This week’s guest is Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning journalist who is currently a columnist for Roll Call. Her latest article for America is “Catholics of color are keeping the U.S. Catholic Church alive.”

Ms. Curtis says “being [a] black Catholic was very natural, it was just my life.” She grew up in Maryland, and the political turmoil of the school desegregation movement, the trial of the Berrigan brothers, and the involvement of nuns in the Civil Rights movement informed her experience of Catholicism. She said her article is about “keeping the faith, and seeing the Catholic church change through ways of inclusion and exclusion.”


“Many...educated people…. [have said to me]: ‘I didn’t know black people were Catholics,’” Ms. Curtis told America. She believes that by learning and collaborating more with black Catholics, the church can cut through divisive and partisan attitudes. “We could have a lot more cooperation between parishes,” she said. “Just going to visit, and seeing people who might not look as you do.”