Christopher Lamb - The future of Francis’ papacy
Field Hospital
Throughout the podcast season, Mike and Jeannie have talked to different writers, church leaders, theologians, scholars, and activists about the many kinds of wounds the world experiences and how the church can help to heal these wounds. In this final episode of Field Hospital, they return to the theme with which the podcast opened: Pope Francis’ vision for reviving and reforming the church. The guest for this episode is Christopher Lamb, Vatican correspondent for the Tablet. Whether reporting from Rome or accompanying Pope Francis on his world travels, Lamb has a unique perspective...
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Gloria Purvis - Anti-racism and the Christian life
Field Hospital
The Catholic Church teaches that racism is an evil that must be eradicated from society and from the human heart. However, the institutional church, church leaders, and the faithful have not always lived in accordance with this teaching. At many times throughout history, Catholics have not only tolerated but enabled and fostered racism and white supremacy. Author, podcaster, and activist Gloria Purvis has not been silent about the evils of racism, the obligations of Catholics to live out the church’s teachings on human dignity, and the reality of how the church has often failed. For...
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Phyllis Zagano - The role of women in the church
Field Hospital
The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world. And it has almost no women in leadership roles. From the smallest parish to the Vatican, Catholicism is dominated almost exclusively by men. Church leaders and apologists will hasten to explain that this does not mean that the Catholic Church is misogynistic. The church, they say, has always defended and protected women’s rights. St. Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 Letter to Women that “the Church desires for her part to contribute to upholding the dignity, role and rights of women.” Many will point to...
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Cardinal Blase Cupich - Our duty to end gun violence
Field Hospital
Gun violence has become an epidemic in the United States, with an average of one mass shooting a day since the start of 2022. The month of May saw two especially violent and horrifying mass shootings: on May 14 ten Black people were murdered in a racially-motivated attack in a grocery store in Buffalo. On May 24, a gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers in a school in Uvalde, TX. Following the Buffalo shooting, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago issued a statement, in which he posed this question: “Who are we as a nation if we do not act to protect our children? What do we love...
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Kim Daniels - What synodality means for the church
Field Hospital
Pope Francis clearly considers synodality to be crucial for the reform of the church. Since his election, he has convened two synods on the family, the synod on Youth and Young People, and the synod on the Pan-Amazon region. And now he has called for a synod on synodality. But what is a synod? And what is synodality? According to Kim Daniels, co-director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, and a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, synodality has to do with listening, coming together, and accompaniment. These are all ideas that...
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Sam Rocha - Racial justice and critical race theory
Field Hospital
While plenty of Catholics will agree that racism is a moral evil, many white Catholics view it as a problem that existed mostly in the past. So, when non-white Catholics talk about the problems of racial injustice, the history of racism, and how the church has been complicit, some white Catholics get uncomfortable. They experience this kind of conversation of divisive. Now there’s a new phrase we’re hearing often, in discussions of race: critical race theory, or CRT, which looks at the way racism is woven into our nation’s social institutions and systems. Critics of CRT assert that it is...
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Mark Joseph Williams - On healing from sexual abuse
Field Hospital
Editors’ note: This episode speaks on sexual abuse, trauma, and healing, and contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. “I forgave my abuser. But I will never forget his abuse.” This was the title of Mark Joseph Williams’ powerful essay published by America Magazine in 2020. In his essay, Mark quoted Richard Rohr’s prayer: Turn your wounds into sacred gifts. What does it mean to turn one’s wounds into gifts? In today’s episode of Field Hospital, Mike and Jeannie talk with Mark about this and more: about his journey of healing, his work advocating for survivors,...
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Juan Carlos Cruz – Addressing the clergy sex abuse crisis
Field Hospital
Editors’ note: This episode speaks on sexual abuse, trauma, and healing, and contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. In 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz was one of several abuse survivors to protest Pope Francis’ appointment of Juan Barros as bishop of the diocese of Osorno in Chile. Barros, they said, had witnessed their abuse at the hands of popular priest Fernando Karadima, and helped cover it up. Initially, Pope Francis defended Barros, even going so far as to accuse Juan Carlos and his fellow survivors of calumny. But Juan Carlos continued to speak up and work for justice....
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Linda Dakin-Grimm – How Catholics should respond to immigration
Field Hospital
Too often, Catholics take their cues from politics instead of from the church’s social teaching, when forming their views on immigration. In this episode of Field Hospital, Jeannie and Mike talk to author and immigration lawyer Linda Dakin-Grimm about the real challenges faced by young people and families at the border, as well as our Gospel-based responsibilities, as Catholics, toward immigrants and refugees. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Linda worked thirty years as a corporate lawyer before shifting her focus to immigration justice. Since 2016, she has worked with more than...
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Father James Martin – Pope Francis and accompaniment
Field Hospital
Jesuit Father James Martin felt called to advocate for LGBTQ Catholics after the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. In today’s episode Jeannie and Mike talk to Father Jim about the marginalization of LGBTQ Catholics and how Pope Francis and scripture inspire a ministry of accompaniment and inclusion. This podcast is supported by the Viatorians. LINKS: Books: Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity By James Martin, S.J. Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone By James Martin, S.J. Mentioned in...
info_outlineThe Catholic Church teaches that racism is an evil that must be eradicated from society and from the human heart. However, the institutional church, church leaders, and the faithful have not always lived in accordance with this teaching. At many times throughout history, Catholics have not only tolerated but enabled and fostered racism and white supremacy.
Author, podcaster, and activist Gloria Purvis has not been silent about the evils of racism, the obligations of Catholics to live out the church’s teachings on human dignity, and the reality of how the church has often failed. For Purvis, speaking these truths is part of what it means to follow Jesus, even when it means facing the animosity of the comfortable. In 2020, EWTN canceled Purvis’ radio show “Morning Glory” following her discussion of racial justice and the murder of George Floyd. But Purvis has continued to speak out prophetically, in articles and on her podcast, about the moral and religious obligation of Christians to oppose racism wherever it is found.
On this episode of Field Hospital, Jeannie and Mike talk to Purvis about her experiences as a Black Catholic, about the importance of anti-racism in our Christian life, and about the church’s shameful legacy in the history of white supremacy. If we believe in God and love Jesus. Purvis says, we need to speak the truth, and set captives free. We need to be able to rebuke the evil of racism.
Purvis is a graduate of Cornell University. She has worked in the mortgage industry and as a risk management director for a financial services company. Purvis has served on the National Black Catholic Congress’ Leadership Commission on Social Justice, as an Advisory Board Member on the Maryland Catholic Conference’s Respect for Life Department, and on the Archdiocese of Washington’s Pastoral Council. She is the host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast with America Media.
LINKS:
“We Need to Talk About Race: Lessons from ‘The Gloria Purvis Podcast’”
By Gloria Purvis
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/03/16/talk-about-racial-justice-242592
“How race influences our Catholicism—whether we know it or not”
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-race-influences-our-catholicism-whether-we-know/id1566614456?i=1000525580618
“Fired EWTN host Gloria Purvis: 'I will never, ever, ever have regrets' for discussing race”
By Mark Pattinson
https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/fired-ewtn-host-gloria-purvis-i-will-never-ever-ever-have-regrets-discussing-race
“A conversation with Gloria Purvis on the racial justice and pro-life movements”
By Kevin Binrbaum
https://nwcatholic.org/news/kevin-birnbaum/a-conversation-with-gloria-purvis-on-the-racial-justice-and-pro-life-movements
This episode of Field Hospital is supported by Catholic Theological Union.