About

Fr. Clarence Williams, CPPS, Ph.D. presents lectures and workshops on racism to civic, educational, and religious leaders throughout the United States, South America, Africa, and Europe. In November of 1989, Fr. Williams produced a nationwide satellite teleconference on racism involving for than 4,000 participants in 20 states and 44 cities. A follow-up teleconference was made in 1992 with 8,000 participants. In 1998, he received his doctorate in Education and Communications, emphasizing Global and Cultural Studies from the Union Institute and University. He is the author of six books: Recovery from Everyday Racisms (1999), Racial Sobriety: A journey from hurts to healing (2002), and Racial Sobriety: Becoming the change you want to see (2008); the Spanish workbook (2004); and the Portuguese workbook (2005). The Rev. Dr. Williams is a member of the Precious Blood Missionaries, a Roman Catholic religious order. After ordination in 1978, he served as pastor of St. Anthony Church for 15 years in Detroit, MI. St. Anthony was a multiracial congregation. Fr. Williams held the following positions from 1995 to 2008: Director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Detroit; Director of the Institute for Recovery from Racisms(R); co-convener of Building Bridges in Black and Brown, a national dialogue between the African-American and Hispanic/Latino communities, and editor of People of the Pyramids: The National Between the African American and Hispanic/Latino Communities(1998). He served on the boards of colleges and universities and as the vice-chairperson of Bread for the world. He received theKeep the Dream Alive” Award in Detroit at St. Anthony Church in 1997; the Dr. King Unity and Peace Award at St. Mary Cathedral in Miami, FL, in 1999; the Archbishop James Lyke Award from the Pan-African Roman Catholic Clergy Conference in 1999; the Teresa Maxis Award in 2008; and the Msgr.

Phillip Murnion Award for Pastoral Excellence in Faith and Culture from the National Pastoral Life Center in New York City in 2009. Fr. Williams served as the senior director of Racial Equality and Diversity Initiatives for the Catholic Charities USA’s national office in Alexandria, Virginia, from 2007 to 2010. He serves as the pastor of St. James the Less Church, which is a multiracial, multicultural, Bi-lingual parish in the heart of the nation – Columbus, Ohio. Fr. Williams is recognized for his leadership in founding the National Black Catholic Seminarian Association through the annual Lawrence Williams Award given to an outstanding black seminarian since 1989. He was honored in 1999 for his founding of the Pan-African Roman Catholic Clergy Conference; and in 2005 for his role in establishing the month of November as Black Catholic History Month in this hemisphere at the University of Dayton in Ohio by the late Fr. Paul Marshall, SM.