Maggi Van Dorn

Podcaster; producer of Deliver Us, from America magazine

I am a podcaster by trade. I also have a background in theology; I earned my master’s from Harvard Divinity School and my B.A. in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University, a Jesuit school in California.

Having gone to a Jesuit institution, I have always tried to stay close to those on the margins of society. In college, I worked with those experiencing homelessness, then served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and worked in addiction recovery. At this particular time in my life, the stories I’m listening to most are those of sexual-abuse survivors.



Deliver Us is a podcast about the sexual-abuse crisis in the Church and where we go from here. Its mission is to help orient and accompany Catholics as we process this devas-tating crisis. Like a lot of people, I was really troubled by what I found in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. I also knew, having worked in various Catholic ministries over the past decade, that the Church had enacted a series of reforms. That raised a lot of questions: Have we truly lis-tened to survivors and their cries for justice, especially the ones who are just coming forward now? Are the reforms working? How can we hold Church leadership accountable for any past negligence or mismanagement?

I decided that my first task was to educate myself – I pored over every article and report I could get my hands on. And with the help of theologians, activists and experts, I turned my personal search into a communal one that now extends to thousands of listeners. As a lay Catholic, I understand that I am as much a part of the Church as anyone else, and I want to be a part of its healing and reform.

One of the taglines that we used for Deliver Us is, “You can’t fix something until you understand how it is broken.” This crisis is vast and in many ways really complex, so there is no easy solution. Those of us who are committed to seeing renewal and reform within the Church have to dig really deep and be committed for the long haul.   

“Catholic women have been exercising authority in many forms throughout the centuries. Women have and will continue to respond to our baptismal call to co-responsibility in the life of the Church.” – Maggi Van Dorn

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