Who are we?

The Tolton Ambassador is a layperson accredited and sent by the Tolton Cause as a regional messenger of the Postulator of the Cause; appointed for the task of supporting the Tolton Guild in an assigned region. Tolton Ambassadors are identified and appointed by the diocesan Vice Postulator of the Tolton Cause as needed to complete this important work.

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What is the task assigned?

Akin to the gospel narrative of the further 72 (Luke 10) sent forth for evangelization, Tolton Ambassadors are commissioned to:

• Promote the prayer for canonization in a manner that affects the continuation of possible miracles attributed to the intercession of Father Tolton.

• Become the leading, innovative local promoter of the Tolton Cause within a diocesan catchment area providing the best quality of catechesis.

• Work cooperatively with other individuals, churches, entities, organizations, and committees, both public and private, to assure continuity of promoting the Cause in a local area.

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Where are we stationed?

• ·Southeast: Tolton Ambassadors – Atlanta

• Southeast: Tolton Ambassadors – Kentucky

• Northeast: Tolton Ambassadors – Detroit

• Eastern: Tolton Ambassadors – District of Columbia

• Northern: Tolton Ambassadors – Chicago

• Northeast: Tolton Ambassadors – Indiana

• Southern: Tolton Ambassadors – Louisiana

• Eastern: Tolton Ambassadors – Philadelphia

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How many ambassadors have been sent out to the regions?

72 Members as of October 1st, 2020:

• 50 Ambassadorial Members

• 20 Associate Members

• 2 Deceased Members

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To inquire about becoming an ambassador, send an inquiry to tolton.spirituality.center@gmail.com.n1@gmail.com

 

Why is this work important?

Since (the late) Cardinal Francis George, OMI, opened the cause for sainthood of Father Augustus Tolton in 2010, the world has been shown the virtues of a holy man who triumphed over tragedy. Currently, there is no African-American on the official role of the saints in the Catholic Church. The Venerable Augustus Tolton is a hidden figure with a heroic and virtuous life that always reflected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The universal Church and the world deserve to know someone of such an ethnic stripe is among the Communion of Saints.

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History

Xavier University of Louisiana, XULA, hosted the inaugural “Symposium of the Saints” in July 2014. It offered a lecture series married to a day of reflection on all the sainthood candidates who are of African ancestry. The Institute for Black Catholic Studies livestreamed the event and published the proceedings. This gift gave birth to the idea that workers in the vineyard were a must.

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The Father Augustus Tolton Guild launched the Tolton Ambassadors program on Feb. 3, 2015. Since the inauguration of the Cause, Bishop Perry has given presentations about the Tolton story and the process for declared sainthood. More than 100 requests have been honored as of 2022 with the assistance of the late Rev. Canon A. Gerard Jordan sharing the speaking load.

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Now that the Cause has been accepted by the Vatican for consideration as of September 2014, the Tolton Ambassadors' volunteer service entails maintaining the momentum of activity surrounding the Cause.

They are commissioned to:

• Teach the faithful about the significance of the Tolton Cause

• Make the Father Tolton story, in cooperation with pastors and religious education leadership, a part of the instruction of adults, children, and youth

• Promote the absolute necessity of prayer for the success of the Cause

• With permission of local pastors to encourage support of the Cause among the faithful prayerfully and financially through individual and group efforts via events, days of reflection, banquets, and the like.

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Since the establishment of the first three Ambassadors, the founder of the Corps has stressed that the mission should contribute to the consolidation of the good relations existing between the Christian faithful on Earth with the Communion of Saints in heaven. It also should assist with the building of a more just and peaceful world in which human life, dignity, and rights are respected and enhanced, using the Tolton story as a model to eradicate racism in the Church.

Tolton's story is the Gospel of Jesus Christ lived in an enslaved man who would overcome all odds and become priest and servant.

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The path to sainthood, in the life of Augustus Tolton, began with openness to reconciliation, it is a path that entails renouncing our desire to dominate others through privilege and learning to see one another as humans sons and daughters of the Most High God, and as true brothers and sisters of one another, through Jesus Christ. When we set aside indifference and fear, we can affect a genuine climate of mutual respect, growth, and human flourish, and then we can come together to pray, especially for the miracles the world needs, using Tolton as our intercessor.

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The Ambassador works to develop a culture of inclusion, a more just social environment, and various opportunities for participation of all in the life of the local Church in the United States. The presence of the prayer-diplomats in America who pray for and promote the Tolton Cause is a sign of the resolution of the regions they represent, and of the national community as a whole, to address the situations of injustice, discrimination, poverty, and inequality plaguing our world and threatening the aspirations of coming generations.

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They do so to teach the world that though we do not have an African-American among the saints of the Roman Catholic Church we do actually have them. The Church just has to catch up with us.