Staff Reports
One of the more popular and enduring local faith leaders will mark 50 years of ministry with a celebration service at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Rev. Clem Davis, 77, senior associate pastor at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Columbus, will celebrate with a Golden Jubilee Mass at the church, according to organizers.
A parish social will follow from 3 to 5 p.m.
Davis actually is marking 51 years as an ordained clergyman, but the pandemic delayed a celebration that would have been held in his honor last year.
Davis, who has served in Columbus since 1997, has been known widely as a voice for everything from diversity to humane and compassionate immigration policies to respect for sometimes marginalized groups such as those connected to the LGBTQ+ population.
Plus, he has been a community leader for promoting a respect and warmth among all faith groups locally. In fact, when he earned the Columbus Human Rights Commission’s William R. Laws Award in 2019, he was introduced by his friend Zulkifly Yusuf, a member and former board president of the Islamic Society of Columbus Indiana.
“No one should be disadvantaged because of the color of his skin, or thought less of because of his racial background,” Davis said in a 2019 Republic interview.
Davis has been an outspoken supporter of the local Latino population, which has grown significantly in the past decade and more.
In 2012, when the only local, Spanish-speaking priest left Columbus, Davis learned Spanish well enough to deliver his homilies in that tongue during Mass on Sundays, and encouraged English-speaking parishioners to attend Spanish Mass services to show support for the Latino community.
The Chicago native and Benedictine priest had been a teacher in his past career. He said in 2019 that he has felt at home in a city such as Columbus with a cosmopolitan population.
“I really value what Columbus does very intentionally in terms of extending a welcome and being a place that wants to be home to people of different cultures and backgrounds,” he said. “That is a value I embrace.”
