One of the challenges many of our members face as they make the journey toward Catholicism is reconciling their prior identity, often as pastors and ministers, with their new life in the Church. Not only are they relinquishing long-held theological beliefs, but often, long-held familial connections and vocational calls. While Servant of God Thea Bowman was only nine years old when she became Catholic, she spent much of her life reminding others that there was room for them to come to the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church with their whole selves.
Born Bertha Elizabeth Bowman to a Methodist family in Mississippi in 1937, Thea was exposed from her earliest years to the richness of her African-American culture and spirituality, learning the stories, songs, prayers, and traditions. Through her family’s example, Thea learned that God loved and provided for the poor and the oppressed. These early experiences led her to embrace a deep love for God and charitable heart toward those most in need.
As she continued to grow, Thea attended school with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who had opened a mission and school in Canton, MS. Her time there as a student stirred something deep within her. The sisters’ lived example of the works of mercy—particularly their care for the poor and needy—drew Thea to the Catholic Church, especially amid her experiences of blatant racism, segregation, inequality, and the struggle for Civil Rights in her home state. She was impressed by how Catholics put their faith into action, and at the age of nine, with her parents’ permission, entered the Catholic Church.
While she continued to study under the tutelage of the Franciscan Sisters, Thea began to feel a call to the religious life. She was only fifteen when she told her parents and friends she wanted to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She soon left home in Mississippi to head to Wisconsin, where she would be the only Black member of her religious community.
Though isolating at times, God had prepared Sister Thea for this journey ahead. After serving many years teaching with her order, Sister Thea was granted permission to return home to Mississippi to care for her aging parents. There, she began work in the Office of Intercultural Affairs for the Diocese of Jackson. With her background in education and her strong cultural roots, Sister Thea became a voice for encouraging the Church to promote inclusivity and the full participation of all her members (especially Black Catholics given her own heritage and experience). Likewise, Sister Thea encouraged the faithful to enter the Church “fully functioning,” believing the differences among the faithful were a gift and not a hindrance to the life of the Church. As many of us have experienced in our own conversions, a life in the Catholic Church was not a rejection of our prior life and identity, but rather, a more full expression of those pieces that were part of us all along.
Most notably, Sister Thea Bowman was invited to address the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989 to speak to them about what it meant to be Black and Catholic. By this time, Thea had been wheelchair bound, but that didn’t stop her from capturing the Bishops’ attention with her charismatic presence and powerful, prophetic message. She outlined the experience and contribution of Black faith—from Simon of Cyrene and other early Church figures, through the perseverance shown by those who endured the indignity of the Middle Passage of chattel slavery, to the struggles of Black Catholics in the American Church, ending with a plea to remember that our Church is stronger when we recognize that we are a “family of families”:
“The Church teaches us that the Church is a family of families and the family got to stay together and we know, that if we do stay together, come here brother—we know that if we do stay together—if we walk and talk and work and play and stand together in Jesus’ name—we’ll be who we say we are—truly Catholic and we shall overcome—overcome the poverty—overcome the loneliness—overcome the alienation and build together a Holy city, a new Jerusalem, a city set apart where they’ll know that we are here because we love one another.”
Less than a year later, Sister Thea passed into eternal life on March 30, 1990. She was declared a Servant of God in 2018 and is on the journey toward canonized sainthood. The diocesan inquiry process concluded in February 2026, with all materials sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican, which will further investigate the cause.
Servant of God Thea Bowman, pray for us!
