‘Tolton’ Film Director Speaks About America’s First Black Priest
St. Luke Productions has released “Tolton: From Slave to Priest,” a film adaptation of its live multimedia play about Venerable Augustus Tolton, America’s first Black priest. The play has been presented in 32 states and seen by more than 75,000 people; the film screened in Tolton’s hometown of Quincy, Illinois, on Sept. 30. Director and co-writer Leonardo Defilippis said he was inspired to tell Tolton’s story after learning about the priest and hearing of the effort to begin his canonization cause. Defilippis described Tolton as an American hero and said his message of forgiveness, healing and unity is especially needed today.
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The film Tolton: From Slave to Priest brings the story of Venerable Augustus Tolton to the screen, adapting St. Luke Productions’ long-running stage production. Director Leonardo Defilippis says he hopes the film will introduce Tolton’s history and message of forgiveness, healing, and unity to audiences across religious and cultural backgrounds.
The production grew out of a suggestion made to Defilippis years ago by a priest in the Springfield, Illinois, Diocese. Defilippis initially knew little about Tolton, but later began developing a drama about him after Cardinal Francis George announced plans to begin Tolton’s canonization cause.
Defilippis and his wife, Patti, co-wrote the script, working for two years with Bishop Joseph Perry, the cause’s postulator, to make it accurate to Tolton’s era. The play opened in 2017 and toured for about nine years, presenting roughly 450 performances in 32 states to more than 75,000 people.
The film was staged to retain elements of the live performance, including actors addressing the camera directly, with enhanced backgrounds intended to evoke an Off-Broadway production. It screened in Tolton’s hometown of Quincy, Illinois, on Sept. 30, 2026.
Defilippis describes Tolton as a largely overlooked figure in both the Church and the country, and as an American hero. He says the film presents Tolton as the first recognized Black priest in U.S. history, at a time when Black men faced exclusion from seminaries and ordination in the country.
According to Defilippis, Irish missionary Father Peter McGirr supported Tolton’s vocation and helped him pursue priestly formation in Rome, where he was ordained. The director hopes audiences will see how Tolton’s path to priesthood illuminated both the barriers he faced and the meaning of service to people of every race.
Defilippis says Tolton’s example offers a message of forgiveness and love amid divisions in the Church and the country. He hopes the film will reach Catholic and Protestant, religious and secular audiences, and draw wider attention to Tolton’s cause for sainthood.
He also hopes the film will reach Pope Leo XIV, who is from Chicago, and help bring attention to Tolton’s cause. Tolton is described in the article as Venerable and as a prospective future saint.
Black Catholic holiness and the Church’s response to racism
Black Catholic holiness is both a witness to the Gospel and a reminder that holiness can flourish amid exclusion and injustice. The Church’s response to racism must honor that witness—not merely praise it, but confront racism within society and within the Church itself.
The Church’s pastoral framework for ministry with young people points to Venerable Augustus Tolton, the first U.S. priest of acknowledged African descent. Despite adversity and racism, he served marginalized communities; his example is offered as a call to courage, racial solidarity, and work for justice.
Holiness is not passive endurance of injustice. Pope John Paul II praised Saint Katharine Drexel for recognizing the equal dignity of Black people and Native Americans and for confronting racial prejudice, especially through evangelization and Catholic schools. Her example shows how Christian holiness can take practical form in education and service.
The Church should also recognize Black Catholics not only as recipients of pastoral care, but as contributors to the Church’s life and mission. John Paul II affirmed the aspiration to be “truly black and authentically Catholic,” and urged support for Black Catholic pastoral ministry.
The bishops teach that racism contradicts the equal dignity God gives every person and remains present even within the Church. It wounds relationships, divides communities, and violates Christian love. Racism also reaches beyond individual prejudice: repeated sins can reinforce unjust social structures and institutions.
That is why the Church’s response must include both personal conversion and communal action. The bishops call Catholics to examine their consciences, learn about racism’s history and continuing effects, and unlearn conscious and unconscious bias. They also call for prayer, honest dialogue, welcoming parish and school communities, and practical efforts to dismantle structural injustice.
This is not a departure from the Church’s mission or a matter of political fashion. Pope Francis described the Church as called to be a place of encounter and welcome and to work for unity among peoples, especially amid prejudice, hatred, and division.
The result should be a Church in which Black Catholics’ holiness, leadership, and gifts are genuinely received—and in which the wounds caused by racism are addressed rather than minimized. The bishops insist that when one part of Christ’s Body suffers, the whole Body is responsible for healing.