“The Church is broad and liberal. She is the Church for our people.” -  Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Tolton Ambassador Corps, an initiative launched in 2015 to more directly support the cause for canonization of Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton.

The founding chapter started in Chicago. Today, chapters also are in Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Philadelphia and Oakland, the newest chapter established last fall.

Dr. Chiquita Tuttle, coordinator for the Diocese of Oakland’s African American Pastoral Center, and Joyce Scotlan, outreach coordinator and alpha administrator at St. Columba Catholic Church, lead the Oakland chapter as co-convenors. They also serve together on the Diocesan Task Force for Racial Justice.

Tuttle and Scotlan are recently inducted ambassadors for the Oakland Chapter. Membership recruitment efforts are underway, but the current focus is education and outreach. 

“We want to expand the knowledge to not only kids that look like us but also to other kids to know that there are significant Black people in the Catholic Church from the United States who have made impacts,” Scotlan said. “Tolton should be a martyr because he died working for the Church.”

Tuttle’s first introduction to Tolton was during a live play, “Tolton: From Slave to Priest,” in May 2022.

“It was Joyce who came back to us after the play and said there's this opportunity for us to show the “Tolton Speaks” documentary. We had a well-attended ticketed event screening in August and an open community discussion at the Oakland Museum of California," Tuttle said. 

Tuttle and Scotlan were thinking of more ways to promote Tolton’s story, and someone mentioned the Tolton Ambassadors. The Tolton Ambassadors are lay men and women commissioned nationwide to inform faith communities, raise funds for and promote prayer for the Tolton cause’s success.

“Let's let the African American Pastoral Center take that on,” Tuttle said. “And then Joyce and I decided that we would co-convene it since she was the promoter of it.”

“We have a predominantly African American elementary school, so I went to the principal and said, ‘I'd like to make these guys my first little ambassadors.’ She agreed,” Tuttle said. 

She presented to students about the “Saintly Six,” focusing on Tolton. They focus on Tolton. Tuttle gave students a Tolton prayer card and Tiny Saint keychain to put on their backpacks. Teachers also were encouraged to incorporate the Tolton prayer in their classrooms. 

Tuttle also frequently attends deanery meetings in the diocese, which are clusters of the Oakland parishes by region, and brings copies of the “Saintly Six” poster and Tolton prayer cards for parishioners. 

“My goal and I think Joyce's goal too, is to get to all 53 parishes since many of our parishes have no Black folks,” Tuttle said. 

Scotlan believes the Tolton Ambassadors program can be a model for the other “Saintly Six” candidates. The "Saintly Six" are six African-American candidates on the road to sainthood.

“All these people are working toward this hopeful miracle,” she said. “Educating people is going to expedite the sainthood process and encourage people to donate to help pay for those experts that have to go through all of the documents and such.”

There are no African American saints in the Catholic Church. Tolton’s sainthood journey began in 2010. Pope Francis declared Tolton Venerable in 2019.

Tolton, born into slavery in Missouri in 1854, is the United States’ first recognized African American Roman Catholic priest. During his childhood, his family escaped to the free state of Illinois, where he established roots in Quincy and Chicago. Tolton wanted to become a priest but faced opposition from American seminaries for several years. 

With assistance from Fr. Peter McGirr, an Irish Franciscan priest, Tolton studied in Rome, where he was ordained a priest on April 24, 1886. Throughout his priesthood, ministering to black and white Catholics, he faced racial trials and triumphs before his death July 9, 1897. He was 43 years old. 

In 2011, Cardinal Francis George appointed Bishop Joseph N. Perry as the postulator of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s official effort to declare Tolton a saint. Perry appointed a special assistant for the cause, the Rev. Canon Alvin Gerard Jordan, a seminarian in Chicago at the time. 

Jordan, originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, was heavily inspired by Tolton in his priestly vocation and was ordained a priest on Tolton’s death anniversary, July 9, 2016, said Altha Jordan-Green, his sister.

Jordan became the “force” behind the Tolton Ambassadors Corps, founding the first chapter with Antoinette Taylor-Thomas, Michelle Tines and Angela Hicks and the support of the Fr. Augustus Tolton Guild. Jordan would go on to found the Tolton Spirituality Center.

He carried out his duties, traveling and promoting Tolton’s cause and the other five African American candidates for sainthood until his sudden death in 2022. 

“My brother was a dynamic person…He was just blessed to have a way with words,” said Jordan-Green, who became an ambassador in 2019 due to her brother’s influence. 

Chicago has 13 members. Hicks serves as president and has been an ambassador since the program’s start.

“Fr. Gerard was a good friend of mine, and I guess he was the one who introduced Tolton to me,” Hicks said. 

“After learning about [Tolton]’s struggles and his unbelievable patience and perseverance to become ordained, I just kind of fell in love with Tolton,” she added. 

To become an ambassador, most people write a letter explaining why they want to become a Tolton Ambassador, Hicks said.  

The letter would go to a current ambassador for review, who will present it at a chapter meeting to discuss whether the candidate(s) would enhance the Corp and its mission. A follow-up meeting occurs with the candidate before the installation ceremony with Bishop Perry. 

This July, all ambassadors nationwide will gather with Perry at the University of Notre Dame for a Tolton Summit, offering member training, workshops, elections, service opportunities and more. 

The Chicago chapter typically meets monthly. Each year, around the springtime, the chapter sponsors an essay contest for Catholic students in grades fifth through eighth.

“We present them with a question to ponder and to write an essay about. Once they turn in the essays, we have a luncheon for the contest winners and anyone else who wants to attend,” Hicks said. 

The contest winners receive a cash prize from $100 to $300.

In the fall, the chapter hosts a fundraiser “Breakfast with Tolton,” where Bishop Perry and other Tolton champions come to give updates on Tolton’s candidacy for sainthood. The funds collected from the event go toward the cause, Hicks said. The Chicago chapter presented Perry with a $3,500 check at the last breakfast. 

Hicks said she enjoys being an ambassador because she gets to introduce Tolton and his story to others.

“Praying, as Fr. Gerard used to say, was the No, 1 thing we needed to do. We are considered the boots-on-the-ground to tell the story, raise the money, and pray,” she said. 

Hicks added that it is a blessing to witness the evolution and growth of the Ambassadors program during the past 10 years. 

“To have what was a little group of us now across the country is amazing to me, and I feel honored to be a part of it.” 

In Louisiana, Jordan-Green is one of 14 ambassadors in the chapter and 26 associates who do not formally go through the ambassador process. She leads the chapter with Alberto Maxwell, a fellow church member.

The chapter meets monthly and has occasional events, including a Tolton-dedicated concert, “A Tolton Musical Masterpiece,” held in November with local Baptist, Methodist and Catholic churches.  

“We had a mass community choir that sang at my church, Immaculate Heart of Mary. We picked up a love offering from attendees and sent that money to Bishop Perry's office for the cause,” Jordan-Green said. 

During Black History Month, the chapter sponsors a Tolton essay contest for local students in grades fourth through 12th. The contest has three categories that vary by grade range. Each student winner receives a tablet and a cash prize. 

Chapter members also travel to churches and CCD classes to educate the faithful about Tolton. 

“There’s a children's book that we try to share with the kids, and we always give out Tolton prayer cards to everybody,” Jordan-Green said. 

The chapter also offers an annual $500 scholarship established in 2023, the “Reverend Canon A. Gerard Jordan Scholarship,” awarded at the chapter-sponsored Tolton Gala to a local single mother pursuing a college degree or furthering her education. 

Jordan-Green wrote a Fall 2023 reflection, “They Will be Called Great in the Kingdom of Heaven,” honoring Tolton, the Ambassador program and her late brother. An excerpt reads: 

“While our primary assignment is to support the Tolton cause, especially through intercessory prayer, we offer this support while addressing the needs of the local church. My brother reminded me and anyone who would listen that he brought the essence of his diaconate into his priestly ministry, and the Tolton cause allowed him to be of service in this way."

To join a Tolton Ambassadors chapter, email inquiries to tolton.spirituality.center@gmail.com.

Photo1: Reverend Canon A. Gerard Jordan (center) with the nationwide Tolton Ambassadors who were installed in 2019. All photos courtesy of Altha Jordan-Green.