DETROIT — Bishop Moses B. Anderson, SSE, who began life in the rural poverty of racially segregated Alabama in 1928, rose to become an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit with an influence that spread to the wider Church.
A recognized leader in the inculturation of African-American traditions into Catholic worship, he also built bridges between African-Americans and the people of West Africa.
His work brought him recognition and honorary degrees, but despite those Bishop Anderson never forgot his humble roots, continuing to maintain that “I’m just a poor boy from Selma.”
The retired bishop suffered cardiac arrest and died Jan. 1. He was 84.
“Bishop Anderson was led to life in the Catholic Church in his youth, and from then on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was the center of his life,” said Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron.
“He was a faithful steward of our Eucharistic life all during his priestly service, especially during the years of his episcopacy here in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He was unfailingly generous in his pastoral care for us all. We will miss him greatly, and entrust him to the loving care of our Father in heaven.”
Cardinal Adam J. Maida, archbishop emeritus of Detroit, said Bishop Anderson “was a deeply spiritual and holy bishop. He was a very faithful and dedicated churchman who loved his episcopal ministry and especially the people whom he was called to serve.”
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“He was particularly dedicated in his concern and love for the poor and their struggle for justice and peace. Those of us in the Archdiocese of Detroit were blessed with his presence among us as he preached and loved the Gospel of Christ in his private and public life,” the cardinal said.
Msgr. James Robinson, a fellow Edmundite priest and former rector of Detroit’s Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, had known Bishop Anderson since high school back in Selma, Ala. He called him “a very, very faithful Catholic and a great priest, who loved the Church and always tried hard to carry out his assignments.”
Msgr. Robinson said the young Moses Anderson had become involved in the Don Bosco Boys Club, which was a part of the Edmundites’ mission to the black community in Selma. Although being a Catholic was “a mark of degradation” in the Deep South black community, the future bishop made the decision to come into the Catholic Church when he was in the 11th grade.
Msgr. Robinson said his longtime friend was influenced by one of the Edmundites, Fr. Nelson Ziter, and came to feel he had a calling to the priesthood.
Bishop Anderson, who graduated high school a year after Msgr. Robinson, also followed him to Xavier University in New Orleans a year after he started there, followed him into the novitiate of the Society of St. Edmund a year after he entered, and then to St. Michael’s College in Vermont for philosophy, St. Edmund’s Seminary in Vermont for theology, and was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 1958 — a year to the day after his own ordination.
In his subsequent pastoral ministry, Bishop Anderson always exhibited “a great love for the Church and for his parishioners, a great preaching ability and a great ability to enhance his preaching with song,” Msgr. Robinson said.
As a priest, then-Fr. Anderson continued his interest in the African heritage of his own family and of other black people in the United States. As early as 1949, he had begun calling himself a Ghanian-American, having traced his own family’s roots to what had become the West African nation of Ghana.
In 1983 — the same year he celebrated 25 years of priestly ministry — he was elevated to the episcopacy as an auxiliary bishop for the Detroit Archdiocese. He was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal (then-Archbishop) Edmund C. Szoka on Jan. 27, 1983.
Cardinal Szoka fondly remembered his friend and brother bishop, saying Bishop Anderson continued to serve both the archdiocese and his religious congregation with equal vigor.
“Bishop Anderson was very popular among the people of the parishes he served in his region,” Cardinal Szoka said. “He would often sing a hymn with his wonderful voice during his sermons. Above all, he was dedicated and loyal to his vocation as a priest and bishop. He has gone to the House of the Father, where he will live in the joys of total union with Christ our Lord.”
Indeed, song was a prominent part of Bishop Anderson’s preaching style.
“We were all deeply moved when the Spirit inspired Bishop Anderson to lift his voice in songs of praise especially during his homilies,” said Bishop Dale Melczek of Gary, Ind., who was ordained an auxiliary bishop with Bishop Anderson in 1983 and served alongside him for several years in Detroit. “I remember Bishop Anderson also as gracious and hospitable as he shared the depths of our faith or the beauties of his rich culture formally or in smaller social gatherings.”
“It was obvious that God dwelled in his heart,” Bishop Melczek said.
Besides archdiocesan duties such as administering confirmations at parishes and overseeing regions of the archdiocese, Bishop Anderson also served as pastor of Precious Blood Parish in northwest Detroit from 1992-2001.
In 1990, his efforts to forge new bonds of friendship and support between black Americans and Africans were recognized when he was made a chief of the Ashanti, the predominant tribe in Ghana.
He also was a serious collector of African art and the works of black American artists, and later shared his extensive collection with various Catholic institutions, including Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Madonna University in Livonia, and Xavier University in New Orleans.
Fr. Clarence Williams, CPPS, former director of Black Catholic Ministries for the archdiocese, said Bishop Anderson’s ability to inculturate elements of black tradition into the Catholic liturgical experience received national attention in 1992 when he celebrated the Easter Sunday Mass, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on CBS television.
Originating from Precious Blood Church, incorporating jazz and gospel elements, and employing the musical talents of such key figures in black Catholic liturgical worship as Norah Duncan IV and Carl Clendenning, the telecast showcased what a Mass incorporating black traditions could look like.
“It was so dynamic that it was re-broadcast two times, and it show Detroit was more than just a place of conflict,” Fr. Williams said.
Another event of wider impact was a symposium on black Catholic history that Bishop Anderson organized. The symposium so impressed a representative of the Lilly Endowment that Benedictine Fr. Cyprian Davis, one of the presenters, received the funding necessary to research and write his award-winning “The History of Black Catholics in the United States” (New York: Crossroad).
John J.F. Thorne, 34, current director of the archdiocesan Black Catholic Ministries, was still in grade school when Bishop Anderson was ordained a bishop, but he recalled the importance the event had for black Catholics.
“It came at a time when the black Catholic community was looking for something to be excited about and to celebrate within the faith,” said Thorne, who is also music director at Sacred Heart Parish in Detroit.
As a pastor, Bishop Anderson was always known to give of himself, which made him well-loved and well-respected in the black Catholic community and throughout the archdiocese, Thorne said.
“As expressed in his motto, Bishop Anderson always believed we could have great unity in diversity,” he said.
Thorne said Bishop Anderson’s special ministry to blacks throughout the country was well under way when he came to Detroit, dating from his involvement with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans.
“The institute became a very important part of continuing education in the black Catholic community, and not only for black clergy, but also for others who ministered to blacks,” he said.
Thorne also recalled how Bishop Anderson’s homily at a Thanksgiving Mass when he was a senior at University of Detroit Jesuit High School got him thinking about a priestly vocation. While that discernment didn’t lead to the priesthood, Thorne did wind up serving the church as a layman.
In 1984, Bishop Anderson participated in writing “What We Have Seen and Heard,” the first joint pastoral letter by the country’s black bishops, on the topic of evangelization. It called on African-American Catholics “to reclaim our roots and to shoulder the responsibilities of being both black and Catholic.”
In one of his first major speeches as a bishop, as keynoter for the 1983 Shepherds Speak series at St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn, N.Y., he warned that the United States was “going backwards” on race relations after years of improvement. He lauded the efforts of the Church, especially his fellow bishops, to speak out against racism and resist it.
At a 1995 conference near Washington, D.C., on pastoring black parishes, Bishop Anderson remarked, “Some say the parish will not survive because of the lack of priests, the lack of religious, the lack of deacons, or the lack of lay ministers. Some say the lack of good relations between the clergy, religious and lay ministers threaten the survival of the parish. ... They may threaten the survival of a particular parish, but not the Church. We must evangelize in such a manner that we live and preach the staying power of both the universal Church and the local ecclesial community.”
Bishop Anderson said a highlight of his episcopal ministry was a 2004 “ad limina” visit with Blessed Pope John Paul II. Whenever he was in Rome, Bishop Anderson said he made a point to attend his audiences, “just to be with the Holy Father as much as possible.” He added, “It’s awesome to stand right beside him and bless all those people.”
Bishop Anderson served the archdiocese in active ministry until Oct. 24, 2003. After retirement, he continued to serve the Church in various ways. In later years, he was a resident of Livonia.
At the time of his ordination, he was one of seven African-American bishops in the United States. At the time of his retirement, he was the senior active black bishop in the country.
Catholic News Service contributed to this story
