For centuries, Christianity has taught that God entered the world through one body, at one moment in history, and then largely retreated behind institutional authority, doctrine, and hierarchy. That interpretation has shaped who holds power, whose voices are trusted, and whose suffering is dismissed.
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In this episode of Your Radical Truth, Deacon Margaret Mary O’Connor welcomes Father Anne for a far-reaching conversation about incarnation, justice, political power, and what happens when faith is severed from moral courage.
This conversation is not abstract theology. It is about what faith produces in the real world.
Choosing Conscience Over Institutional Control
Father Anne was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on October 16, 2021, through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. That ordination required a choice no priest should have to make: obedience to God or obedience to church law.
She chose conscience.
The result was excommunication and the loss of her formal role within the Church she loves. Yet her vocation did not end. It became clearer, sharper, and more urgent.
Today, Father Anne serves as an independent Roman Catholic priest and devotes her life to gender justice, theological integrity, and helping people reclaim a direct, living relationship with God.
The Silence That Speaks Loudly
Commissions on women deacons convened and then dissolved into secrecy. The Synod on Synodality promised listening, inclusion, and shared discernment, only to quietly erase women’s voices as decisions neared completion.
One unresolved question remains central: If Christ’s incarnation is limited to maleness, are women fully redeemed?
If women received the Holy Spirit directly at Pentecost, why must authority now be mediated exclusively through men?
The absence of answers, Father Anne and Margaret Mary agree, is not accidental. Silence preserves power.
Why The Shepherd Within Had to Be Written Now
Father Anne’s book, The Shepherd Within, was not written in a vacuum. It emerged directly in response to the current political and moral climate.
Watching the rise of cruelty, deception, and systemic harm under the Donald Trump administration, Father Anne sensed that what was unfolding was not simply political disagreement. It was spiritual rupture.
She set aside years of church reform work to write this book because she saw something deeper at stake: a widespread failure to understand who God is and how God moves in the world.
When faith loses its grounding in incarnation, injustice becomes easy to justify.
Incarnation as a Living Principle
Rather than treating incarnation as a one-time historical event, Father Anne reframes it as a spiritual principle that governs life itself.
God is always seeking expression in material reality.
Jesus reveals how that principle works within humanity, not as a distant divine visitor, but as a fully human being in radical alignment with love, justice, and relationship.
Incarnation did not end with Jesus. It continues wherever human beings allow God to move through them.
God’s Incarnational Initiative
Father Anne names this ongoing movement God’s Incarnational Initiative.
The implications are profound:
- Faith is not about performing tasks for God
- God desires to act through human beings
- When systems block compassion, truth, and justice, they obstruct God’s presence
This framework exposes why policies that create suffering are not merely political failures. They are theological failures.
A Clear Test for Alignment With God
Father Anne offers a simple but piercing measure: If something creates victims, it is not aligned with God.
Jesus does not crucify. Jesus is crucified.
Systems that harm immigrants, LGBTQ people, women, the poor, animals, or the earth stand in direct opposition to God’s incarnational movement. Religious endorsement of such systems represents not faithfulness, but betrayal.
Climate Collapse, Factory Farming, and Spiritual Blindness
This episode draws a direct line between distorted theology and global crisis.
When humanity places itself above creation rather than within it, exploitation becomes normalized. Factory farming, environmental devastation, and extractive economies all reflect a refusal to see creation as sacred.
Incarnation insists otherwise.
If God’s presence flows through land, water, animals, and people, reverence is no longer optional. Stewardship becomes a moral obligation.
Prayer as Encounter, Not Performance
Father Anne offers grounded guidance for those longing for real spiritual connection:
- Prayer is openness, not recitation
- Discipline matters more than intensity
- Asking directly for grace sharpens awareness
- The Ignatian Examen trains us to notice God daily
- The body itself senses God before the mind understands
God is not distant. God is responsive.
Your Gifts Are Not Tools. They Are God Expressing God.
One of the most transformative insights in this episode reframes human giftedness entirely:
Your gifts are not objects God gave you. They are expressions of God within you.
When you act from your deepest integrity, incarnation is happening. This is partnership, not obedience.
A Word for These Times
Father Anne closes with a steady invitation in the face of fear and despair.
There is a shepherd within you. A wellspring of divine life already present.
God is not absent. God is waiting.
Ask for the grace to see where love is already moving and give yourself over to it.
Learn More
- The Shepherd Within is available through major booksellers and at www.shepherdwithin.com
- Father Anne’s work on women’s ordination and theological justice can be found at www.ordinationjustice.org
- Learn more about Father Anne at www.fatheranne.com
About Father Anne
Father Anne is the author of The Shepherd Within: Following God’s Incarnational Initiative to Fullness of Life Beyond Institutional Control, a work that invites readers to rediscover God’s living presence not as distant or hierarchical, but moving through human conscience, relationship, and justice.
She was ordained on October 16, 2021, in Albuquerque, New Mexico through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and now serves as an independent Roman Catholic priest. Her priesthood is rooted in a profound love for the Society of Jesus and Ignatian spirituality, formed over twelve years of ministry alongside Jesuits.
Father Anne earned a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and has served in multiple Jesuit parishes. In addition to her theological formation, she holds a master’s degree in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from San Diego State University and brings more than twenty-five years of experience in strategic communications.
Deeply grounded in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Father Anne is especially drawn to the work of discernment and to exploring what the next era of the Church may become. While many have understandably walked away from the Roman Catholic Church, she continues to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit, collaborating with God in the ongoing work of equality, truth, and transformation within one of the most powerful institutions in the world.
About Deacon Margaret Mary O’Connor
Deacon Margaret Mary O’Connor, a member of the Catholic laity, once believed she understood her Church and its teachings. Everything changed the day she uncovered a centuries old scandal of lies and institutional cover up surrounding the history of women in ordained ministry. Realizing that her own Church had hidden the truth about women priests, women deacons, and even women bishops, she felt a deep and unforgettable sense of betrayal.
That moment became the catalyst for her mission. Margaret Mary now travels what she calls the Highway of Radical Truth, exposing the layers of deception that have kept millions of Catholics unaware of the prominent roles women held in early Church history. Her work challenges long held assumptions, confronts the complicity of the hierarchy, and calls Catholics to learn the real history for themselves.
For Margaret Mary, every Catholic deserves the truth. She believes transparency is not optional, especially when the suppression of women’s vocations continues to harm the Church today. Her research shines a spotlight on hidden historical records that may even hold answers to the modern priest shortage.
Often described as a “Modern Day David,” Margaret Mary is relentless in her commitment to revealing what has been intentionally concealed. Through her well researched writings, public advocacy, and ministry within the Celtic Christian Church, she brings these buried truths to light.
She is the author of Scandal in the Shadows and Journey of a Celiac’s Soul, and remains a force for honesty, courage, and reform within the broader Catholic conversation.
