A monument to St. Teresa of Ávila is seen in Ávila, Spain. (Dreamstime/Felipe Caparros Cruz)
While in the confessional with a struggling novice in a lay consecrated community, the late Puerto Rican-born physicist, priest and writer Lorenzo Albacete recommended reading St. Teresa of Ávila s autobiography as penance.
When the young novice came upon the sections about Teresa s mystical episodes, she got really scared, saying to Albacete, This woman is kind of crazy! She s talking to Jesus, Jesus tells her what to do, she does it. . How does the church know that she was just not crazy? Out of all the crazy people throughout history that have claimed to talk to Jesus, how do you know the true one?
Catholic Speakers of Color, catholicspeakersofcolor.com, currently has profile and contact information for 53 people. (NCR screenshot)
After learning about her own family s intergenerational wounds from racism, Leticia Ochoa Adams began to see the Catholic Church s complicity in racism and set out to change the church s narrative when it comes to issues of race and social justice.
Last October, the writer and mother founded the new website, Catholic Speakers of Color, which aims to help conference organizers find a more diverse array of Catholic speakers. The online platform features 53 speakers, including Adams, who represent a variety of ethnicities and skin tones.