At the Knights of Peter Claver Junior Division’s 24th Biennial National Convention, senior Caitlyn Dumas was elected to a leadership position, Junior Supreme Lady. A member for nine years, she begins her first term serving as the Junior Supreme Lady. Nearly 500 junior and senior members attended the convention that was virtual due to COVID-19. The daughter of Carliss and William Dumas, Caitlyn attends All Saints Catholic Church in New Orleans where she is an altar server and member of the Catholic Youth Organization. In an interview for the fall issue of The Josephite Harvest, Caitlyn said the Knights of Peter Claver are important to her, “because of the family that I have gained from being a member, which will last a lifetime. I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know other juniors in different districts and states.”  During her term, Caitlyn hopes to bridge the gap between the younger and older members of the junior division. She also wants to encourage her peers to attend Mass, noting, “A key concern that is facing young African-American Catholics is the inability and or lack of desire to attend church. One way that I believe I can address this is by having a retreat that has both prayer and fun so that the youth can see that there are two sides to a church, the prayer side and the fun side.”

St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart, The Josephites, a religious community of Catholic Priests and Brothers, is committed to serving the African American community through the proclamation of the Gospel and their personal witness. The Josephites’ commitment is expressed through sacramental, educational, and pastoral ministry, service to those in need, and working for social justice. It is an interracial, intercultural community of priests and brothers who work to advance the teachings of the Church in the African American community. The Society is the only community of men in the American Catholic Church that is engaged exclusively in this particular ministry.

The Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary was founded in 1909 in Mobile, Alabama, with the support of the Josephites. It is the largest and oldest historically Black Catholic lay fraternal in the world. Since 1951, it has been headquartered in New Orleans with more than 15,000 members across the United States and Colombia, South America.