Commonweal Conversations

“The Preferential Option for the Marginalized”

When John Gehring asked Olga Marina Segura why and for whom she wrote her book, Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Segura replied: “I went into the writing process with a very specific idea of contextualizing the Black Lives Matter movement for the Church and to gently accompany white Catholics.” But the COVID pandemic and the suffering of Black and Brown people prompted her to change course . Instead, she realized, “I wasn’t going to make the book easy or comfortable.”  At what point does the “gentle accompaniment” of white or privileged Catholics become an act of perpetuating marginalization, one that prioritizes their comfort over the truth?

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