DORCHESTER -- Robert Credle likes to say that before Roxbury was ghettoized, and before it was gentrified, he was there.

The Credles were the third Black family to move into Roxbury. They settled at 39 Quincy Street, the heart of an Italian and Jewish enclave. Robert Credle was born in the welfare ward of Boston City Hospital and raised with his four siblings by a single mother. He grew up surrounded by gang activity but got in a fight and "decided the gang life was not for him," according to his biography. His high school girlfriend brought him to St. Hugh's Church in Dorchester and introduced him to Msgr. James Haddad, who served as Credle's mentor. Msgr. Haddad bought Credle a suit and drove him to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester to meet the college president, Father Raymond Swords. Credle received a full scholarship and was the only African American in his graduating class.

Credle still worships at St. Hugh's, which is now St. Katharine Drexel and is the personal parish for Black Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston. He has been instrumental in the ongoing development of Drexel Village, a 217-unit mixed-income housing development adjacent to the parish. He is also the director of community programs for Urban Edge, a Roxbury-based nonprofit that builds affordable housing and educates first-time homebuyers. For his work, Credle received the 31st annual Bishop James Augustine Healy Award, named after the first Black bishop in the U.S. and given by the Archdiocese of Boston to a Black Catholic with a legacy of service. Credle accepted his award during a gala dinner at Boston College High School in Dorchester on Nov. 16.

"One of the primary goals of our strategic plan is to preserve St. Katharine Drexel for the future, for our posterity, for our people who come behind us," Credle said in his remarks.

He thanked the late Msgr. Haddad for his mentorship and Father Oscar Pratt, the current pastor of St. Katharine Drexel, for being a "phenomenal leader."

Presenting the award to Credle, Msgr. Bryan Hehir said that Credle "demonstrated a deep commitment to the Black Catholic community and the community at large."

He added: "Anyone who knows Bob can attest to his willingness to serve, his extraordinary competency, his compassion toward others, and his deep faith in Christ that inspires us all."

Msgr. Hehir received the annual Robert L. Ruffin Award in 2023. Named for one of Boston's most prominent Black Catholics in the late 19th century, the award typically goes to a non-Black Catholic who has served the Black Catholic community. This year, however, it went to the Archdiocese of Boston Black Catholic Choir, which provided music throughout the ceremony. The choir even sang "Happy Birthday" to attendee Maureen Sawyer, who turns 100 on Nov. 23. Since 1992, the choir has sung during Masses and important church events in Boston. They have also performed throughout the U.S., as well as in Ireland, the Caribbean, and Italy, where they sang for Pope St. John Paul II.

Choir President Anna McReynolds and Vice President Georgia Grace accepted the award on behalf of the choir. In her remarks, Grace said that the theme for the choir this year is "retreat, restore, and revive."

"As music ministers, we are able to spend our day together reflecting on our mission to spread God's word through our gift of music," she said. "Each week, we continue to restore and revive ourselves to witness the gifts we have and hopefully spread God's message of love. We are thrilled to receive this honor, and thank you. God bless you."

The Excellence in Liturgical Arts Award was presented for the first time to Meyer Chambers, director of the Black Catholic Choir. Chambers was born in New Orleans and moved to Massachusetts in 1987. Along with his work as music director for St. Katharine Drexel, St. Sebastian School in Needham, and the Black Catholic Choir, he was a campus minister at Boston College for over 20 years. He said that he accepted the award on behalf of all musicians in the Archdiocese of Boston and hoped that the award would be given for years to come.

"Hundreds of singers and instrumentalists offer their time, talent, and treasure to the archdiocese on a daily basis without ever getting recognized for the gifts they bring to serve the body of Christ," he said.

He thanked the choir for accepting his leadership, saying that it was prayer that kept them together for over 30 years.

"Thank you for the peaks, thank you for the valleys, thank you for all the good times we had in between," he said.

He also thanked Archbishop Richard Henning, who was in attendance for his first Healy Award dinner. Chambers told the archbishop that he felt "mildly guilty" for his plans to retire in summer 2025 and return to his native Louisiana.

"Please know that I am at service to you until that day comes," he said. "May you share with the good people of this great archdiocese all the love and care that you promised at your installation Mass."

In his remarks, Archbishop Henning recalled his visit to the basilica in Baltimore, where the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was held the previous week. The basilica's construction coincided with the beginning of the U.S. as a new nation. After centuries of colonial persecution, the First Amendment guaranteed Catholics the right to worship freely. The basilica was designed without stained-glass windows so it could be filled with light.

"For them, it was a celebration of this reality that they could now come out of the shadows and into light," Archbishop Henning said.

However, the archbishop said, there was a shadow within this temple of light. The church was segregated, with Black Catholics having to sit in balconies separated from the rest of the assembly.

"It seems to me a thing of great grace that this shadow has been banished again," Archbishop Henning said. "One of the most important things we do as disciples of the Lord is serve the light and banish those kinds of shadows of misunderstanding, of hatred, exploitation, and terror."

He said that the Healy Award honorees were "people who shine that light, not just within the church, but beyond into the world."

"People that banish the shadows by the gift of their own compassion and solidarity with one another," he added.

The evening's guest speaker was Vincent Rougeau, the first Black and first lay president of the College of the Holy Cross. Rougeau told Bishop Healy's life story, beginning with his birth into slavery in Georgia in 1830 to his becoming the valedictorian of Holy Cross's first graduating class.

"Holy Cross and the Catholic Church solidified his personhood and gave him a platform for leadership," Rougeau said.

He quoted Bishop Healy's words when he finished his education: "Then, I was nothing. Now, I am a Catholic."

"These words are a powerful testament to Bishop Healy's faith, a faith that many of us share, a faith that we celebrate tonight," Rougeau said.

He said that he has always been fascinated by the life of Bishop Healy. Holy Cross is currently researching the legacy of the Healy family, both good and ill. Bishop Healy was mixed-race and passed as a white man throughout his life. His family did the same, shielding them from the virulent racism of 19th-century America. The Healy family owned slaves, and the bishop himself opposed civil rights for African Americans after the Civil War. However, he was beloved by the people of Portland, Maine, where he served as bishop. He was a leader in the community, respected even by non-Catholics.

"Like many of us, his story reflects the complexities of identity, race, and family history in American life," Rougeau said. "And it's a story that continues to teach us profound lessons about the power of faith to transform lives."

Rougeau delved into his own family history and found that his great-great grandfather was a Confederate soldier who had seven children with a Black woman. Due to her race, she could not marry the father of her children, nor could those children inherit any property after their parents died.

"The act of rejection and passing reinforces this notion that Blackness is something to avoid rather than embrace, to be ashamed of rather than proud," Rougeau said. "But those men and women faced heartbreaking choices in a society that decided Black humanity was questionable and, at best, marginal. We are afforded the ability to be who we are in this church, in part due to the decisions many made that allowed them to assume leadership or to own property and build a secure life, albeit at great cost."

Bishop Healy's own mother was enslaved. Very little is known about her, not even the proper spelling of her name, Mary Eliza. Her surname, as well as all details of her birth, death, and family, are unknown.

"History views her as a cloudy memory," Rougeau said.

He told those at the dinner to not rush to judgment, and view the decisions made by people in the past with empathy and understanding.

"Let us honor Bishop Healy's legacy by continuing to build with wisdom, with courage, and with love, houses of faith, justice, and reconciliation that can shelter and nurture generations to come," he said.