Tomorrow, September 9, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Peter Claver — the Jesuit missionary whose name our order proudly carries. It’s a fitting moment to highlight Episode 219 of Big City Catholics, “Trailblazers of Faith: Defending Human Dignity for All.” In this podcast, Bishop Robert Brennan and Father Christopher Heanue sit down with Father Alonzo Cox, Vicar for Black Catholic Concerns for the Diocese of Brooklyn, to reflect on two men whose lives still shape our mission today: St. Peter Claver and Servant of God Msgr. Bernard John Quinn.
St. Peter Claver: “Slave to the Slaves”
Peter Claver arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, in 1610, a Spanish Jesuit determined to serve the enslaved Africans who disembarked there by the thousands each year. He met incoming ships with food, medicine, and comfort, and — working through a team of interpreters fluent in West African languages — brought the Gospel to people the rest of society had discarded. Over four decades of ministry, he baptized more than 300,000 people and continually pressed slaveholders to treat those in their charge with basic humanity. His own words capture the spirit that still animates our Order: “We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.” Pope Leo XIII canonized him in 1888 and named him patron of missionary work among Black communities worldwide — the same charism that led our founders to take up his name and his cause.
Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn: A Brooklyn Priest Who Would Not Back Down
Closer to home, during the podcast, Father Cox turns to Msgr. Bernard John Quinn, a Brooklyn priest whose story deserves to be far better known. Returning from service as an Army chaplain in World War I, Quinn won permission to minister to the Diocese of Brooklyn’s neglected Black Catholic community. In 1922, he founded St. Peter Claver Church, the diocese’s first parish for Black Catholics, telling his new congregation: “I love you, I am proud of every one of you and I would willingly shed to the last drop of my life’s blood for the least among you.” He went on to found St. Benedict the Moor parish in Queens and, in 1930, opened the Little Flower House of Providence, an orphanage for Black children in Wading River. When the Ku Klux Klan burned his buildings to the ground in an attempt to stop him, Quinn rebuilt and kept going. He died in 1940 at just 52 years old. In 2008, the Vatican opened his cause for canonization and declared him a Servant of God — a cause the Diocese of Brooklyn continues to actively promote today.
Why This Podcast Episode Matters for Us
Claver and Quinn lived two centuries and an ocean apart, but in this podcast, Father Cox draws a straight line between them: both men looked at people the world had pushed to the margins and insisted, in word and in action, on their God-given dignity. That is the very charism the Knights of Peter Claver were founded to carry forward — and it’s worth pausing this feast week to be reminded of the shoulders we stand on.
Our Presence in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens
That legacy isn’t just history — it’s alive today in six Knights of Peter Claver councils and Ladies Auxiliary courts serving parishes across the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens:
- Fr. James E. Goode Council #229
- St. Clement Pope Council #333
- Bishop Emerson J. Moore Council #405
- Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn Council #405
- St. Teresa of Avila / St. Anthony of Padua Council #407
- Our Lady of Presentation Council #412
Each unit carries forward St. Peter Claver’s charism in its own parish community — and Council #405 bears the name of Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn himself, keeping his memory and his cause for canonization close to home. Together, these councils and courts are a living reminder that the mission Father Cox describes in this episode isn’t confined to history books; it’s carried out every day by our members right here in Brooklyn and Queens.
The full podcast runs about 20 minutes and is well worth your time on your commute or during a quiet moment this week. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.
As we honor St. Peter Claver’s feast day, let’s also keep Msgr. Quinn’s cause for canonization in our prayers — and let his example, and Claver’s, renew our own commitment to defending human dignity in every corner of our communities.
Listen to the full episode: Episode 219 – Trailblazers of Faith: Defending Human Dignity for All