On the Catholic Beat
Gloria Purvis hinted that she had something big in the works when she spoke with me a few weeks back for an upcoming story in Our Sunday Visitor to mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.
As reported yesterday, what Purvis was up to is a new podcast with America Media; entitled simply “The Gloria Purvis Podcast.”
Coming soon! pic.twitter.com/c7j73fIXCc
— Gloria Purvis (@gloria_purvis) May 11, 2021
Episodes of Purvis’ podcast will be posted weekly, though no official launch date has yet been set. The podcast will be available via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and other podcast apps.
Purvis told Catholic News Service that the length of the podcast “depends how good the interviews are,” and will touch on “what’s in the news. It could be up to an hour, sure. But no more than that, I don’t think — unless something’s really hot!”
Also from the CNS story:
Although Purvis told CNS that she can’t recall when she first was in conversations with America Media about a podcast, she said: “It’s been a while talking things through. They were very clear that they just want me to be me, and say what I want to say, amplify my voice.” Unlike with “Morning Glory,” Purvis won’t have a co-host.
Purvis said the podcast’s topics and perspectives will include “things that people don’t necessarily hear, and they may recognize,” hinting that it’s “something they may want to tune in to.”
She may have a ready-made audience from her EWTN days. “No doubt,” Purvis said. “I can’t tell you how many emails and private messages I get: ‘Please let me know where you go next so I can tune in,’ and stuff like that.”
Purvis added she likes the “flexibility” offered in podcasts, “that people can listen whenever they want, once we push it out to them. Granted, people can do that if a radio show is podcasted, but a lot of people listen to just podcasts only, even when they’re in their cars.”
Purvis told me a few weeks back that she has been doing consulting work and partnering with a host of Catholic agencies, universities and other non-profits on issues pertaining to racial justice. EWTN abruptly cancelled her radio show, Morning Glory, in December. That cancellation came about six months after EWTN’s biggest radio affiliate, Guadalupe Radio Network, dropped Morning Glory when the station’s conservative listeners began complaining about the show’s content because Purvis was talking about issues like systemic racism and police brutality against Black people like Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.
EWTN never explained its decision to drop Purvis completely from its airwaves, though many suspect it was because her frank, straightforward discussions of racism and police reform were not palatable to the network’s conservative donors and listening audience. Purvis wrote an essay in America this week emphasizing that she sees the world through a Catholic lens, and that she doesn’t identify as a liberal or conservative:
In my work in Catholic radio and commentary, I voice my observations and opinions on many topics that cut in different ways across the political spectrum. That’s because a Catholic perspective is much broader than any political perspective. It cannot be politically disintegrated. People will ask me point-blank, “Are you a Democrat or a Republican?” I smile.
Meanwhile, in her CNS interview, similar to what she told me recently for the upcoming OSV story, Purvis says she has no regrets:
“You can’t not talk about something that’s a grave evil and that’s right now in the national spotlight,” Purvis said. “And so many of my co-religionists being confused … unable to use the lens of our faith to navigate this. I think it’s all the devil. … The devil has appealed to people’s desire for temporal power to seduce them.”
“We have to remain faithful in prayer and close to the sacraments when they’re available — and also be humble and recognize we can be misled about secular voices –and unfortunately, maybe people in the Church who should know better,” Purvis said. “We tell people about sin, but we need to do that introspection ourselves as well,” she added.
“We all have to do that. We all have to do that — even when we feel that defensiveness when somebody holds up a mirror. It’s silly to think we could be a Christian and not die to self-daily … and be in constant need of conversion,” she said.
“It’s that little bit of pride. We’re fallen creatures and we need God’s grace and be thankful, actually, when any of that — sins we were blind to — be grateful when our conscience is pricked.”
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