Where: St. Elizabeth Parish, 50 E. 41st St., Chicago

Why: Tolton Scholar Graduate, Pastoral Staff, Director of Campus Ministry
 

Timone Newsome is a woman of faith and energy, and St. Elizabeth’s former pastor, Father Donald Ehr, tapped into both.   She was the coordinator and taught RCIA classes, led Bible study, lector, serve as a Eucharistic Minister, and preach.  He even sent her as a delegate to the National Black Catholic Congress in Baltimore in 1997. Then four years ago he suggested that she apply for the full-time position of campus minister/religion teacher at predominantly white Queen of Peace High School.  She did and was hired.

“He kept me busy,” says this articulate divorced mother of a young teen. Timone does, however, know how to say, “No.”  About seven years ago, she told Fr. Ehr that if he wanted her to continue teaching RCIA classes, she’d need more training.  He sent her to theologian Sister Jamie Phelps, who enrolled her in the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program. Timone was then youngest participant.  She received her master’s degree in divinity with a concentration in Word and worship from Catholic Theological Union in May 2002.  She is now on St. Elizabeth’s pastoral staff and Director of Campus Ministry at St. Joseph High School.
 

Black Catholic Chicago: What does being a Catholic mean to you?

Ms. Newsome: It means I am one who is part of a universal Church that works to embrace the differences in all people and their common love of Christ.
 

Black Catholic Chicago: How do you personally work to embrace those differences?

Ms. Newsome: In my work at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, I acknowledge that there are differences, but that we are all one in Christ.  I coordinate retreats, liturgy, prayer services and anything else that deals with the faith formation of the student body, faculty and staff.  What they learn in religion classes I work to help them live out in the school community, and once it is lived out [there, I hope] it is lived out in their home parishes.
 

Black Catholic Chicago: How has attending Catholic Theological Union enhanced your faith?

Ms. Newsome: In the Tolton program, we shared our faith and struggles in the classroom and in our parishes. [We took] what we learned [formally at CTU] and [informally] determined its benefits for the African American Catholic community and the Catholic Church in general.

Black Catholic Chicago: What were your impressions of the 1997 NBCC in Baltimore? 

Ms. Newsome: It was exciting to be part of a movement that was serious about placing the Black Catholic agenda in the forefront.  It was interesting to see Black Catholics from all over the world – those that wanted to assimilate and those that were struggling to find voice and make it heard.  [The second group] didn’t want to assimilate to be Black and Catholic.  If the Church is universal, there is no need for assimilation.
 

Black Catholic Chicago: What problems for Black Catholics do you see need to be remedied?

Ms. Newsome: We spend a lot of time trying to explain what it means to be Black and Catholic….I think it is more beneficial to allow Black Catholicism to be seen in the Black community.  By that I mean the rich culture of what it means to be Black combined with sacramental Catholicism.  Black Catholics should not be a surprise to people, Black or otherwise.  If we as a Black community embraced Black Catholicism as we do Black Protestantism, we shouldn’t have to explain.