VERY REV WILLIAM L. NORVEL, JR., SSJ 1ST AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPERIOR GENERAL FOR THE JOSEPHITES
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
“Little Willie” was first so that African Americans and the larger Roman Catholic Church could live its mission to produce more saints in the communities that he served. He was the first African American to pastor a parish in Washington, DC (and the second in the Archdiocese of Washington), when he became the pastor at St. Benedict the Moor in the summer of 1971. With his non-Catholic music minister, Rawn Harbor, he brought the piano, the drums, other instruments, and African American culture into Catholic worship, as it should be. He took his faith and music seriously, to catechize Rawn into the Catholic faith, and was a regular figure at choir rehearsal at St Benedict in the early days. By his witness, he packed the pews with his youth and adult gospel choirs, built the Imperial Room to help support parish growth that included a complete renovation of a multipurpose room to have a “real” worship space.
He was not the first of The Josephites to serve the Church in Nigeria, but was arguably the most impactful, erecting a seminary at Iperu, and serving as the spiritual father, or Pape’, as he was addressed by those whom he invited to serve the Church with The Josephites. His eight years in Nigeria helped to build and sustain a 20-year pipeline of men like Rev Cornelius Ejiogu, SSJ, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, that continues to produce vocations to serve the African American community and beyond in the Roman Catholic Church in the USA. As he did with countless men and women who expressed a particular interest in ministry, he responded. As a result, I spent 40 days at a Jesuit parish near the formation house at Iperu, and discovered that the Church in Africa that I experienced was very much like the church in a black neighborhood in SEDC at the beginning of the 1960s.
When he came to Our Lady of Perpetual Help around 2007, when he introduced himself to the parish, he talked about an interest in celebrating KWANZAA. Discovering that I and my wife, Jennifer were students of the practice, he invited us to share our experience with the parish the following Sunday. For years after that first Sunday, the OLPH community held several annual KWANZAA celebrations. Such was the case in Los Angeles, CA, at St Brigid’s, where Fr Norvel also served as pastor in the early 1980s. When Andrew and Johnnie Savoy approached the pastor about low college admission among youth at the parish, they launched a tutoring program in the fellowship hall. From those humble beginnings, St Brigid’s College-bound program established partnerships with Loyola Marymount and St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, CA, and sustained the program for nearly 30 years.
Ordained in 1965, he was among the young, energetic religious community that launched the National Black Clergy Caucus and the Black Sisters Caucus. With them, he was in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement during its heyday. Food for thought about the significance of the Caucuses – without the Caucuses and engagement in the Civil Rights Movement, it is highly improbable that there would have been 10 African American bishops to write the Apostolic Exhortation What We Have Seen and Heard in 1984.
He was a dear member and spiritual advisor to the Cursillo Community here. Fr Norvel was also an integral part of the Cursillo in Washington, showing special appreciation for its diversity and serving as a spiritual director in the Movement. He approached the Cursillo community in the Washington Archdiocese in the same manner as he approached every new assignment, with Christ’s love and enthusiasm in witnessing with believers and extending invitations to join our faith community.
How can we continue to celebrate “Little Willie’s” life? Live as he lived, and love as he loved! With that, the joy of the gospel continues to penetrate communities in the same manner that he penetrated our community and our Roman Catholic Church in the United States, in the African American community, and beyond. When the gospel choir sings at your parish in the USA, remember the priest who got us started on our way. Fr Cornelius’ closing the funeral liturgy with the hymn “Order My Steps,” was an appropriate culmination of the celebration of Very Rev William L. Norvel, Jr.’s life, and a reminder that we are all called to let the Lord “Order My Steps” as “Little Willie” did.
Author: Deacon Timothy Tilghman, St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church, Washington, DC
Comments