Race, Religion and Stress: An Exploration of the Lives of African American Catholic Marianist Brothers in the Mid-20th Century
Sue P. Nash, PhD, MPH, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX; Janet S. Armitage, PhD, MBA, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX; Laura Leming, PhD, FMI, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH; Rev. Anthony J.Pogorelc, PhD, PSS, MDiv, STL, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX; Sophia Huerta, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX;  and José Cornejo, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX

Using archival and interview data, this study examines the stress of racism on African American Marianist brothers in the United States during the mid-20th century. Catholic Marianist ministries in the 1950s served urban and racially/ethnically diverse populations, however, plans to integrate schools and the profession and ordination of African American men were both endorsed and challenged. As part of our exploration, we seek to understand how Marianists as an order navigated the changing demographics in the aforementioned time period in cities associated with U.S. Marianist Provinces, for example, St. Louis which was a primary site. Marianists chose to respond to the changing demographics by offering education, outreach and justice services to local communities of diverse populations. Against the backdrop of racial justice or integration efforts within communities they served, Marianists, too, navigated racism and changing dynamics within their order/professed community with comparable challenges. We examine the intersection of race and religion and argue, based on the weathering hypothesis, that both race and religion serve as chronic stressors leading to early physical decline in the lives of African Americans who were interested in becoming priests in the Marianist Catholic order. We explore: (1) whether African American Marianist brothers had shorter life expectancies than their white brothers or if their involvement in the church served as a potential buffer and (2) the organizational response regarding inclusion or exclusion of African Americans as both brothers and priests and the response of a sample of African American men. We suggest the stressors of the intersection between race and religion in the 1950s is a broken space with opportunities for coherence and healing.