Spreading the Seeds of the Gospel

An Interview with Gloria Purvis

Gloria Purvis, formerly the longtime host of the EWTN radio show Morning Glory, was interviewed for the Catholic Standard’s Black Catholic Voices series on Dec. 11, 2020, at the St. Ursula Chapel of the Archdiocese of Washington’s Pastoral Center in Hyattsville, Maryland. In the interview, Purvis discussed why she believes, as a Catholic, that seeking racial justice and opposing racism are pro-life issues.

Why do you consider the cause for racial justice, and the need to combat racism, as pro-life issues?

GLORIA PURVIS – Well, let me just start by saying that racism is a sin and people go to hell for it. They can go to hell for it. That’s primarily why the Catholic Church is involved with issues of racism. It is not a political issue. It is a matter of people’s souls. And the reason it is a pro-life issue is because at the heart of racism is a denial of the dignity of the human person, and pro-life matters deal with the dignity of the human person. I mean, that’s a crux of the issue. It’s the same gospel imperative to defend life in the womb as it is to defend the dignity of the human person who is Black.

And this country has a long history of basically embracing the demon of racism, and it has its effects. You can’t have centuries of evil embraced and naively think that it doesn’t have consequences, that it wouldn’t have a ripple effect. And the other thing that I think that people miss in the discussion on racism is the harm that has come to white people as well. For some reason people always and everywhere only think of the person that is oppressed, but never think of the harm that comes to the people who have been seduced by that kind of ideology, twisted by that kind of social conditioning. It’s so much so that we forget the harm that happens to the entire human family.

God made us all of royal status, because we were made in His image and likeness. Racism says, “No, God is a liar, only some people are worthy of a royal status,” and that’s simply not true. That’s a lie from the pit of hell, and that is why we as Catholics should be involved in the racial justice movement and recognize it is very much at its heart a movement of a pro-life cause, because it deals with the dignity of the human person.

Cardinal Gregory has noted that while the nation confronts the coronavirus, it must also address the virus of racism. What do you think the Catholic Church should do as an institution to combat racism, and what can and should individual Catholics do?

GLORIA PURVIS – First of all, the Catholic Church needs to remind people that racism again is a sin, and it is a sin that imperils your eternity with God. It imperils your soul, and this is why we as Catholics are concerned about racism, because it is a matter of sin. Sometimes I think people think it’s merely a political issue, and we need to recognize this is about salvation. So, number one, we need to do that, address it as actually a sin.

Number two, I think the Church also should have a reckoning with any place in the Church where instead of

God made us all of royal status, because we were made in His image and likeness.

mirroring the gospel, we mirror the prevailing attitudes at the time. Instead of being a place where people could come in and see what we really believe about the human person and (see) it was a place free of racism, it wasn’t that in all cases. And so we should talk about that history and try to make amends for it.

I think one of the beautiful things about Catholicism is that in our spirituality, we often make reparations for sins. When people say, “I didn’t own slaves. I didn’t this, I didn’t do that,” I’m like, you’re a Catholic and you’re saying this? My goodness! Jesus Christ never committed a sin, but He took up the cross for us. Who are we as Catholics to not want to take up a cross or make reparations for these sins? And we also need to remember that sin is chiefly an offense against God. And what Catholic, because we love God, would not want to make reparations for that?

So these are the things we can do as a Church, admit that it is a sin, talk about our history. As Catholics we can make spiritual acts of reparation, and we can also read our bishops’ statements about racism. Pray on it. Ask the Lord to reveal those places in our lives where we may not be aware that we are affected by racism. I would say those are the main things for starters that the Church can do and that Catholics should try to do.

How have you kept the faith, both your Catholic faith and your faith for our country, over the years despite this “virus” of racism that has infected both, and what gives you hope for a better future for our Church and for our country?

GLORIA PURVIS – I kept the faith because like I said, when I came into the Church, as a child at age 12, I had a mystical experience during adoration where I came to know that He (Jesus) was alive and really present during adoration, and I’ve never forgotten that. I’ve never forgotten that fundamental truth about what we believe. And so it’s sort of been like a glue, sort of like a barnacle on the side of the ship of the Church. There’s no getting me loose, okay?

And I also don’t judge the Church by the actions of others. I mean, I am a sinner too, and while I can marvel at other people committing sin, I myself think about, well, I did too. I do too. And so I recognize that we’re human, and it is through God’s mercy that we can always begin again, we can always convert, we can always try again. And so that has been my hope as well as we deal with the demon of racism and try to exorcise it out of the Church and out of this country.

We realize every time we fall into that particular sin we can go to confession and get up again and try to do better. I mean this is our walk, right, it’s to get holy or die trying. And so I don’t let sinfulness of others make me forget the truthfulness of the Church, who she’s built upon, who is really present in the sacraments. No one else’s bad behavior is going to separate me from He who I say I love. I can never walk away from the eucharistic table. I could never walk away from the sacrament of reconciliation because of other people’s bad behavior, even if that bad behavior involves people who are of the clergy. I am not going to abandon Jesus because others do. I just couldn’t. And so I take that approach.

In terms of faith, that’s what keeps me here. I know who is really present, and I know that humanity has fallen and that we’re weak, and that’s why we have a sacrament of reconciliation, always to come back to Him.

And so that kind of hope is what also makes me have faith in our society, because as we as a Church purify ourselves and continue conversion and pray to God to ask for His graces upon our country, I believe that we change our country as well. It’s a spiritual work, and it’s going to take time, but we have to persevere in the faith.

And I also know that Jesus Christ has already won the victory. The job for us now is just to continue in the battle and to spread the seeds of the gospel. We may not be blessed to see the increase, but we know that the Holy Spirit will make those seeds grow as long as people cooperate. But my job is not to naysay it because I’m not seeing cooperation now. My job is to continue persevering in the faith and loving Jesus Christ. And that’s what I’m going to do because I owe allegiance to Him, who I love. ■