What if the story you've been told about the Church is only part of the truth?

In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Margaret Mary O'Connor welcomes back Father Anne for a conversation that goes far beyond surface-level discussion. This is the beginning of an ongoing monthly series where real issues are explored without filtering or softening the message.

The focus of this episode centers on women in the Catholic Church, what has been taught, what has been omitted, and what is now being questioned.

Father Anne speaks directly to the issue of ordination, not as a "women's issue," but as a matter of justice. When women are excluded from full participation, it doesn't just impact women. It shapes the entire structure of the Church and influences how authority, dignity, and voice are defined.

The conversation also takes a closer look at Mary Magdalene, a figure long misunderstood and often diminished. As the first witness to the resurrection, her role was foundational, yet history has not always reflected that truth accurately.

This episode challenges long-standing narratives and invites listeners to take a deeper look at what they've accepted without question. It explores the connection between religious hierarchy, power structures, and the broader impact on society.

There is no attempt here to make this comfortable. The goal is clarity.

If you've ever questioned what you've been taught, or sensed there was more beneath the surface, this conversation will give you plenty to consider.

Listen now: YourRadicalTruth.com/051-Father-Anne

What does it really mean to follow a calling when the very institution that shaped your faith no longer recognizes you?

In this powerful episode of Your Radical Truth Podcast, Margaret Mary O'Connor sits down with Reverend Shanon Sterringer for a deeply honest conversation about vocation, excommunication, and the courage it takes to walk a path that few are willing to take.

Shanon's journey began inside the Roman Catholic Church, where she served for more than two decades in ministry, leadership, and theological education. Her call to priesthood was not something that came from outside the Church. It was formed within it. Yet when she answered that call through ordination, she faced the reality that many women before her have encountered. Separation, scrutiny, and ultimately excommunication.

What makes this conversation so compelling is not just the doctrine behind it, but the lived experience. Shanon shares what it felt like to receive multiple formal letters, how the process unfolded over time, and why the emotional impact goes far beyond what canon law can explain. This is not simply a theological issue. It is a deeply human one.

At the same time, this episode goes far beyond the topic of excommunication.

A central thread throughout the conversation is Shanon's lifelong study and devotion to St. Hildegard of Bingen. As a scholar, retreat leader, and founder of the Community of St. Hildegard Church and Hildegard Haus Shrine, Shanon brings a grounded and expansive understanding of Hildegard's life and work.

You will hear a perspective on Hildegard that is rarely shared in full. While many know her as a mystic, herbalist, or composer, Shanon paints a much more complete picture. Hildegard was also a theologian, visionary, leader, and at times deeply traditional in her thinking. Her legacy includes music, healing practices, theological writings, visionary works, and over 400 letters that reveal a candid and often surprising voice.

This episode also explores how Hildegard's influence is alive today through Shanon's work. From sacred gardens and retreats to hybrid learning experiences and community gatherings, Shanon has created a space where people can encounter Hildegard in a tangible and meaningful way. Whether someone comes for spiritual connection, intellectual curiosity, or personal growth, there is an open invitation to explore.

You will also hear about The Green Shepherdess, Shanon's fair trade store inspired by Hildegard's vision of balance, sustainability, and care for creation. It is another example of how spiritual principles can be lived out in everyday life, reaching people far beyond traditional religious settings.

Throughout the conversation, themes of leadership, integrity, and personal truth continue to surface. Shanon's story is not only about women's ordination. It is about what happens when you choose to live in alignment with what you know to be true, even when it comes at a cost.

This is a conversation for anyone who has ever questioned authority, navigated a major life shift, or felt called to something that others did not understand.

Visit: https://yourradicaltruth.com/050-reverend-shanon/

What happens when a woman devotes her life to faith and still finds herself shut out of leadership?

In Episode 49 of Your Radical Truth Podcast, Debra Flint returns for a powerful and unfiltered conversation about spiritual and political power abuse within Catholicism. Drawing from her book No Place for a Woman, Debra shares her personal journey through the Church, her calling to consecrated life, and the moment everything changed.

This episode goes beyond doctrine. It explores who holds power, why women continue to be excluded from leadership roles, and what happens when institutional authority overrides individual calling.

You'll hear:

• Why women's roles in early Christianity matter today
• How Church structures shifted power away from the people
• The untold realities many women face inside the Catholic Church
• What happened when Debra's consecration was suddenly denied
• Why speaking up inside the Church is far more complicated than it seems

This is a conversation about faith, authority, and the cost of silence.

If you've ever questioned how power operates within religious institutions, this episode will challenge you to look deeper.

Listen now and decide for yourself: power or silence?

Enjoy the full post on the Your Radical Truth website at: https://www.yourradicaltruth.com/049-debra-flint

Mandatory celibacy has shaped the Roman Catholic Church for nearly a millennium, yet questions continue to surface about its origins, purpose, and long-term impact on clergy, leadership, and the faithful. Why did the Church require priestly celibacy? Was it theological, political, or institutional? And what might the future hold for reform?

In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor sits down with Catholic feminist writer, theologian, and independent Catholic deacon Debra Maria Flint to examine one of the most debated disciplines in Church history. Drawing from her groundbreaking book The Sins of Mandatory Celibacy, Flint explores how power, doctrine, property, gender dynamics, and cultural forces helped reshape the priesthood and influence the Catholic Church for centuries.

Flint shares her remarkable personal journey from an agnostic upbringing in Birmingham, England, to converting to Catholicism at 21, pursuing theological studies, and building a respected career in safeguarding and social care inspection. After years of institutional leadership and investigative work, she discerned a consecrated life before confronting the realities of Church structures that ultimately redirected her path toward advocacy and reform.

Listeners will discover:

• The historical origins of mandatory celibacy and why many early priests were married
• How Church law evolved and what drove the prohibition of clerical marriage
• The connection between celibacy, institutional control, and property
• The cultural consequences of an all-male clerical hierarchy
• Evidence of women leaders and deacons in early Christianity
• Structural questions surrounding secrecy, loneliness, and clergy life
• Whether a married priesthood could reshape Church culture
• Why restoring the female diaconate remains a critical conversation
• The tension between tradition and reform inside the Catholic Church

Flint emphasizes that celibacy itself is not the issue. Rather, the concern is whether a spiritual calling can remain authentic when it is mandated instead of freely chosen.

The conversation also addresses the difficult reality of abuse within Christian institutions and explores how transparency, balanced leadership, and inclusion may help foster healthier communities of faith.

Co-authored with former priest Paul Murphy Sanderson, The Sins of Mandatory Celibacy brings both scholarly research and lived experience to a subject that continues to influence millions of Catholics worldwide.

This episode invites listeners to step beyond assumption, examine the historical record, and consider what renewal could look like for the modern Church.

If you are interested in Catholic Church history, priestly celibacy, women in ministry, Church reform, theology, or religious leadership, this is a conversation you will not want to miss.

The Sins of Mandatory Celibacy is available through Wipf and Stock, Amazon, and major booksellers.

More at: www.yourradicaltruth.com/048-debra-maria-flint

In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor sits down with Father Anne for a deep and unflinching conversation about incarnation, conscience, women's ordination, and why authentic Christian faith must lead to justice rather than harm.

Father Anne shares how witnessing the cruelty, deception, and systemic injustice normalized under the Donald Trump administration compelled her to write her book, The Shepherd Within: Following God's Incarnational Initiative to Fullness of Life Beyond Institutional Control. What she observed was not simply political dysfunction, but a profound spiritual rupture rooted in a misunderstanding of incarnation itself.

This episode explores why incarnation is not a one-time event limited to Jesus, but a living spiritual principle through which God continues to act in the world. Father Anne explains how faith becomes distorted when God is treated as distant and abstract, rather than present and moving through human conscience, relationship, and moral courage.

Together, Margaret Mary and Father Anne address the Church's resistance to women's leadership, the silence surrounding women deacons and priests, and the devastating consequences when institutions prioritize power over truth. They also discuss how distorted theology contributes to real-world harm, including the mistreatment of immigrants, LGBTQ people, the poor, animals, and the earth.

Father Anne offers practical spiritual guidance rooted in Ignatian spirituality, including how prayer, discernment, and embodied awareness can help people experience God not as an idea, but as a living presence within and among us.

This episode is essential listening for anyone questioning the relationship between faith, justice, conscience, and the future of the Church.

Listen here:
www.YourRadicalTruth.com/047-Father-Anne

What if women held real authority in the early Church and history was later rewritten to erase it. In this powerful episode of Your Radical Truth, host Deacon Margaret Mary O'Connor sits down with award winning journalist and author Nancy Fitzgerald to uncover the suppressed history of Saint Brigid of Kildare, a fifth century Christian leader recognized in early sources as a bishop. This conversation challenges the long standing claim that women never held ordained leadership in Christianity and reveals what was lost as Church authority became centralized.

Nancy draws from years of theological research and immersive travel across Ireland, including visits to Saint Brigid's holy wells, to explain how women's leadership was preserved in local tradition even as it disappeared from official Church narratives. Together, Nancy and Margaret explore Celtic Christianity, grassroots faith, the legend of Brigid's mantle, and why learning this history is essential for understanding the Church today. This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in Church history, women's leadership, and the truth beneath centuries of silence.

Key topics covered
• Saint Brigid of Kildare and women bishops in early Christianity
• How women's authority was erased from Church history
• Celtic Christianity and faith shaped by ordinary people
• Holy wells, local tradition, and grassroots spirituality
• Why reclaiming suppressed history matters today

Learn more about Nancy Fitzgerald and her book Brigid's Mantle and listen to the full conversation here: www.YourRadicalTruth.com/046-Nancy-Fitzgerald

What if the calling inside you never went away because it was never meant to?
For French Irish spiritual director Soline Humbert, the answer has always been no.

At just 19 years old, she felt a clear, undeniable call to priesthood in the Catholic Church. The problem? She had been taught that only men could be called. No internet. No mentors. No permission. Just a voice that would not be silenced.

In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Soline shares the fifty-year journey of living with a vocation the Church refuses to recognize. This is a story of courage that outlasts rejection, faith that survives institutional resistance, and a woman who chose truth even when it came at a cost.

Soline is a longtime advocate for equality in the Catholic Church. She co-founded Brothers and Sisters in Christ, now part of We Are Church Ireland, and served as spokesperson for the first international conference on women's ordination in Dublin. Her memoir, A Divine Calling, launched at Trinity College Dublin with a foreword by former Irish president Mary McAleese.

You will hear:

• What it feels like to carry a calling the institution denies
• Why studying women's vocations without listening to women causes real harm
• How clericalism turns leadership into power instead of service
• Why the exclusion of women functions as spiritual and psychological abuse
• The moment Soline presided at Eucharist for the first time and knew she was exactly where she was meant to be

This is not just a conversation about women and priesthood. It is about what happens when institutions refuse to listen to lived truth. It is about the cost of silence. And it is about the freedom that comes when one person finally says yes to what they know is real.

If you have ever ignored your own calling because someone told you it was impossible, this episode will change the way you see everything.

Full post at: www.YourRadicalTruth.com/045-Soline-Humbert

What happens when the very laws meant to protect children instead give predators a license to abuse? In this episode of Your Radical Truth Podcast, host Margaret Mary O'Connor speaks with survivor, advocate, and bestselling author Donna Simmons, whose life story exposes the devastating reality of child marriage in the United States.

Donna reveals how systemic failures, generational trauma, and outdated laws continue to silence survivors and perpetuate abuse. At just 16, she was forced into marriage—a betrayal legitimized by the system itself. Rather than remain silent, Donna transformed her pain into purpose. Today she leads the fight to end child marriage, hold institutions accountable, and empower survivors to reclaim their voices.

Her memoir, From Ashes to Flame, is more than a personal story. It is a call to action, urging lawmakers and communities alike to confront the truth and demand change.

This conversation is raw, urgent, and necessary. Tune in to hear how Donna Simmons is breaking cycles of trauma, challenging systemic betrayal, and sparking a movement for justice.

Listen now: www.YourRadicalTruth.com/044-Donna-Simmons