Archbishop Cordileone returns to the podcast to discuss his opposition to the death penalty.

Archbishop Cordileone: It is past time to strike down the death penalty

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The Bible has been invoked in defense of slavery and to overthrow it. Some saints have confronted slavery, while others have turned a blind eye, or worse, developed theological arguments to support it. The Catholic church has a mixed history, especially when it comes to chattel slavery, and its one we should know about. 

This week, Gloria interviews Chris Kellerman, SJ. about his new book, 

All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism and The Catholic Church.

Chris brings an eye-opening knowledge of history and a faith that wrestles deeply with the horrors of slavery.

“For every saint that we find out was a slaveholder, for every pope that we find out, you know, did something crazy, there's another person who was fighting against it” says Chris. “There's a great sense of that hope that there was a change. And a lot of that change came through people speaking up and good Catholics speaking up and saying, based on my faith I know this isn't right.”

Chris Kellerman is a Jesuit and serves as Assistant for Justice and Ecology of the Central and Southern Province of the Jesuits.

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Did you know that Black women are more likely to die from preventable childbirth complications than white women? Or that Black women make up less than 2 percent of psychiatrists?

This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria speaks with Dr. Amanda Joy Calhoun about the deep vestiges of racism in our medical institutions and the strategies she is using to challenge and correct them in her own practice. Dr. Calhoun is an adult and child psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine. She is an expert at exposing racism in the medical system and mitigating the effects of racism on Black Americans. Dr. Calhoun firmly believes that all doctors should be activists and is a fellowship coach of The Oped Project.

Dr. Calhoun shares disturbing accounts of how she’s witnessed racism in the hospital setting, among both white patients and staff.  

“It has little to do with the psychiatric illness. Mental illness is used as a scapegoat for racism,” Dr. Calhoun says of white patients who have lashed out with hate speech at Black patients. “But oftentimes these kids that are saying these N-words, they’re about to leave the hospital, they’re stable. This is just the word they use to describe people. It's not that they're in this episode where they don't know what they're saying.”

Just as troubling, is the preference white staff shows to white patients: 

“Anecdotally, I had been looking at the fact that it seemed that predominantly white staff, which is medicine, were much quicker to put my Black patients in restraints, than white patients.”

There is no standard training or treatment for dealing with racism in hospitals, but Dr. Calhoun is quick to provide her expert recommendation: “I use the word racist. I think we need to own it.”

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On this episode, Gloria speaks with Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of several books including The Scandal of Holiness, Reading for the Love of God, and Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, which received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in the Culture & the Arts.

Gloria and Jessica dive deep into the Catholic imagination–exploring writers like Toni Morrison and the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich. She also believes in reclaiming the practice of reading, especially for children growing up today:

“I try to tell this to parents: it's not really about making sure that your kid recites all the history or knows all the facts,” says Jessica, “ It's just recognizing that they're being shaped by a worldview in which the story began before them.”

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To help us kick off October’s “Respect Life” month, Gloria is speaking with Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy about how a Catholic vision of restorative justice must guide our advocacy against the death penalty. Krisanne is the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, a national organization that mobilizes Catholics and all people of goodwill to value life over death, to end the use of the death penalty, to transform the U.S. criminal justice system from punitive to restorative, and to build capacity in U.S. society to engage in restorative practices.

In this episode, Krisanne explains the differences between a retributive and restorative model of justice and what each looks like in practice. 

“Restorative justice is not about no consequences,” says Krisanne, “You know, fundamental to restorative justice is an accountability. When people actually get to the point that they can admit that they've created a harm or they've harmed another, when they can get to that point where they're repentant. I mean, that's transformative. That's a different kind of justice."

Gloria and Krisanne review the history of Catholic teaching on capital punishment, papal condemnations of the practice, and how it finally became impermissable according the the catechism.

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Gloria muses on some of the arguments emerging from the anti-woke brigade. She challenges the idea that wokism, or a commitment to racial justice, emerged from philosophies of German philosophers like Karl Marx and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel . Tracing the roots of woke culture and intersectionality, Gloria makes clear that these social movements are grounded in the Black experience and that they provide the necessary framework for pursuing justice in the church and society.

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Whether you love reading the Bible or could use a refresher, Fr. Josh Johnson has you covered in his new book, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Restoring God's Vision of Race and Discipleship.

Fr. Josh and Gloria talk about how our Christian discipleship must involve actively bridging racial divides, so that our lives on earth might more closely reflect God’s heavenly vision as described in holy Scripture. Their conversation is full of powerful stories that exemplify how this ministry of authentic relationship and reconciliation is already being put to action, and what becomes possible when “we get out of our little holy huddles.”

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Gloria Purvis muses on the role of privacy in the confessional, how the church can better safeguard data on its parishioners, and what we all can do to protect our privacy and that of our family on social media.

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Welcome back to the second season of the Gloria Purvis Podcast! On this episode, Gloria speaks to Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who was appointed by Pope Francis to be bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota in 2021. Bishop Cozzens is the chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis where on behalf of the bishops he is leading a three-year National Eucharistic Revival that began this past June.

Gloria and Bishop Cozzens discuss the meaning of the Eucharist, the plans for the Eucharistic Revival and the modern complexities of dealing with political controversies and communion. Bishop Cozzens also shares the importance of continuing transparency and pastoral leadership amid the sexual abuse crisis.

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Thank you! That's what Gloria and her team wants to say to you, our listeners, as we close a year-long first season of The Gloria Purvis Podcast. We'll be back in the fall with all new episodes! Thank you for journeying with us!

Lastly, if you would like to share some feedback with us, please fill out this brief Listener Survey!

To follow Gloria over the summer, please subscribe to AmericaMagazine.org

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When it comes to social justice issues “the church can show up as moral first responders or as funeral directors,” says Cornell Brooks.

Professor Brooks joins “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” with an impressive pedigree as the former president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights attorney, a professor of public leadership and social justice at the Harvard Kennedy School, and an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episocopal church.

Gloria and Professor Brooks discuss several issues that threaten Black lives, most notably racial profiling, police violence and voter suppression.

“You are more likely to see the Easter bunny standing next to Santa Claus at the voting booth than to encounter an actual instance of voter fraud,” Professor Brooks says. In reality, it is politicians who are committing the overwhelming amount of voter fraud, not the citizens whose voting rights are being suppressed.

Abortion-related episodes:

• What would a post-Roe world look like?
• Pro-choice advocates often appeal to reproductive freedom. But freedom without real choice is coercion.
• Texas' abortion ban and systemic sexism against women
• For women to be free, they must be free to be women.

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“My job is to get in the car and drive to every far flung, criss-cross part of Alabama, talking to people about what our hopes are for the future.” Dana Sweeney is the statewide organizer at the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice. He joins Gloria this week to discuss mass incarceration, economic and racial justice, and government accountability in Alabama. 

Lastly, if you’ve been enjoying the Gloria Purvis Podcast please consider sharing some feedback in this brief Listener Survey!

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Gwen Ifill famously coined the expression “missing white woman syndrome” to describe our national obsession with a small subset of missing persons–largely white and female– to the exclusion of many other victims, especially persons of color. 

This week Gloria talks to Natalie Wilson, co-founder of The Black and Missing Foundation, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit dedicated to searching for missing people of color when police and the media fall short. Their work is also the subject of the award-winning 4-part HBO documentary series, Black and Missing, produced by Geeta Gandbhir and Soledad O’Brien. 

For Catholics, this should be a pro-life issue, and one that we examine seriously.  Forty percent of the about 600,000 people who went missing in 2019 were people of color — most of them Black. And Black people's cases take four times longer to resolve. 

Gloria and Natalie also discuss how the Black Lives Matter movement encompasses more than police violence; it extends to the issue of police neglect to investigate cases of Black persons gone missing.

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Links:

The Black and Missing Foundation

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New medical research is revealing the detrimental effects of being sedated or placed in a medically induced coma for an extended period of time. And with the surge of Covid patients in ICU’s, the rates of brain disease, including dementia, have only increased. 

Here to talk with Gloria is Dr. Wes Ely, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine whose research has focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with ICU-acquired brain disease.

Dr. Ely is the author of the book Every Deep-Drawn Breath, which shares his quest to return humanity to doctoring by tending to patients’ emotional and spiritual needs, as well as his effort to end a practice in hospital ICUs that leaves patients suffering from long-term brain problems. The title of his book is taken from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which reads "The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet." 

Gloria and Dr. Ely discuss the dangers of prolonged sedation and how to advocate for your loved one when they are receiving critical care. “This is an entire person. This is not just a set of lungs on a ventilator,” Dr Ely says. “It's an entire person of inestimable work. This is a priceless human being.” 

Over the course of his long and storied medical practice, Dr. Ely had the honor of caring for the poet Maya Angelou in advance of her reading at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Dr. Ely was originally inspired to become a physician, in part, because of Maya Angelou’s writing. “I write from the Black perspective,” Ms. Angelou told her son, “but I aim for the human heart.” Upon hearing these words. Dr. Ely has made them a personal mantra or his own life and medical practice. He aims always for the human heart. 

To support the work of America Media, please consider purchasing a digital subscription.

Related links:

Every Deep Drawn Breath: Dr. Ely is donating all his net proceeds from this book to a fund at the CIBS Center established to help ICU survivors and their families.

The Christopher Awards

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On Saturday May 14, 2022, motivated by the evils of racism and white supremacy, an 18 year old man drove 200 miles with an AR-15 rifle with the intention to seek out and kill Black people. He shot and killed ten people at Tops grocery store. And then, only a week and a half later, on May 24, we witnessed another mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. This time at Robb Elementary school. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. 

Gloria welcomes Sr. Josephine Garrett back to the show. Sr. Josephine is a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and a licensed counselor specializing in trauma. 

This conversation was recorded after the racialized killing of people in Buffalo, but before the tragic shooting in Uvalde. Gloria and Sr. Josephine discuss how racially motivated violence takes a toll on our mental health and why its important for our bishops to name the sin of white supremacy. They also talk about how to protect your mental health, while fostering real empathy and understanding. 

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Gloria interviews the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, about a statement he just released restricting the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, from receiving the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. Speaker Pelosi is a Catholic, who represents the congressional district of San Francisco.

In his statement, the Archbishop laments that Speaker Pelosi’s position on abortion has become more extreme over the years. He says that he’s made numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand this grave evil, but to no avail. He states, “I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion “rights” and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance. I have accordingly sent her a Notification to this effect, which I have now made public.”

Gloria speaks with Archbishop Cordileone about his decision, how it came to be and what consequences it will have on an already polarized political climate in the country, and in the Catholic Church.

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Related Links:

Notification to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress Nancy Pelosi

Archbishop bars Nancy Pelosi from Communion in her home diocese, citing ‘aggressive’ defense of abortion rights

Interview transcript 

Video interview on America's YouTube channel

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The Catholic church is facing increasing divisions and tensions that are also reflected in the country at large. Those divisions once again made headlines a few weeks ago when Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke with Michael Voris of Church Militant about a range of topics. In the interview, both Voris and Greene were critical of the U.S. bishops welcome of immigrants. They also weaponized the scandal of the sexual abuse crisis to argue that the bishops had lost their moral authority. 

Here to discuss this interview and what it says about polemics in the Catholic church is Bill McCormick, S.J., a contributing editor at America and a visiting assistant professor at Saint Louis University in the departments of political science and philosophy.

“I think my primary impression was that this is a discourse of fear.” says McCormick, “There's a fear that if we try to help other people, we can't help ourselves, the fear that we can barely take care of our own families so how could we possibly take care of other families?” 

These fears and scarcity mentality are driving much of the conversation, but McCormick adds, “That's not the gospel. You know, one of the most common lines in the gospel is have no fear.”

Related Links:

Marjorie Taylor Greene showed that the most brutal anti-Catholicism can come from Catholics

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Last week, there was a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, raising myriad questions across the country and the political spectrum.

“The Gloria Purvis Podcast” welcomes Kristen Day, the Executive Director of Democrats For Life of America and the author of “Democrats For Life: Pro-Life Politics and the Silenced Majority.”

Gloria and Kristen discuss what will and won’t change should Roe v. Wade be overturned. They also look at what historical precedent exists for overturning established law and why, as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was on rocky ground from the start.

“The flawed reasoning behind Roe v. Wade,” Gloria says, “is that they used bad history. They couldn't actually tie it to the constitution. And then the opinion itself was crafted more like legislation rather than an opinion.”

Amidst all the political disagreements, there are competing claims to what women really want. At the center of this debate are those most vulnerable to abortion, who Gloria says are still being exploited: “Often the poor, Black woman is used as the mascot for why Roe V. Wade should not be overturned without really delving into the messaging behind that.”

Related links: 

Reproductive freedom doesn’t give marginalized women a real choice to determine their future

A better abortion debate is possible. Here’s where we can start.

I support overturning Roe. But pro-lifers need to understand why so many Americans fear this decision.

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In December 2021, California established a Council for the Future of Abortion. It’s goal: to improve access to abortion and to protect reproductive freedom, as several states are passing more restrictive abortion legislation. 

But for Catholics, this is not merely a question of freedom, but of authentic choice. Do vulnerable women, especially poor women of color, have the same choices available to them when determining their future and that of their unborn children? 

On this week’s episode of the “Gloria Purvis Podcast” we hear from Gina Vides, the associate director for parish and community leadership at the Office of Life, Justice and Peace in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. And Gina says that the idea of these women having a choice is met with the demoralizing realities of poverty, lack of affordable housing and domestic violence. Additionally, they are saddled with the responsibility of providing for their other children. “Sixty percent of the women that have abortions in California are already moms,” says Gina.

The L.A. Archdiocese is working around the clock to connect vulnerable moms to programs with wraparound services, including medical care, food, rent assistance and a community of support to help them carry their babies to term. However, California’s Future of Abortion Council is dedicating $61 million to provide gas, lodging, transportation, childcare, food, lost wages, and doula support for women seeking an abortion. 

“When you have this asymmetrical emphasis and funding and marketing toward abortion,” Gloria says, “that's not freedom to me. That's coercion.” 

Related links:

Gina Vides’ article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Opinion: California might expand abortion funding. What about help for mothers who carry to term?”

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This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” we hear from Pamela Ferrell, a pioneer and advocate in the natural hair care field. When Pamela was only 18, she was fired from her job for wearing braids. So she started Cornrows & Co., a hair braiding salon that has passed along a centuries-old tradition in the African American community. 

“The history of hair for Africans in America has been one of control,” Pamela says. It can be traced through the restrictive Tignon Laws of 1786 that forced Black women to cover their natural hair, up to the present, where African hair is still policed by schools and employers across the nation. “Slavery is about ownership of your body,” Pamela says, “and so while we are no longer enslaved, those are the remnants of it.”

For over 40 years, Pamela has been a passionate voice for natural hair care causes and a key contributor in efforts to get states to change outdated laws that impose unfair policies and fines on hair braiding salons. In 2014, the U.S. Army and Navy asked Pamela to advise the military on hairstyle policies. There she shared her discovery of what she calls “circle hair.”

“I was combing out a client’s hair after shampooing it and there were perfect circles on the floor.” Pamela began collecting samples, measuring them and ultimately using them as a scientific way to describe all hair types by their shape—circle or line hair. “Hair became a visual argument for me,” she says, to unpack the nefarious forms of racism that persist in our institutions and policies but to do so from the perspective of science.”

Pamela also talks to Gloria about how she overcame punitive policies from the Board of Cosmetology and what language we need, in the Crown Act and in society, to better describe African hair. 

Related Links:

The Crown Act

Cornrows & Co. 

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On May 13, 2022, Rev. Jacque Fabre will be ordained and installed as the new bishop of Charleston, South Carolina. His predecessor, Most Rev. Robert E Guglielmone, submitted his retirement to Pope Francis, as is custom at 75 years of age. 

This is a historic appointment for many reasons. Bishop-elect Fabre will be the 14th bishop, but the first Black bishop, of the diocese of Charleston, which extends throughout the entire state of South Carolina. He will be one of a handful Black bishops in the United States. And an immigrant from Haiti. 

But these are all labels Bishop-elect Fabre is weary of. “First Haitian, first black, what does that mean?” he says, “It might put you in a box and I hate to be in [a box.]” Although he concedes this is an important historical moment, “Yes. To have a person from a different country, different language, being part of the hierarchy of the states. It's a huge progress.”

 “It's a sign that the church in the south,” Gloria says, “which has this tangled up history with Blackness, with Black people,” can realize, “Black is beautiful. Black is holy. Black is beloved by God.”

Bishop-elect Fabre is a member of the religious order the Missionaries of St. Charles, or Scalabrinian Fathers. He has served in many places — such as Cuba, Colombia, Rome and the Dominican Republic — and in a variety of roles. He speaks five languages including English, Spanish, Italian, French and Creole.

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This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria speaks with Danielle Conway, Dean of Penn State Dickinson Law. Dean Conway is a leading voice on creating an anti-racist approach to legal education and has helped those who work in law schools around the country, including at Penn Law, develop better approaches for designing inclusive experiences.

With Gloria she discusses the historic bipartisan confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the key questions raised during the Senate hearings, and the personal significance of witnessing Judge Jackson’s family going “from segregation to the Supreme Court in just one generation.”

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Helpful terms:

Due Process 

Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, 15th Amendments) 

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In honor of Women’s History Month, “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” is exploring questions about what it means to be a woman, from a Catholic perspective. In this episode, Gloria speaks with Abigail Favale, an associate professor of English and the dean of the College of Humanities at George Fox University in Oregon. Abigail is the author of The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender and a related forthcoming book, The Genesis of Gender.

Abigail was raised in an evangelical Christian family, and her early childhood was steeped in traditional gender roles. But when she converted to Catholicism as a teenager, she soon discovered a more integrated theology of womanhood. Catholic theology focuses on the sacramentality of one’s being, rather than the Protestant notion of doing or gender role-playing. Abigail believes that our sexed bodies, male and female, have distinct and important roles to play in the sacramental life and that the erasure of sex poses a threat, most especially to women.

The physicality of being a woman became even more salient to Abigail through her experience of motherhood. “It still blows my mind to just think no matter what I’m doing, whether I am...breastfeeding a child or changing a tire or whatever, in that moment, I’m living out my sex in a way that is pointing to something divine.”

While there is much to be celebrated in feminism, Abigail says second-wave feminism led to the scapegoating of the female body. “Female fertility becomes the problem,” she says. “And so women physiologically need to almost be made male through birth control, and if that doesn't work, then the child becomes the scapegoat.”

Gloria and Abigail also break down the differing conceptions of sex and gender that are operating in political conversations today. They discuss the medicalization of transgender bodies, and Abigail points out the health hazards of prescribing cross-sex hormone therapy over the course of a lifespan. There’s an alternative approach, she says, that honors both the sacramental body without collapsing gender into what Abigail calls a “pornified costume” for women. And fortunately for Catholics, we have the example of the saints, many of whom were both gender atypical and holy. 

Related Links:

• Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion
• The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender
• The Genesis of Gender

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This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria speaks with Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean and professor of law at Boston University School of Law. Professor Onwuachi-Willig is a leading scholar of law and inequality, and her research centers on race, gender, employment discrimination, affirmative action and family law. With Gloria, she discusses the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and the racism underpinning the negative reaction to President Biden’s announcement that the nominee would be a Black woman.

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Chris Smith is the only African-American Jesuit in formation in the United States. But he comes from a multi-racial family and recently wrote an article for America, My white mom’s marriage to a Black man outraged my grandma. But she learned to love us.

Smith joins the Gloria Purvis Podcast to talk about his family’s legacy of love, racism, reconciliation and healing. They also discuss how the Catholic church actively shut the doors on African Americans in America and how this can be traced in his own paternal family line. 

Although he’s witnessed plenty of generational racism, Smith testifies to the goodness of people, even when you can’t see it. It’s what he has witnessed in his own family and among the mostly older, white Catholics who welcomed him as a child into the faith. And it’s what leads him to the conviction that, “God can change any heart with love” and that we, the faithful, have to “let people be new” or evolve in their spiritual journeys. 

Looking for a spiritual practice to help you see people anew? Smith says that you have to step out of your comfort zone. He regularly attends mass at a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, although it bears little familiarity to his own incultured celebration of the faith. It’s there that he is challenged to appreciate the variety in the church and the possibility for us all to see things differently. 

“If you are a liberal person and you can't stand traditional people on the internet” Smith urges, “go to a traditional parish [...] you’re going to find saints there.” 

Related links:

My white mom’s marriage to a Black man outraged my grandma. But she learned to love us.

For a Church That is Unafraid to Welcome Black People

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“Our word isn’t racism. It’s relationship.” Those are the words of Lynne Jackson, the great great grand-daughter of Dred Scott. Lynne joins the Gloria Purvis Podcast to discuss the Dred Scott decision and its ripple effects today. 

In 1852, Dred sued the state of Missouri for his freedom, invoking the law “once free always free” after living in the free state of Illinois. Ultimately, his case was denied by Chief Justice Roger Taney, who ruled by the changing political tide and pervading racism of the time.

Lynne Jackson founded the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation to commemorate her ancestor’s story, to continue education around racial justice, and to reconcile the descendants of formerly enslaved people with the descendants of slave-owners.  

Jackson herself was able to meet the descendants of Roger Taney. And together they have spoken before colleges and legislatures, testifying to the impact of Scott’s historical case as it altered the course of U.S. history and continues to ring through the generations. 

“I was just grateful that we had come to a point in our country where we could have of these two families speak together and know each other and respect each other,” says Jaconson, “And have a moment where we could say we aren't our ancestors and we want to see a better day for all of our children in our country.”

In addition to modeling racial reconciliation between families today, The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation raised $250,000 to commission the only statue of Dred Scott and his wife Harriet, which stand outside the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. 

There still is no postage stamp for Dred Scott. The Foundation started a Dred Scott Stamp Campaign to solicit required petitions and you can help by going to their website, www.dredscottlives.org and checking out the campaign.

Lynne Jackson is available for speaking engagements and can be reached through the website at [email protected] or 314-532-5613.

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If you have not yet seen Sister Thea Bowman’s 1989 address to the U.S. bishops, pause whatever you’re doing and go watch it. And for any newly ordained U.S. bishop, this should be required viewing. That’s the conviction of Manuel Williams, C.R., a Resurrectionist priest, the pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church in Montgomery, Ala., and professor of Black Catholic spirituality.

Father Williams joins “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” to celebrate the tour de force who was his friend and mentor, Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A., who is now on the path to beatification and canonization. They discuss the importance of a distinctly Black spirituality, including song, preaching, art, worship and prayer in Catholic parishes and communities. Father Williams explains what anti-racist preaching means and why it matters at church.

“We have to acknowledge that the experience of Africanness that our ancestors brought to this country, the experience of the middle passage, the experience of enslavement, the experience of Jim Crow, the experience of the great migration, the experience now of voter oppression and renewed rancid racism—all of that affects the way I prayed to my Jesus,” Father Williams says, “and to deny that is nonsense.”

According to Father Williams, it is not the case that white spirituality doesn’t exist or have a home in the church but rather that the default spirituality has been white and has been assumed to be normative for everyone else. Anti-racist preaching and the full inclusion of Black spirituality takes seriously the mystery of the Incarnation, through which, Father Williams says, “every culture, every manifestation, every expression of humanity is honored, is glorified, is affirmed.” Father Williams adds that while the Incarnation affirms every culture, Jesus’ becoming human still takes place “in a concrete place, in a concrete time, in a concrete culture.” And therefore, we celebrate the Black experience as part of the concreteness of the Incarnation. 

Gloria and Father Williams also talk about how Black Catholics can sustain themselves spiritually when their local parish does not draw from the cultural richness of the African American experience. 

Support “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” by getting a digital subscription to America magazine.

Show Links:

Thea Bowman’s address to U.S. bishops: transcript and video 

America Media’s short documentary: This historic Catholic parish fought to stay open—and won

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Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Shelton Fabre as the next archbishop of Louisville, Ky. Bishop Fabre is one of two Black U.S. Catholics serving as archbishop, along with Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C. He comes to Louisville with years of pastoral experience, first as the auxiliary bishop of New Orleans from 2006 to 2013 and then the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana from 2013 to 2022. 

Gloria Purvis welcomes Bishop Fabre to the podcast to discuss a range of issues affecting the church and Black Catholics today, most notably the sin of racism. Bishop Fabre calls this time “a watershed moment for our country [and] our church” and encourages those Catholics who don’t know how to have courageous conversations on race to visit their pastor first and share their desires to help and learn. 

They also discuss the importance of listening sessions for Black Catholics experiencing prophetic anger in response to the evils of racism today. The bishop believes that both the work of justice and prayer have equal roles to play in the transformation of our society. “Laws have an important role to play in overcoming racism,” Bishop Fabre says, paraphrasing the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, “but laws alone will not change the human heart.”

Finally, Gloria and Bishop Fabre talk about what’s next for the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, which the bishop chairs. 

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Show Links:

Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism

America Media’s short documentary: This historic Catholic parish fought to stay open—and won

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How should Catholics navigate modern dating apps? What does it take to make a marriage between people of faith work today? And what are some of the negative mythologies of marriage that are still alive and well? These are some of the questions tackled by Gloria and Dr. Mario Sacasa, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the associate director of the Faith and Marriage Apostolate of the Willwoods Community, in New Orleans, LA. In addition to his practice and ministry among Catholic couples, Dr. Sacasa creates and hosts the Always Hope Podcast which is a long-form interview show aimed at helping the listener grow in their emotional and spiritual health.

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Links:

Dr. Sacasa’s Always Hope Podcast

Dr. Sacasa’s website

America Media’s short documentary: This historic Catholic parish fought to stay open—and won

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When it comes to depression, there are two popular schools of thought in Christian theology: suffering from depression is a result of human sinfulness, or it's a form of divine instruction. That is, either we’ve done something wrong or God is trying to teach us something. But neither approach has proved convincing to Jessica Coblentz, a Catholic theologian in the Department of Religious Studies and Theology at Saint Mary’s College at Notre Dame.

Gloria and Jessica discuss the findings of her new book, Dust in the Blood: A Theology of Life with Depression, which exposes the ways in which bad theology can further harm people suffering from depression, and offers healthy practices for accompaniment.

Support The Gloria Purvis Podcast by getting a digital subscription to America Magazine: www.americamagazine.org/subscribe

Links:

Jessica Coblentz’s book: Dust in the Blood: A Theology of Life with Depression

Watch America Media’s short documentary: This historic Catholic parish fought to stay open—and won

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Archbishop John Wester has just written a new pastoral letter, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament”. He writes from his diocese in Sante Fe, New Mexico, which is also home to two of the three nuclear weapons laboratories in the United States. Archbishop Wester talks with Gloria about the impossibility of justifying nuclear war, or even possessing nuclear weapons, and how his perspective was made personal by a visit he made to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, where atomic bombs were dropped in 1945. 

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 Links:

Pastoral letter: Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament

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Gloria speaks to Maureen O'Connell, author of the new book Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-Blackness, about becoming white in America and how it unfairly privileged her Irish-Catholic family, even as it cost them part of their unique identity and heritage.

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Links:

Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-Blackness

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When Cherilyn Holloway first learned how abortion was impacting the Black community, she was shocked. Why weren't more people concerned and doing something about it? She quickly discovered that the pro-life movement had an image problem: they only cared about the unborn.

So, Cherilyn founded Pro-Black Pro-Life, a movement seeking to engage black communities for action on the issue of life and to ultimately transform thought. Gloria and Cherilyn take a hard look at the pro-life movement in the U.S. today: its narrow focus on abortion, its tendency to tokenize Black people and its inability to have honest conversations about member's lived experiences. They also discuss racial stereotypes within the movement and its dangerous alignment with Republican politics.

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Links:

Learn more about Pro-Black Pro-Life and visit their YouTube channel.

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Sr. Norma Pimentel, M.J. spends her life serving migrants at the southern U.S. border. As a Christian, she doesn't see her work as optional. "It's a mandate from God," she says, "to look out for everybody."

Sr. Norma burst onto the national scene when she addressed Pope Francis during a virtual papal audience ahead of his official visit to the U.S. in 2015. The Pope personally thanked her for her ministry. Today, she is one of the most recognized Catholics in the country.

A tireless activist and advocate for migrants, Sr. Norma debunks some of the myths around migration and questions to what degree Americans can be described as "pro-life" amidst the suffering she witnesses daily at the border.

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Links:

Don’t turn away from suffering on border, urges Sister Norma Pimentel

Catholic bishops on the border have high hopes (and advice) for Joe Biden on immigration

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Over half of the insurrectionists arrested for breaking into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 were business owners, doctors, lawyers and other white-collar workers. They came mostly from urban centers. These are two of the many significant findings from political scientist Dr. Robert Pape and his research team at the University of Chicago, who have spent the past year studying the insurrectionists.

"We're so used to thinking of extremists as being on the fringe–part of fringe militia groups or religious sects. What's striking about the insurrectionist sentiments in the U.S. today is that they are mainstream."

Gloria speaks with Dr. Pape about the role of religion within the insurrectionist movement and how faith leaders can challenge prevalent insurrectionist sentiments in local communities.

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Links:

New survey shows mainstream community support for violence to restore Trump remains strong

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At the end of November and in honor of Black Catholic History month the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America unveiled a new icon outside of its chapel. The image depicts Mary holding her dead son, Jesus. Both are dark-skinned. The artist, Kelly Latimore, said the icon was inspired by the murder of George Floyd. Soon after it was displayed, the university began receiving calls and letters alleging the image was blasphemous. A lobby began to remove the icon. Then, it was stolen. Then, a smaller version of the same icon was also stolen.

Kelly Latimore joins Gloria to discuss his inspiration for the icon and how it has been celebrated and ridiculed across the Catholic community.

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Links:

Kelly Latimore Icons

After racist comments, Catholic University replaces stolen icon depicting Black Mary and Jesus

Second ‘George Floyd’ Pietà icon stolen from Catholic University

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All eyes were on the Vatican when the United States' second Catholic President, Joe Biden, visited Pope Francis. Political pundits across the Atlantic dissected the visit, looking for any word or gesture that could reveal Pope Francis' political leanings towards Democrats or Republicans. But Dan Lipinski–who served eight terms as the U.S. Representative for Illinois’ Third Congressional District from 2005 to 2021–pushed back, arguing that the pope is not a supporter of either party.

Lipinski, who identifies as a "pro-life Catholic Democrat" and was marginalized by his own party, speaks with Gloria about the growing trend toward extreme political positions in politics and what Catholics engaged in politics can do about it. They also discuss the impact of the election of the country's first black president, Barack Obama, on the Catholic Church and the Republican party.

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Read: Confessions of a pro-life Catholic Democrat in a divided nation by Dan Lipinski

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There is a generational chasm in Catholic communities. Older Catholics struggle to understand the minds and hearts of younger people. Young people are uninspired by a typical parish community or reluctant to attend programs designed to bring them in or back to church. That doesn't mean they're unreligious or disinterested in Catholicism.

Ashley McKinless and Zac Davis recognized this back in 2017 and started a podcast community to create a space for young adults to talk about their spirituality, questions and even their struggles with Catholic teachings. To celebrate Jesuitical's 200th episode, Gloria welcomes Ashley and Zac for an honest and entertaining conversation about young people and the Church today.

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No Black Catholics in the United States have been declared saints by the Catholic Church. But that could change. Six individuals who lived between 1766 and 1990 are officially on the path, each with a unique story of faith and struggle. After fleeing slavery in Missouri, Augustus Tolton wanted to be a priest but was rejected by Catholic seminaries. Mary Elizabeth Lange provided free schooling to children of color when it was illegal to do so.

Michael Heinlein, editor of "Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood," joins Gloria to discuss the heroic lives of these six Catholics who, through acts of charity, defied systems of injustice in society and in the church. "They had to fight just to be able to show love and mercy," says Heinlein.

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Links:

Advocates urge Pope Francis to canonize 6 Black U.S. Catholics: ‘If not now, when?’

Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood by Michael Heinlein

Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood: A study guide

Video: Sr. Thea Bowman's address to the U.S. Bishops in 1989

Video: Who will be the first Black Catholic saint in the United States?

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"Health Care Denied" was the headline of a report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union on how Catholic hospitals threaten the health and lives of women. It is a common accusation leveled by civil rights groups on issues of women's reproductive health and crisis pregnancies. Catholic hospitals follow guidelines based on beliefs about the human person and the common good which prevent medical staff from providing a range of reproductive health services, including contraception, abortion and sterilization.

Are Catholic hospitals denying women care, turning them away and by doing so threatening their lives? That is absolutely not true, says Fr. Charles Bouchard, O.P., a moral theologian and the Senior Director of Theology and Ethics at the Catholic Health Association. Fr. Charlie speaks to Gloria about why groups like the ACLU and others are targeting Catholic hospitals, despite the high quality of care offered and many shared advocacy priorities around the common good, immigration, voting rights, criminal justice and more.

At some point in the conversation around reproductive health, says Fr. Charlie, belief in human dignity and the common good morphed into a radical autonomy; free choice became an end in itself. Ultimately, this debate is about fundamental moral principles–is a dialogue possible?

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Dr. Bernice A. King–the youngest daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.–knows the temperature of the United States is high. But she's convinced that racial justice and equality will not come about through anger and bitterness.

Dr. King and Gloria discuss the response of Christian churches to the murder of George Floyd and the BLM movement, what MLK meant by "colorblindness" and why social justice work has to change hearts as well as structures.

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Learn more about Dr. Bernice A. King and The King Center

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Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has concerns about President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's souls–two prominent pro-choice Catholics.

In a wide-ranging interview, Gloria and the Archbishop also discuss the president's recent meeting with Pope Francis, when denying the Eucharist to Catholics is appropriate and how abortion–a preeminent issue–fits into the wider body of Catholic teachings on racism and immigration.

Read this interview in print and comment here!

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Benedict XVI Institute's Requiem Mass For The Homeless.

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If you've had a bad experience going to Confession, you're not alone. Catholics recently took to social media in response to a post from a woman who had been questioned inappropriately by a priest after confessing a sexual sin.

One of the responses came from Fr. Jim McDermott, SJ, an associate editor at America, who authored Sex and Confession: 5 helpful guidelines. He and Gloria share their own past negative experiences in the confessional, discuss the formation of priests who hear confessions and the rights of the penitent. They also reflect on why the seal of confession should never be broken, no matter what the sin, and make the case for not giving up on the sacrament.

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Link: Sex and Confession: 5 helpful guidelines

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The struggle for women's rights has been long and hard fought. The goal was freedom. But what does freedom mean and how has it changed from the time of the 19th century feminists through various women's movements? Lawyer and author Erika Bachiochi joins Gloria to clarify concepts and shine a light on the early feminists who fought for more than an abstract, autonomous individualism–a notion created by men. From voting to sex, women can only be free when they are free to be women.

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Links:

The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision

The Equality Act’s implications for abortion would be devastating for pregnant women in the workplace

What I will teach my children about Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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The debate over masking and vaccine mandates has led some critics to make an egregious comparison to Nazism. But make no mistake, writes Jenn Morson in a recent article in America, "there is no comparison between being asked to wear a mask in stores and schools and being forced to wear a yellow Star of David in Nazi Germany."

Morson, a practicing Catholic who is ethnically Jewish, explains why appropriating the Holocaust to make a political point is both unacceptable and ineffective. It's used out of ignorance or as a tactic to end dialogue rather than engage constructively. Morson speaks with Gloria about a growing sub-culture of conspiracy theories and anti-semitism in Catholic communities.

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Stop comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust by Jenn Morson

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Division Street ran through Atchison, Kansas. It divided the community along racial lines until a local advocacy group, Atchison United, lobbied to change it. But some Catholics in the city resisted the effort.

Kevin Hill, an attorney and member of Atchison United, speaks with Gloria about how racism has become politicized in the United States, including in small cities like Atchison with sizable Catholic populations. Kevin and Gloria recount the story of George Johnson, a Black man from Atchison who was lynched by a white mob in 1870, and make the case that racism is a fundamental life issue for Catholics.

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American politics have infiltrated the Catholic Church and are wreaking havoc. When Catholics adopt the prevailing secular categories of "right" and "left" they marginalize a central tenet of the faith: that truth is a person, not a thing. Fr. Matt Malone, SJ, President and Editor-in-Chief of America Media, joins Gloria for a frank conversation on the constructive and destructive power of media in the Catholic Church today, and why the goal of Christian discipleship is not about being right–it's about being holy.

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Links:

Matt Malone, S.J., president and editor in chief of America Media, to step down in 2022

A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis

Everything I Can Do: Living with Down syndrome

Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone by Fr. James Martin, SJ

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During a conversation with Jesuits on his recent visit to Slovakia, Pope Francis called out a large Catholic media network for relentlessly attacking him in his role as pope. That network is the U.S. based Eternal Word Television Network, founded by Mother Angelica. What does Pope Francis' comment mean for Catholics, particularly Catholics in the media? Do his words and actions as pope require correction? What is an appropriate way to criticize the pope?

Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, a Dominican Friar and moral theologian, joins Gloria to bring some clarity to the story. Pope Francis doesn't take offense when people criticize him personally or the prudential decisions he makes, says Fr. Aquinas. But when that criticism turns against his exercise of the papacy and threatens the unity of the church, the church itself comes under attack.

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Links:

Pope Francis responds to attacks from EWTN, other church critics: ‘They are the work of the devil.’

Why don’t the U.S. bishops defend Pope Francis from American media attacks?

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Stepping outside of our own particular worldview to encounter another person's story can be scary. That's where the classics come in. They are a collection of texts from the ancient world that cross cultural borders and reveal our common humanity. Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and other great African-American figures were steeped in the classics. Today, however, the classics are polarizing, often claimed or misrepresented as primarily a history of white, European identity and accomplishment. Dr. Anika Prather of Howard University pushes back on this prevailing narrative, arguing that the classics teach us about many diverse cultural heritages.

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Links:

In defense of a classical education

Dr. Anika Prather's classics reading list

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It's common for pregnant women to experience a sense of dread, panic or agony: not because they don't want the child, but because the economic and social systems do not support women as they should. It's these systemic failures that have led to broad acceptance of abortion, says Helen Alvaré of the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

Gloria and Helen discuss what justice looks like for women in the context of Texas' recent SB8 law, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in the state. For the pro-life movement, it was a major victory. But the panic it created may harden people's hearts against future laws restricting abortion, and ultimately hurt the pro-life cause.

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Read more from America:

The Machiavellian tactics of the Texas abortion law that pro-lifers may come to regret

A challenge to Planned Parenthood in Texas: Don’t shut down. Support women with life-affirming prenatal care.

Pro-life Catholics: You can’t end abortion without taking on the patriarchy.

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A young Sr. Helen Prejean loved retreats and pious devotions. Her life was all about praying and being kind. Then she woke up. "I had everything to learn" she says.

Gloria speaks with Sr. Helen–a world renowned anti-death penalty activist–about her experience growing up in the south as a white Catholic. Sr. Helen describes how she woke up to systemic racism and explains its impact on the criminal justice system, including the decision of prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The problem, according to Sr. Helen, is that the individuals with the power to make life and death decisions often don't know personally the suffering of the poor and the marginalized, including guilty men and women. Being steeped in the suffering of others, she says, is the key to waking up.

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Links:

Sr. Helen Prejean's spiritual autobiography, "River of Fire"

Pope Francis revises Catechism, teaches that death penalty is ‘inadmissible’

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For Catholics, saints are remarkable Christian witnesses worthy of emulation. But what happens when a saint or hero is found to have acted contrary to the gospel? Fanatic enthusiasts may try to explain it away, says Dawn Eden Goldstein, when they should be acknowledging and denouncing it. Goldstein reflects on the life and legacy of beloved English writer and Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton whose writings have inspired millions of Christians, but include some controversial and prejudicial claims about the Jewish people.

Gloria and Dawn discuss why "othering" groups of people is so destructive, especially when it's done by our heroes–from the saints to the founding fathers–and how their cheerleaders can show love and appreciation for them through penance and reparations.

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Links:

Dawn Eden Goldstein's address on why GKC's fans must reckon honestly with his anti-Semitism

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Citing the church's teaching on personal conscience, a group of Catholic bishops from Colorado issued a statement on August 6th against state-imposed vaccine mandates. Their concern stemmed from a valid, yet very remote connection between Covid-19 vaccines and stem cells from aborted fetuses. But is their concern serving the common good or a culture war? "My issue is that this concern is being weaponized," says Sam Sawyer, SJ. While the concern about vaccines and religious exemptions is technically true theologically, it focuses on a very narrow slice of Catholic moral analysis, ultimately misrepresenting the church's official position: that taking a vaccine is morally acceptable and an act of love.

Gloria and Fr. Sam talk through the Catholic Church's moral analysis of the Covid-19 vaccines from a wholistic and nuanced perspective. They discuss why some outspoken Catholics (including bishops) are jettisoning the fullness of the Catholic moral tradition, and why concern for the "common good" is central to any discussion around vaccines and Catholicism.

Please consider supporting the podcast by getting a digital subscription to America!

Articles by Sam Sawyer, SJ:

Catholic bishops must not turn vaccines into a culture war issue

How not to talk about vaccines: Some bishops are choosing the culture war over the common good

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Gloria speaks with the Most Reverend Mark J. Seitz, Bishop of El Paso, a borderland community whose sister city is Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The bishop has focused his work and heart on the poor and vulnerable, including migrant families and refugees. In August 2019, a white 21 year old man shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The gunman had just published an anti-immigrant, white nationalist manifesto online before the attack. And he explicitly targeted those he considered to be Mexicans. Bishop Seitz consoled the victims and their families in the months that followed, but he also wrote a pastoral letter “Night Will Be No More,” in which he directly confronts the evil of racism that led to this mass shooting. In it he writes, “Challenging racism and white supremacy, whether in our hearts or in society, is a Christian imperative and the cost of not facing these issues head on, weighs much more heavily on those who live the reality of discrimination.”

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Links:

Bishop Seitz’s Pastoral Letter on racism, Night Will Be No More

Bishop Seitz’s Pastoral Letter on migration, Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away

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What's the real motivation behind that Facebook post or Tweet? Catholics–like many people today–spend a significant amount of time on social media platforms posting comments and articles, and some of them are divisive, hurtful or even violent. Fr. Josh Johnson, the vocations director for the diocese of Baton Rouge and a prominent young priest with a large social media following, analyses the spiritual pitfalls of social media and the unloving digital communication rampant in the Church today.

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Learn more about the Ask Father Josh podcast.

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When Pope Francis dropped a bombshell decree restricting the traditional Latin Mass, Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, had two immediate reactions: shock at its severity, and then heartbreak and concern for the people who attend the Mass.

Francis' decree, Traditionis Custodes, seeks to phase out the traditional Latin Mass, says Fr. Ruff, in a noble attempt to bring all Roman Catholics back together around the altar of the reformed Mass envisioned by Vatican II. But that could take decades, and the pain that traditional Catholics are feeling right now is real. Gloria and Fr. Ruff discuss the history of the Mass and why the pursuit of a pre-Vatican II church is misguided and dangerous.

A Benedictine monk of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN, Fr. Ruff teaches liturgy and liturgical music, and directs Gregorian Chant. He blogs at Pray Tell.

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Links:

Pope Francis restricts celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass in new decree

Explainer: What is the history of the Latin Mass?

I once fell in love with the Latin Mass—which is why I understand why Pope Francis restricted it.

I love Latin Mass and Pope Francis. Please don’t let a few (very loud) traditionalists ruin it for the rest of us.

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Recent evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves at numerous residential schools in Canada has made headlines around the world. But the news is not new, says to Sam Rocha, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

The Catholic Church participated in Canada's residential school system in the 19th and 20th centuries, where 150,000 Indigenous children were sent against their wills to be assimilated into European settler–and Christian–society. An unknown number of children never returned to their families.

Gloria and Sam speak about the legacy of the Church's involvement in the residential school system and colonization more broadly. While some Catholics have felt the need to defend the Church's actions in light of her evangelizing mission, Sam suggests that it's those Catholics who need to be evangelized to the Gospel.

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Links:

Túpac Shakur at 50: Remembering an underdog prophet by Sam Rocha

Learn more about Sam Rocha and listen to his podcast, Folk Phenomenology here

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There is nothing to fear from deep, respectful, honest engagement with people who think and believe differently than we do. That's the mantra of Robert P. George, McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program in American ideals and institutions at Princeton university.

George offers a historic overview and penetrating legal explanation of a hotly debated topic in American society today: religious liberty. He argues that a republican democracy must allow for diverging–even opposing–beliefs to be heard in the public square. A staunch defender of the freedom of speech, truth-seeking and dialogue, George challenges listeners to wrestle with a terrifying idea: that our opinions and beliefs may not be true.

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Links:

Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression - A Statement by Robert P. George and Cornel West

Dignitatis Humanae - Vatican II's declaration on religious freedom

Nostra Aetate - Vatican II's declaration on non-Christian religions

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Is Critical Race Theory compatible with Catholic social teaching? Or, is it an inherently misguided school of thought corrupting the minds of high school and college students about race in America?

Vince Rougeau, the Dean of Boston College Law School and the new president of the College of the Holy Cross, joins Gloria for a candid conversation on Catholic education today, including Critical Race Theory , "wokeism" and lingering systems of racial injustice.

“Not every conclusion that comes out of Critical Race Theory is compatible with Catholicism," says Rougeau, "but how could it be the case that Catholics would not want to engage with an intellectual tool that helps deepen our understanding of race?”

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Links:

Boston College’s initiative to transform the way we think about racial justice in America by Vincent Rougeau

Should Catholic Schools Teach Critical Race Theory? by Christopher Devron, S.J.

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A debate is raging in the Catholic Church about "Eucharistic coherence" around president Joe Biden and whether or not he should receive Communion in light of his policy positions on abortion. The U.S. Bishops are constructing a teaching document around the Eucharist in the life of the church that could single out public figures who support legalized abortion.

Timothy O'Malley, director of education at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, joins Gloria to weigh into the conversation and to discuss what Catholics actually believe about the Eucharist.

O'Malley's perspective offers some much needed nuance: on the one hand, the Eucharist is "intrinsically political" because it's a public act committing every Catholic to transforming the world in love. So, the question around president Biden receiving Communion is a legitimate one. On the other hand, if those Catholics who insist on denying Communion to the President feel vindicated or take delight in the process, it's a clear sign that perhaps they should not receive Communion themselves. The whole debate, according to O'Malley, is an invitation to each baptized person to reflect on their own Eucharistic coherence.

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Links:

PEW study: Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ

Real Presence: What Does It Mean and Why Does It Matter? by Timothy P. O'Malley

A Pastoral Letter on the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life by Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco

Read more from America on the debate on Eucharistic coherence here



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Historically, white Catholics in America have thought of their faith as "American," "normal," "neutral" or simply "Catholic." In reality there is no racially neutral Catholicism, according to Matthew Cressler, a professor of religious studies at the College of Charleston and an expert in religion, race and politics in America.

Professor Cressler joins Gloria to offer a penetrating history lesson on race and Catholicism in America, including massive resistance among white Catholics to desegregation during the civil rights movement.

Please support the show by subscribing to America!

Links:

“Real Good and Sincere Catholics”: White Catholicism and Massive Resistance to Desegregation in Chicago, 1965–1968 by Matthew J. Cressler

Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration by Matthew J. Cressler

Matthew's book recommendations:

The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Cyprian Davis

Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience edited by M. Shawn Copeland

Racial Justice and the Catholic Church by Bryan N. Massingale

Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992 by Mark Newman

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This week Gloria speaks with Sr. Josephine Garrett, C.S.F.N., a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and a licensed counselor, who sounds the alarm about the emerging culture of celebrity priests on social media. She explains how the most common and dangerous personality disorders can affect individuals in positions of authority and offers advice for the faithful when these disorders reveal themselves in ordained ministers.

Please support my show by subscribing to America!

Links:

Understanding Personality Disorders

Help and Treatment options for Personality Disorders, including a history of trauma

If you or someone you know is in a crisis situation, seek help here and here

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What is it like to attend a Catholic seminary as a young, Black man? Fr. Bruce Wilkinson shares his personal and traumatic experience from the 1970s when he made the courageous decision to dedicate his life to God. He was the only Black man in his seminary. Then he was told to leave.

Gloria discusses the importance of human formation at Catholic seminaries: "We need young priests to cry with us. We need them to listen. We need them to be interested in what we're saying. We need them to be unafraid. We need them to join us in the struggle for justice and respect for the human person."

Read Fr. Bruce's story here

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One year after the brutal murder of George Floyd, Gloria Purvis isn't feeling healed; she's feeling determined to address the sin of racism in society and in the Catholic Church.

On the first episode of the podcast, Gloria speaks to Fr. Erich Rutten of Saint Peter Claver Catholic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, a historically Black Catholic parish a few miles from where George Floyd was killed. What was the parish's response to the murder and how have they dealt with the trauma over the past year?

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Too many voices are not being heard in the Catholic Church today. "The Gloria Purvis Podcast" is a new podcast from America Media hosted by radio personality and Catholic commentator, Gloria Purvis. The podcast centers the opinions, stories and experiences of individuals who have been marginalized in the Catholic Church and in society. It's all about fostering a culture of charitable dialogue around the most complex and contentious issues in the Catholic Church today. Episodes will release weekly.

Subscribe to hear the latest episodes and learn more at http://americamagazine.org/gloriapurvispodcast

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