation process is “a step in the Catholic Church’s process toward declaring a person a saint.”
Presentation at General Assembly to Bishops November USCCB Meeting
The church’s special recognition of Black Elk’s saintly life will provide the Indian faith-community, and peoples everywhere, the example of a very special person whose presence to others is worthy of imitation. As a model, he showed how Native American culture could enrich the Body of Christ, integrating the two traditions, thereby bringing a richness to both.
This Catholic missionary and mystic holy-man of the Oglala Sioux, would be a welcome symbol to all Native Americans, leaving a legacy of someone who sought the Sacred, who lived the gospel in everyday life, and who inspired others (Indian and non-Indian) to do the same. This is the Lakota-Catholic identity that defined his life – an identity that many people encountered across the Pine Ridge Reservation during his lifetime.
Click here to read the presentation given by Bishop Robert Gruss to the USCCB on November 14.
