When journalist Olga M. Segura initially set out to write a book on Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, she intended it to be more of an overview that might prompt white Catholics to get more involved in the work of racial justice.
That was back in early 2020, when she first started writing. Then, the pandemic hit, followed soon after by nationwide protests after George Floyd died while in Minneapolis police custody.
Her book, published last April, essentially took on a new life. As she puts it: “I thought, ‘OK, it’s not about gentle accompaniment anymore.’” Instead, she said the book’s emphasis became about helping Catholics understand how the church is suffering and how Catholics of colour are “struggling in ways that people might not even be thinking about.”
It also ended up becoming more personal because Segura, a Black Catholic who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic, wanted to share some of her own experience.
The freelance writer and opinion editor at the National Catholic Reporter said she realized that what she was going through at the time was not an anomaly. “This is everyone in my community,” she said, adding that the book also revealed her faith struggles, particularly her feeling that her church was no longer providing a safe space for her or other non-white Catholics.