The Black Masking Indians of Mardi Gras

Jesuitical

America Media

News, News Commentary, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on a pre-Mardi Gras episode “Jesuitical,” Ashley and guest host Sebastian speak with Dr. Ansel Augustine. Ansel is the assistant director for African American affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the author of Praying with Our Feet: Encountering God in the Margins. They discuss the harrowing and sacred culture of the Black Masking Indians of Mardi Gras. 0:00 Mardi Gras! 4:00 New York City has a new bishop 10:17 Archbishop Fulton Sheen to be beatified 11:44 Catholic leaders respond to racist post 13:50 Villanova and Notre Dame bball in Rome! 15:14 History of Black masking culture 21:24 African Americans made Catholicism their own 24:02 Mardi Gras as sacred ritual 27:00 Tribal competition 29:10 Black and Indian cultural encounter 31:30 Hurricane Katrina is an open wound 34:04 The art of feasting 37:32 Diversity ministry is a challenge 45:24 Lenten resources and practices for 2026! Links for further reading: CRS Rice Bowl Website Development and Peace – Caritas Canada Solidarity Calendar 2026 101 Things To Give Up For Lent On Mardi Gras, Catholics should celebrate the faith and resilience of the New Orleans Black Masking Indians You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical. Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for saints and sinners.
0:14.9	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church and our world today, sometimes over drinks.
0:21.3	I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Sebastian Gomes.
0:24.7	Have you gotten your fix of Olympic curling yet?
0:28.7	I actually sent you an Instagram reel of cats jumping up at the screen when there's
0:36.5	was it curling or luge?
0:38.3	It might have been luge.
0:39.3	The cats love the luge because it's just like this thing going around and around and they try to catch it.
0:43.4	That was adorable.
0:44.4	That you would appreciate that.
0:46.4	So, so good.
0:47.5	Well, I certainly am.
0:49.5	Unfortunately, Team Canada and the mixed doubles didn't do so well,
0:52.5	but we got the men's and women's teams coming up, so looking forward to that. There we go. And when does hockey start? Are we there yet?
0:58.4	Yeah, you won't be surprised to know that I am aware that game one of Team Canada happens
1:03.2	tomorrow, Thursday, the day after that we're recording this. So looking forward to skipping out on work
1:08.5	and watching that. Don't tell our bosses.
1:16.2	So in addition to celebrating the Olympics this month, we also are looking forward to the beginning of Lent. Before we go into that season of penance, we're going to celebrate Mardi Gras with this
1:21.9	special episode. That's right. We're talking to Dr. Ansel Augustine today. So he's the assistant director for African-American
1:30.1	Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. So that's a major administrative
1:35.7	role in Washington, D.C. But he comes from New Orleans, and that's very much where his heart is.
1:42.3	And he'll actually be back home to celebrate Mardi Gras.
	...

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