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

 

Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux

Most Rev. Shelton J. Fabre: 
Archbishop of Louisville  

 

Bishop Boxie

Most Rev. Robert P. Boxie III: 
Auxiliary Bishop of Washington 

 

Currently Active Black (African American, African, and Caribbean) Bishops in the United States

Most Reverend Robert P. Boxie III, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, DC

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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

Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux

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

Bishop Jerome Feudjio

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)