The AlleyCat Speaks
Blog by Andrew Lyke
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Blog: The AlleyCat Speaks
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Black Catholics Alliance
The Black Catholics Alliance
Welcome to The AlleyCat Speaks.
I’m Andrew Lyke, your host. Through this podcast, we’ll explore Catholic Social Teaching with a particular focus on the Church’s preferential option for the poor and the marginalized—those pushed to the edges by our prevailing social order.
Inspired by Gregory Porter’s song “Take Me to the Alley,” this podcast is an invitation to follow Jesus into the narrow spaces of our world: places where the afflicted, the lonely, and the downtrodden live; places society too often tries to hide, isolate, or silence.
The AlleyCat Speaks is about listening for God’s voice in those alleys—social, economic, and spiritual—and asking what faithfulness looks like when we choose presence over comfort, solidarity over indifference, and love over fear.
My guests on today’s podcast are Tina Carter and Gardis Watts, two Black Catholic scholars, and lay leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Our conversation will be around an initiative called The Black Catholics Alliance and the publication notably called “The Pulse of Black Catholic Chicago.
So, let’s get to it.
Being a Peacemaker
Being a Peacemaker
Welcome to The AlleyCat Speaks.
I’m Andrew Lyke, and I’m grateful you’ve chosen to spend this time with me.
This podcast is rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, with a particular focus on the Church’s preferential option for the poor and the marginalized—those pushed to the edges of our society and too often forgotten, ignored, or silenced. Here, we listen closely to voices that rise from those edges, trusting that God is already speaking there.
Inspired by Gregory Porter’s song “Take Me to the Alley,” The AlleyCat Speaks is an invitation to follow Jesus into the narrow, hidden places of our world—the alleys where the afflicted, the lonely, and the downtrodden live. These are spaces our culture often tries to avoid or conceal, yet they are places where grace is thick, truth is sharp, and God’s presence is unmistakable.
This podcast is about learning to listen for God’s voice in those alleys—social, economic, and spiritual—and asking hard but hopeful questions: What does faithfulness look like when we choose presence over comfort, solidarity over indifference, and love over fear?
In today’s episode, we’re revisiting a powerful moment from the past. You’ll hear an excerpt from a radio program called God’s Praises Tell, which aired in 2012 during my time with the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Black Catholics. The focus of that show was the life, faith, and witness of the Black Catholic community. This particular excerpt comes from a broadcast just before I became host—when I was still a guest—but its message feels especially urgent now.
In a world marked by violence, division, and deep wounds, we are in desperate need of peacemakers, just as Jesus names them in Matthew’s Gospel: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” It’s a timely word—one worth hearing again, praying with again, and living out again.
So wherever you’re listening from—whether you’re walking, driving, or sitting quietly—welcome.
Let’s head into the alley together.
Organizing Catholics for Justice
Organizing Catholics for Justice
From 2011 to 2015, I was the Director of the Office for Black Catholics for the Archdiocese of Chicago. An initiative on which I collaborated with the Office for Peace and Justice was Organizing Catholics for Justice. In 2015 I was the keynote speaker for the OCJ Congress gathering at Holy Angels Church in the Bronzeville community on Chicago’s Southside. My focus was on organizing for power for justice.
With the current political climate in the United States, organizing communities is critical to saving our democracy. I share with you an audio recording of that 2015 presentation as words of encouragement to communities of faith. Please listen.
Then organize!
To listen to an audio recording of the presentation, click below.
OCJ Congress Keynote.mp3Empathy and Inaction In the Face of White Supremacism
Empathy and Inaction In the Face of White Supremacism
When confronted with overt acts of white supremacism, a common reaction is the remark, “So sad.” This phrase reflects an emotional response, suggesting that people recognize the injustice and feel some degree of empathy. However, this acknowledgment is often passive, with the emotional reaction stopping short of deeper engagement or meaningful involvement. (Read more . . .)
Mary's Magnificat and the Struggle for Justice
Mary's Magnificat and the Struggle for Justice
Embracing the Power of Women Against the Forces of White Supremacy, Misogyny, and Patriarchy
St. Veronica's Annual Women's Advent Candlelight Dinner
Presentation by Andrew Lyke
December 5, 2024
Olympia Fields Country Club
Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to be with you today during this holy and reflective season of Advent. It is my joy to be here with you as we journey together through this holy season. I know that this evening’s feast focuses on women. In case you’re wondering, I am familiar with women. My mother is a woman. So is my wife. I was raised with three sisters. Since May of 1982, I have been a “girl dad.” And four of my six grand-blessings are girls. Women and girls all greatly impact how I see and experience the world. So does my Catholic Faith, Catholic Social Teaching[i], and its core principles—the first of which is Life and Dignity of [Every] Human Person.
I see myself as an ally and advocate for women, and I recognize their subordination imposed by social structures. So, I will speak from those foundational identities as son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend and a Catholic man of faith.
A Reflection on Marriage by Andrew Lyke
In Honor of the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Nicolas & Teresa Silva
July 27, 2024
We are here to celebrate a great milestone: 50 years of marriage.
We are here to celebrate the promises made and promises kept and the promise that Teresa and Nick found in each other. Two people with promise who found promise in each other. So, they took the risk of making the promises to have and to hold from that day in the summer of 1974, to honor and cherish, for better or worse, rich or poor, in sickness and in health, as long as they both shall live. . . .
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This presentation is from the homily by Andrew Lyke at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Chicago on Grandparents Day, Sunday, July 28, 2024.
I love the assignment given to me to talk about grandparenting, a topic close to my heart. Terri and I are the grandparents of six grandchildren (I call them grand-blessings): three girls and three boys. The oldest is 14 and the youngest 5. Charlotte’s birth in 2010 established a new generation in our family, and Terri and I entered a new stage of life. We felt as though we owed apologies to our friends who had already entered grandparenthood—apologies for judging them. “All they want to talk about are their grandkids” was what we often had said or thought after being with those friends. Finally, we got it. We understood the overwhelming love that wells up in us for the children of our children. And our phones have been loaded with photos of those grand-blessings ever since. . . .
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A reflection by Andrew Lyke on a dynamic, unique parish on the East Side of Joliet, Illinois, on it's closing
July 10, 2024
It was in the spring of 2007. I was wrapping up a day of work at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where I was the Coordinator of Marriage Ministry. I got a call from my friend and colleague, Jim Healy, the Director of Family life Ministry in the neighboring Joliet Diocese. Jim asked if I would be available and willing that evening to come to Sacred Heart Church in Joliet to consult at a meeting about a new marriage ministry at the parish. . . .
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The following text is from the Men’s Coalition Prayer Breakfast on Saturday, June 15, 2024, at Our Lady of Africa Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois. The Keynote presenter was Andrew Lyke
Good morning, Men of God!
It is my honor to be your keynoter for this prayer breakfast. It is always good to be back at home at the place where I first learned about God. I grew up just a few blocks north of here. Holy Angels was very much a second home for me, an aspiring pre-adolescent raptured by the ecclesial sounds and smells of the sanctuary. Inspired by parish priests, Frs. Howie Tuite, Dick Wheatly, Owen McAteer, and Les Mollohan, I could envision my life as a priest.
February 29, 2024
I believe that we all are called by God to be a part of the force for good in the world. That invitation from God comes to us in varied ways. Without having a relationship with God—a prayer life, it can be easy to miss God’s call. Some of us have profound encounters, like Paul on the road to Damascus getting knocked to the ground (Acts 22:6-7). For most of us, God’s call is more subtle. In significant life events, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, suffering disease, the experience of being loved by another, being forgiven by someone harmed by our actions, and countless other ways, God invites us into a communion of love and reconciliation. It’s from God’s initiative that we are tapped to “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22; Matthew 16:24; Mark 1:17; Luke 9:23). . . .
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A Personal reflection by Andrew Lyke
May 1, 2023
I’m in my 71st year of life. I’m old; I like it; and I hope to get older. It’s a new season of life that I’m in now, and it comes with challenges and superpowers I didn’t have before. Among the challenges are the expected issues that come with aging, such as memory loss, physical deterioration (vision, hearing, muscle tone, etc.), perennial aches and pains, living on a fixed income, memory loss (did I say that already?), and the increasing pace of the lapse of time. . . .
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February 5, 2022
In this week’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) we hear about how Jesus invited the first disciples to follow him in his campaign to tell others about the love of God. We who have worked in and for the Church have cited this text and its message about catching people as inspiration for the work of evangelization, to spread the Word—the “Good News” about Jesus, the Son of God, and His mission of love. . . .
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The Sacrament of Marriage from an African American Catholic Perspective
The Sacrament of Marriage from an African American Catholic Perspective
September 14, 2021
Fr. Roy Lee welcomes Andrew and Terri Lyke, are pioneers in Catholic marriage ministry. In 1994 they established Arusi Network to govern their ministerial work. The mission of their ministry is to strengthen the institution of marriage in the African-American community. The focus of that work is in marriage education, spiritual formation and ongoing social support through outreach from faith-based communities. They facilitate retreats, workshops, relationship coaching, and parish consultations to raise our sights on how we, the body of Christ, live in the Light of God's grace through the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
November 30, 2020
To my white Catholic brothers and sisters:
As a Black “cradle Catholic” who is highly engaged in the church, I have been driven into deep reflection and prayer by the events of the past several months in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic: the taking of the innocent Black lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police. . . .
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Sts. Priscilla and Aquila are historical figures of the Early Church. They were a couple—a married couple whose names pop up several times in the Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Scriptures. We identify with them because they were married, as tentmakers they worked together, and they had a couple identity that transcended who they were individually. When you think of one you think of the other, too. Acts 18 mentions that when Paul traveled from Athens to Corinth, he stayed with them. They were hospitable. We see ourselves in these biblical personalities. We especially like that they project an extraordinary image of egalitarianism, in that the several times they are mentioned, Priscilla’s name is most often before Aquila’s, which is extraordinary when you consider the role of women in 1st Century Palestine. . . .
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John 19:28-30
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So, they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. . .
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May 3, 2000
The family is a system, an organization with rules, goals, purpose, leadership and conflict. Like business organizations, conflict must be handled so that the organization doesn’t lose sight of its goals and stray from its purpose. Conflict that escalates to violence is clearly out of bounds in organizations. Rules of engagement and civil laws protect organizations from violence. However, when violence erupts in the family, the basic unit of society, those protections aren’t nearly enough. Families need deeper healing and faith for restoration and renewal. They need God. . . .
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April 19, 2000
Racism is a major obstacle to our Christian community. The U.S. Bishops issued a statement in 1979, Brothers and Sisters to Us, that unequivocally denounced racism as a sin. More recently the Bishops of Illinois issued a pastoral letter titled Moving Beyond Racism: Learning to see with the eyes of Christ in which they express their "desire to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ by speaking to a grave personal and social evil: the sin of racism." At the highest level of the Church in America, we continue to address this serious social illness that impedes the Reign of God at work in our hearts. Yet, we still struggle twenty years after the Bishops' definitive statement to U.S. Catholics. . . .
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Less than two years after our wedding, Terri and I moved from urban Chicago to a community in the urban area’s western suburbs. That was in 1977.
Our townhouse was in a quaint subdivision of mostly young professionals, with few people of color. And the Catholic parish in the area seemed unwelcoming. The parishioners wouldn’t give us eye contact. When our eyes met, theirs quickly turned away, as though they wanted us to be invisible. . . .
(Read more)
December 17, 2000
When we got married in 1975 we thought we had all we needed to make our marriage work. Because we had dated for six years and shared with each other our deepest, most fragile parts of ourselves, we believed that we were well suited for each other and prepared for marriage. Getting married was the ultimate expression of our love for each other. . . .
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August 21, 2003
The term “just friends” connotes a less valued, less serious affair when applied to the relationship between a man and woman. When that relationship progresses into a more meaningful, romantic state, it is described as “more than just friends.” Ironically, as reported by many committed marriages, it is their ability to be friends that makes the relationship last. Above all other aspects of their relationships, successful couples cite friendship as the key to lifelong committed marriages. . . .
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September 5, 2002
Over the years we have ministered to literally thousands of couples preparing for marriage. Most of them have great optimism for their life together. Their dreams of the future, at the marriage preparation stage of their relationship, seem most promising. Their decision to marry stems from those promising prospects. So, when they promise to each other “in good times and bad, for better and for worse,” they only know and dream of the good times. To face the unknown “bad times” of their future, they need an abiding faith and openness to “Thy will be done.” . . .
(Read more)
Archbishop James Patterson Lyke, OFM, was a trailblazing leader in the Catholic Church in the United States, remembered for his deep faith, commitment to education, and advocacy for African American Catholics. His life reflected the Franciscan ideals of humility and service, leaving a lasting legacy of leadership and cultural inclusion.
Be careful about what you say to family about your spouse.
Be careful about what you say to family about your spouse.
April 11, 1997
In our marriage preparation program we discuss with engaged couples the relationships with their families of origin. For many married persons their families are important resources of companionship, counseling, and instrumental support. A general “rule” we suggest is to keep a unified front. Visit their families together as a couple, rather than separately. And be very careful of bad news they share about
their spouse with their families.
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