Father Gus Taylor, a U.S. priest who was key in several prominent 20th-century Black Catholic initiatives, passed away last month at 85. 

Father Taylor died in Los Angeles from unspecified causes on Nov. 5, the Black Catholic Messenger reported on Thursday. His funeral was scheduled for Friday afternoon at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Jefferson Park. 

Born in 1940 in Lexington, Kentucky, Taylor attended Catholic schools in Cincinnati, according to a biography at the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. He graduated from the Athenaeum of Ohio and was ordained in Steubenville, Ohio, on Dec. 10, 1966, becoming the first Black priest ordained for that diocese. 

In 1969 he had a hand in laying the groundwork for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, having reportedly sketched out a vision of the program on a paper napkin at a restaurant.

That program allows Black Catholic leaders to “share Black Catholic viewpoints among ourselves and with the hierarchy, pastors, and religious women and men ministering in African American communities.” 

In 1969 Father Taylor founded “what was reportedly the nation’s first Office of Black Catholic Ministries, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh,” according to the Messenger. That office was also used by nearby dioceses including Steubenville and Wheeling. 

Among the parishes at which he served were St. Brigid-St. Benedict the Moor Church in Pittsburgh and St. Brigid Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. 

In his retirement, he was listed on the leadership council of the Los Angeles-based Empowerment Congress, which seeks to promote “active participation in public life, community service, and the political process to promote social justice locally and globally, while employing empathy, ethics, values, and a sense of social responsibility.”

Father Taylor was the eldest of seven children, including a surviving brother Father David Taylor, a priest who has served for more than 40 years in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.