Your Radical Truth podcast

About Your Radical Truth podcast

Your Radical Truth is a podcast about Catholic women, women priests, faith, equality, and the courageous women working to transform the Catholic Church and the world. Hosted by Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor, Your Radical Truth shares powerful conversations with Catholic women, ordained women priests, faith leaders, authors, activists, and other trailblazing women who challenge convention and lead with courage. Each episode explores the experiences of women in the Catholic Church, including the movement for women's ordination, gender equality in religion, Catholic Church reform, spiritual leadership, and the barriers women continue to face within religious institutions. Guests share their personal journeys, the challenges they have overcome, and the convictions that inspire them to advocate for meaningful change. The podcast also celebrates women beyond the Church who are breaking barriers, redefining leadership, and creating change in their professions and communities. If you are interested in Catholic women, women priests, women's ordination, female leadership in the Catholic Church, Catholic feminism, faith and social justice, Church reform, women in ministry, or courageous women challenging the status quo, Your Radical Truth offers honest, thought-provoking, and inspiring conversations. Discover the women speaking their truth, living their faith, challenging outdated traditions, and helping create a more inclusive future.

Publisher

Margaret Mary O'Connor

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Nov 2022

Latest episode

23 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

61 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Sept 2026

   060: When Hospitality Becomes Radical: Mary Fontana on Migrants, Faith, and Annunciation House

   What would make you leave your home and take your family on a dangerous journey, knowing you might still be turned away when you reached the border? That question opens my conversation with Mary Fontana, author of Strangers in the Province of Joy: Practicing Radical Hospitality on the U.S.–Mexican Border. Mary has spent more than 20 years involved with Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, where migrants and refugees are welcomed as guests. We talk about the families behind the immigration headlines, the risks they face on their journeys, and the ways U.S. actions and policies have shaped migration. Mary also takes us inside Annunciation House. Its volunteers do more than provide food and a place to sleep. They live alongside their guests, share meals, learn their names, and build a community together. I was especially moved by how Annunciation House began. Its founders moved into a house near the border before they knew exactly how they would serve. They listened to their neighbors, recognized a need, and opened their doors. Mary's stories ask us to consider both the courage it takes to seek safety and what it means to welcome someone when they arrive. I hope you'll join us for this conversation on Your Radical Truth. Listen to episode 060: https://yourradicaltruth.com/060-Mary-Fontana (https://yourradicaltruth.com/060-Mary-Fontana) Learn more about Mary: https://maryfontana.com

2. 

   7 Sept 2026

   059: Girl in a Box: Paldrom Collins on Spiritual Awakening and Questioning Authority

   What Happens When the Spiritual Path Takes an Unexpected Turn? What if the peace you have spent years searching for has been closer than you realized? In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor welcomes Paldrom Catharine Collins, author of Girl in a Box: Seeking Enlightenment as a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. Raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, Paldrom left Christianity as a young woman and began searching for enlightenment. Her journey led her to Tibetan Buddhism, where she spent five years immersed in monastic life, meditation, and intensive retreat practices. Paldrom believed spiritual discipline might free her from suffering. Instead, her experience became a deeply human journey filled with insight, physical challenges, difficult questions, and the courage to reconsider a path that once seemed to offer every answer. During this honest conversation, Paldrom shares what she learned about meditation, spiritual authority, belonging, and finding meaning beyond rigid religious structures. In This Episode, You Will Discover Why Paldrom left Christianity and entered Tibetan Buddhist monastic life What daily life and intensive meditation practice were really like How physical practices helped her manage a wandering mind The meaning behind the meditation box featured in her memoir How spiritual communities can offer both support and limitations Why she ultimately decided to leave monastic life What her experience taught her about questioning spiritual authority Why having thoughts during meditation does not mean you are failing How Buddhist practice and contemplative Christianity can intersect Why spiritual peace may be found in ordinary, everyday life Paldrom's story is a powerful reminder that questioning a spiritual path does not mean the journey has failed. Sometimes growth requires the courage to examine what we believe, trust our own experience, and recognize when it is time to take a different direction. Listen to Episode 059: https://www.YourRadicalTruth.com/059-Paldrom (https://www.YourRadicalTruth.com/059-Paldrom)

3. 

   31 Aug 2026

   058: Women in the Church: Ordination, Beth Moore, the GOP and the Fight for Equality

   Why are women still fighting for equal leadership within some of the largest Christian denominations? In Episode 058 of Your Radical Truth, Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor welcomes Father Anne back for a candid and provocative conversation about women's ordination, biblical interpretation, religious authority, politics, and the traditions that continue to influence the role of women within Christianity. Father Anne was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 2021 through a reform movement. Because the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize the ordination of women, she was excommunicated. Today, she continues her work for ordination justice while pursuing her desire to serve as a parish priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Women's Ordination Is Not Just a Catholic Issue While the Catholic Church is central to the discussion, Margaret Mary and Father Anne make it clear that questions about women and religious leadership extend far beyond Catholicism. The episode looks at debates within the Southern Baptist Convention and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including ongoing disagreements about whether women should serve as pastors and participate equally in Church leadership. At the heart of the conversation is a fundamental question: If God calls a woman to ministry, who has the authority to tell her that call is not valid? Father Anne makes an important distinction. No one has an automatic right to become a priest, but everyone should have the right to discern whether they have been called. Beth Moore, the Southern Baptist Convention and Speaking Out The conversation also examines the experience of prominent Bible teacher Beth Moore, who left the Southern Baptist Convention following years of tension. Margaret Mary discusses Moore's advocacy for victims of sexual abuse and her criticism of evangelical support for Donald Trump. Moore's experience opens a larger conversation about what can happen when women within religious communities challenge powerful institutions, question established authority, and speak publicly about abuse, gender inequality, and political alliances. The GOP, Christianity and Political Power Father Anne takes the conversation directly into the relationship between conservative Christianity and the Republican Party in the United States. She shares her perspective on how religion and politics have become deeply intertwined, particularly around traditional ideas about masculinity, gender roles, authority, and power. The discussion challenges listeners to consider how religious beliefs about gender can extend beyond the walls of churches and influence politics, institutions, and society. Is God Exclusively Male? Another fascinating part of the episode examines the way Christians have been taught to imagine God. Margaret Mary and Father Anne explore feminine imagery for God found throughout Scripture and Christian history, including descriptions associated with motherhood, childbirth, nurturing, and protection. Father Anne points out that Scripture actually offers an extraordinary range of images for God, including fire, wind, living water, shepherd, gardener, mother, and father. Rather than limiting God to a single gender or image, these metaphors may offer believers a much broader understanding of the divine. Rethinking Faith, Gender and Authority Episode 058 ultimately asks listeners to examine some difficult questions. Are long-held beliefs about women, leadership, and God truly rooted in the divine? Or have centuries of culture, patriarchy, politics, and institutional tradition influenced the way Christians have been taught to understand them? This is a challenging conversation about faith, equality, vocation, political power, and what needs to change for women to participate fully in the future of the Church. www.YourRadicalTruth.com/058-Father-Anne

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings