Interview with Gloria Purvis - Can a Catholic be Woke?
Podcast: Season 2, Episode 11
I first heard of Gloria Purvis in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. Around that time, Sam Rocha interviewed her for an excellent article in Church Life Journal titled, The Gift of Blackness to the Church.
The following year, Gloria started her own podcast, The Gloria Purvis Podcast, with America Media. I’ve listened to every episode since it began. I think it’s the best Catholic podcast out there right now. There have been times when I’ve cheered while listening and times when I’ve been personally challenged. I’ve learned so much from Gloria and from the guests she has brought on.
I reached out to Gloria to ask if we could interview her after I heard an episode of her podcast titled, What are the anti-woke crusaders missing? In the past couple of years, it has seemed to me like there has been increasing criticism towards “wokeism” within American Catholic circles. Some Catholic speakers I’ve listened to have even given the impression that being woke is at odds with Catholic teaching.
I think there is a lot of overlap between the contemporary racial justice movement (things like critical race theory or wokeism) and Catholic Social Teaching. So I wanted to ask Gloria, “Can a Catholic be woke?”
It was an honor and a joy to interview Gloria. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
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In this final episode of season two, Dominic and Paul speak with Gloria Purvis. The conversation begins with Gloria sharing about her recent experience meeting and interviewing Pope Francis. Then we move into a discussion about racism, critical race theory, and what it means to be woke. It was an honor and privilege to talk with Gloria, and we hope you appreciate it as much as we did.
Gloria Purvis is an author, commentator and the host and executive producer of The Gloria Purvis Podcast. Through her media presence, she has been a strong Catholic voice for life issues, religious liberty, and racial justice. She has appeared in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS Newshour, NPR, Newsweek, and Catholic Answers Live and hosted Morning Glory, an international radio show. She presented a powerful video series entitled Racism, Human Dignity and The Catholic Church through the Word on Fire Institute. Most recently, she was part of a groundbreaking, exclusive interview with Pope Francis with a delegation from America Media. She is the Inaugural Pastoral Fellow at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame University and recently received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Portland in Oregon.
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