Black Augustine Open Thread

I watch “The Big Bang Theory” so I know who this guy is.

“You can have a PhD and still be an idiot.” Richard Feynman

There is a lot if this going around.

Instead of doing the hard work of a saint, Jesuits take the cue of those making saints Black and add they were Jesuits too! (The only way Jesuits get sainthood).

I feel like I’ve landed on Fantasy Island…

I have listened to The Confessions of St. Augustine at least ten or more times. I am slow on the uptake and my computer is dyslexic. AI runs the risk of mental illness. St Augustine never alludes to whitness or blackness or yellow or red. Do you think St. Augustine was colorblind.
Today is the feast of St. Catherine of Sienna.
St. Anthony always finds my forgotten memory.
The Immaculate Conception freely chose to be the Immaculate Conception.

The Romans had no direct contact with West Africa because the ancestors of the Berbers (“Mauri”) stood in the way of conquest and acted as middlemen for trade, just as the Persians did for trade with China. They knew of the Nuba and Ethiopians who came down the Nile to Alexandria for trade and diplomacy, The few black African saints of the era were known and depicted as such (Like St. Moses the Giant), a thing we do not find for any icon of St. Augustine of Hippo. 5th century Romans would not have disdained a man of mixed race as a Roman citizen, but it would have been noted.

♪ I don’t care what the white man say ♪
♪ Santa Claus was a black man ♪
— Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VltXzCaLU6c

LOL! LGBTFU! I don’t think Cardinal Sarah of Guinea needs St Augustine to be black like him for Christians to fully appreciate his writings and his service to the Church. “The Abraham of conservatives.” In fact he was and could be still a candidate for the papacy. Pope Francis is not keen on Sarah.
As far as color and ethnicity in the Catholic Church there iis a pogoda shaped church, St. Francis Xavier/St. Benedict (the Moor) for the Deaf Center, a few blocks up the hill from Japan Town in San Francisco, CA. The Holy Family is depicted in bronze with Japanese features. Once a month there is a Mass in Japanese. Yes, originally it was staffed by Jesuits since St. Francis was the first Jesuit missionary. The current priest is Fr. Zirimenya, who is deaf and black.
Old St. Mary Cathedral survived the San Fransico1906 earthquake. On Grant and California Sts. Chinatown has grown around it. Staffed by Paulists the parish has a Chinese Mission. Off the main altar is the Blessed Sacrament chapel where the Holy Family statues are depicted as Mandarin Chinese, the Tabernacle is Chinesee style. Every Sunday there is a Mass in Chinese and two others in English. On holydays there may be a bi-lingual Mass.
In our new church the statues of the Holy Family hardly look Semetic. They came from a former European ethnic church in Pittsburgh Baby Jesus is light headed, Mary a blue eyed blond and St Joseph light brown hair and beard.

Pinky:
It’s a sign of the rejection of the Incarnation: “We can depict Jesus anyway we want, like the Romans depicted Mars or Jupiter as they wanted, because He wasn’t really real.” If God becomes Man, He becomes a particular man with a particular appearance, which we can no more reject than we can reject His teachings, Same goes for His saints.

We named our firstborn Augustine. I have a great reverence for the saint. I don’t like seeing him exploited for the intersectionality agenda.

We need to reclaim a balanced understanding of Africa. The early church was largely African, though not sub Saharan West African. Egypt is an African country, but note the outrage over depicting Cleopatra as black (when she was ethnically Greek). And yes, like deSantis said, the richest man in the world is African American.

The conversation about race can be neutralized. African and black are not mutually inclusive words.