Gloria Purvis in webinar later today on Eucharist controversy
Gloria Purvis will join a host of Catholic activists, theologians, and journalists for a webinar today at 12:30 ET on the Eucharist and politics, just a few weeks ahead of the landmark USCCB meeting expected to produce a document on the same topic.
Entitled “Catholic Faith, Communion, and Public Life”, the conversation is being sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, which sponsored a similar dialogue in July with a number of commentators and bishops on both sides of the issue.
Purvis, who has gained increased fame over the past 18 months for her stances on racism and related social issues, has been outspoken about the double standard seen concerning politicians and the Eucharist—namely, that of the varying treatment of Republicans and Democrats at odds with Church teaching.
Would Melania being Trump’s 3rd wife count as adultery? Would their relationship be an ex of persisting in manifest grave sin? I was just talking about the public scandal of adultery w a friend & was wondering why there hasn’t been any talk of denying her communion.
— Gloria Purvis (@gloria_purvis) November 25, 2020
Her new “Gloria Purvis Podcast” has covered a number of these issues in recent months, including the topic of President Joe Biden, who was discussed on an episode in June with Dr. Timothy O’Malley from the University of Notre Dame.
Biden is of course at the center of the Eucharist controversy in the US Catholic Church, wherein many have called for him to be denied Communion for his position on abortion (among other issues).
Today’s dialogue will cover that topic and more, beginning with remarks from Christopher White, the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter. He covered Biden’s controversial meeting with Pope Francis last week and has covered the local controversy throughout the past year.
Carmen Nanko-Fernández, author of a recent piece for NCR on Eucharistic revival, will join the conversation from Chicago, where she is a professor at Catholic Theological Union. Sr Mary Bader, DC, director of the St. Ann’s Center for Children, Youth, and Families in Washington DC, will also participate.
John Carr, founder and co-director of the Initiative (and former USCCB affiliate), will serve as moderator.
Interested parties can register for the event here. A public YouTube livestream will also be available.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger, a seminarian with the Josephites, and a ThM student with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA).