Raymond Rodly Caesar,

SVD ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. ...

(14 February 1932 – 18 June 1987) was an American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

who served as Bishop of Goroka in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

from 1980 until his death in 1987. He was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to serve as a Catholic bishop outside of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Biography

Born in

Eunice, Louisiana Eunice is a city in Acadia and St. Landry parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The 2010 census placed the population at 10,398, a decrease of 1,101, or 9.5 percent, from the 2000 tabulation of 11,499. The St. Landry Parish portion of Eunic ...

, to Celina Comeaux and Prosper Caesar, Caesar was ordained to the priesthood for the

Society of the Divine Word The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Ri ...

in 1961, during a period when African-American priests were still few and far-between. He had graduated from

St. Augustine Seminary St. Augustine's Seminary is the archdiocesan seminary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, and is located by the shore of Lake Ontario in Scarborough. It is a member of the Toronto School of Theology. History St. Augustine's Seminary ...

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi Bay St. Louis is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Mississippi, in the United States. Located on the Gulf Coast on the west side of the Bay of St. Louis, it is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of ...

, the only seminary in the United States created to educate African Americans specifically. The

White Supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

climate of the

at the time dictated, for most Catholic ordinaries, that Black priests could not enter their seminaries or serve in their dioceses—which meant that the first prospective Black priests from the US were sent to study abroad. Most of these priests were also sent to ''serve'' abroad after ordination. Caesar was one such priest, who after his ordination in 1961 would go on to become a

Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

as well as a bishop outside of the US (in

), as the SVD order served diocese across the globe. Caesar was the first African-American Catholic bishop abroad. He was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Goroka in 1978, and would become the ordinary only two years later, making him the second-ever African-American ordinary anywhere in the world (after

Joseph Lawson Howze Joseph Lawson Edward Howze (born Lawson Edward Howze, August 30, 1923 – January 9, 2019) was an African-American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the first Bishop of Biloxi from 1977 to 2001, and was the first Black Catholic ...

in 1977). He served as president of the local bishops' conference from 1983-1984. He died in 1987 while still in office.

Personal life

Caesar's cousin, Fr Roger Caesar, SSJ, was a Josephite priest in the United States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caesar, Raymond 1932 births 1987 deaths African-American Roman Catholic bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Goroka Catholics from Louisiana People from Eunice, Louisiana Divine Word Missionaries Order 20th-century American Roman Catholic bishops 20th-century African-American people American Roman Catholic bishops by contiguous area of the United States St. Augustine Seminary (Bay St. Louis) African-American Catholic consecrated religious