Catholicism did not begin as a “white” faith. Born on the eastern rim of the Mediterranean, it spread through the trading routes and legions of the Roman Empire into Africa, Asia and, only later, what we now call Europe.
Three early bishops of Rome: Victor I (c. 189–199), Miltiades (311–314) and Gelasius I (492–496), were Africans whose teaching shaped the church’s developing doctrine.
