RIP Fr Augustus (Gus) Taylor Jr - Death of the Cofounder of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus

The Cofounder of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and one of the nation's first diocesan Offices of Black Catholics has died.  Fr Augustus “Gus” Taylor Jr., a Black Catholic priest famous for his activism in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, has died in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. at age 84. No cause of death was released.

Biography of Rev. Gus Taylor

Gus Taylor’s family background was Baptist and Episcopalian. In 1954, his parents moved from Lexington, KY, to Cincinnati, OH, to escape discrimination and provide their children with a better education. There, the two boys were sent to Catholic schools. Then, one by one — beginning with the youngest — the whole family became Catholic. From Catholic high school, Taylor went directly into the seminary, serving in the Diocese of Pittsburgh after ordination. Younger brother David went to college, then he too entered seminary – in Pittsburgh, since the family had decided to relocate there to remain close. Ordained in 1974, the younger Taylor became pastor of a Black parish in Pittsburgh.

In April 1968, Gus Taylor, along with Frs. Larry Lucas and George Clements, founded the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. In 1969, just a few months later, a few members (including Taylor) met in a restaurant to discuss the dire religious and social condition and future of Black folk given rampant racism within society and also, historically, within the ministerial leadership of the Church itself. As they contemplated ways to enhance the spiritual and intellectual formation of Black Catholics, Taylor reached for a paper napkin. With incredible vision, he outlined an academic program by which Black Catholics might exchange and develop viewpoints among themselves and as well as with members of the hierarchy, pastors and vowed religious women and men ministering in the African American Catholic communities. No one knew, but Taylor had just sketched out what would become the Institute for Black Catholic Studies – but it would take NBCCC a decade to mature enough to actualize that vision.

In 1978, buoyed by the exhilarating experience of the first Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS), NBCCC urged the late Fr. Thaddeus Posey, OFM Cap, to develop a broader proposal — for a Black Catholic Institute. Naturally, among the first consultants he tapped was Taylor. After much planning, the Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS) officially began at Xavier University with 16 students in the summer of 1980. Meanwhile, Taylor has gone on to serve many years as a pastor in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Sources: https://nbccc.cc/reverend-augustus-gus-taylor/ and Black Catholic Messenger - Image FB