Subcommittee on African American Affairs
Chairman
Most Reverend Roy E. Campbell, Jr., Retired Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
Members
Most Reverend Robert P. Boxie III, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
Most Reverend Brendan Cahill, Bishop of Victoria
Most Reverend Shelton J. Fabre, Archbishop of Louisville
Most Reverend Jerome Feudjio, Bishop of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Most Reverend Jeffrey Haines, Auxiliary Bishop of Milwaukee
Most Reverend Denis J. Madden, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Baltimore
Most Reverend James Terry Steib, SVD, Bishop Emeritus of Memphis
Consultants
Rev. Gregory Chisholm, SJ
Mr. Anderson F. Shaw (In Memoriam)
Deacon Melvin R. Tardy, Jr.
Sr. Nicole Trahan, FMI, Ed.D
Mr. CJ & Mrs. Dena Washington
Staff Contacts
Dr. Ansel Augustine, Assistant Director
Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church
blackcatholics@usccb.org
202.541.3350
Contact Us
African American Affairs
Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street NE
Washington, DC 20017
@email
Active African American Bishops
Most Rev. Shelton J. Fabre: |
Most Rev. Robert P. Boxie III: |
Currently Active Black (African American, African, and Caribbean) Bishops in the United States
Most Reverend Robert P. Boxie III, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, DC
Education
B.S. Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
J.D. Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA)
STB and STL The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), Pontifical North American College and Gregorian University (Rome, Italy)
Biography
Robert P. Boxie, III was born in 1980 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. After much prayer and discernment, he entered seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington, and was ordained as a priest on June 25, 2016.
Most Reverend Simon Peter Engurait, Bishop of Houma/Thibodaux
Engurait was born in Ngora, Eastern Uganda, the seventh of fourteen children. One of his brothers is a Catholic priest and another sibling is a religious sister. He studied at St. Peter's College in Tororo and earned a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration from Makerere University in Kampala in 1995. Engurait then obtained a Master of Business Administration from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.
In 2007, Engurait moved to the United States to study theology, earning a Master of Divinity from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2013.
Engurait was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 2013, by Bishop Sam Jacobs. His pastoral assignments included service as associate pastor at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma, St. Genevieve Parish in Thibodaux, and Christ the Redeemer Parish in Thibodaux. He became pastor of St. Bridget Parish in Schriever in January 2017.
In 2016, Engurait was appointed Moderator of the Curia and in 2017 he became Vicar General of the diocese. Following the death of Bishop Mario Dorsonville in January 2024, Engurait served as diocesan administrator of the diocese until his appointment as bishop in June 2025.
Most Reverend Shelton J. Fabre, Archbishop of Louisville
Education
B.A., St. Joseph Seminary, 1985
M.A., Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), 1989
Biography
Shelton J. Fabre was born Oct. 25, 1963 in New Roads, LA. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Baton Rouge on Aug. 5, 1989. In 2006 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of New Orleans. In 2013 he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. In 2022, he was appointed archbishop of Louisville.
Most Reverend Jacques E. Fabre-Jeune CS, Bishop of Charleston
Education
M.Div. Pontifical Urban University (Rome)
Biography
Rev. Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS, was born on Nov. 13, 1955, in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. He immigrated to New York City while in high school and completed his secondary education. He attended St. John's University in Jamaica, New York, and then Saint Michael's College in Toronto, Canada. Fabre-Jeune also studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Hybrid Park, Illinois, and at the Scalabrini House of Theology in Chicago. He joined the order of the Missionaries of St. Charles and took his first vows in 1982. Four years later, on Oct. 10, 1986, he was ordained to the priesthood in Brooklyn, NY. He was appointed by Pope Francis as Bishop of Charleston. He is a vowed cleric of the religious order the Missionaries of St. Charles, or Scalabrinian Fathers, and became the 14th Ordinary for the diocese. Bishop Fabre-Jeune was previously the administrator at San Felipe de Jesús Mission in Forest Park, Ga., and the local superior of the Scalabrinian priests in Atlanta. He was ordained and installed on May 13, 2022.
Most Reverend Jerome Feudjio, Bishop of St. Thomas
Education
C.A.P. St. John's College (Mbanga, Cameroon) 1972
B.A. Oblate College (Washington, DC)
M.A. Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL)
Biography
Jerome Feudjio was born on September 30, 1955 in Dschang, Cameroon. He attended St. John's College in Mbanga where he earned a degree in Business Accounting. In 1980 he came to the United States where he entered the Catholic seminary at Oblate College and led a weekly ministry with Haitians and other French-speaking Catholics in Washington, DC. He then joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and made his religious profession in 1987. He later developed a pastoral interest in the re-education of juvenile delinquents and enrolled in a graduate program in the Administration of Justice at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. On September 29, 1990, he was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Saint Thomas. In addition to parish ministry, he served in various diocesan leadership positions including Director of Vocations, Vicar for Clergy, and Vicar General. On April 17, 2021, he was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Retired Black Bishops in the United States
Most Reverend Gordon D. Bennett, SJ
Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Mandeville
Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton
Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Belleville
Most Reverend Roy E. Campbell, Jr.
Retired Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
Most Reverend Wilton Cardinal Gregory
Archbishop Emeritus, Archdiocese of Washington
Most Reverend Curtis J. Guillory, SVD
Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Beaumont
Most Reverend Martin D. Holley
Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Memphis
Most Reverend Joseph N. Perry
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus, Archdiocese of Chicago
Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, SVD
Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Memphis
Deceased Black Bishops in the United States
Most Reverend James August Healy (1830-1900)
Most Reverend Raymond Rodly Caeser, SVD (1932-1987)
Most Reverend Harold R. Perry, SVD (1916-1991)
Most Reverend James P. Lyke, OFM (1939-1992)
Most Reverend Carl A. Fisher, SSJ (1945-1993)
Most Reverend Emerson J. Moore (1938-1995)
Most Reverend Joseph A. Francis, SVD (1923-1997)
Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, SSJ (1934-2000)
Most Reverend Moses B. Anderson, SSE (1928-2013)
Most Reverend Leonard Olivier, SVD (1923-2014)
Most Reverend Dominic Carmon, SVD (1930-2018)
Most Reverend Joseph L. Howze (1923-2019)
Most Reverend Guy A. Sansaricq (1934-2021)
Most Reverend Elliot G. Thomas (1926-2019)
Most Reverend George Murry, SJ (1948-2020)
Most Reverend Fernand J. Cheri, OFM (1952-2023)
Most Reverend John H. Ricard, SSJ (1940-2026)