WHEELING – A podcast detailing an activist movement in the Catholic Church during the 1960s has won a Peabody Award, and a Wheeling native was part of the team that put it together.

Abbey Delk, a 2018 Wheeling Park High School alumnus, was part of the team winning for the podcast series “Divine Intervention.” The 10-part podcast series examines the uprising of activism in the Catholic Church in the 1960s, and church-based efforts then to oppose the Vietnam War.

The movement came during a time following Vatican II in the early 1960s, when the Catholic Church was going through changes and a push toward civil rights was sweeping the nation.

Delk now lives in Brooklyn, and she works for the former Wonder Media Network podcast company that was acquired by ACAST last year. She is listed as a producer on the project, and did research, editing and writing for the finished work.

“I’m just grateful that the project has received this recognition,” Delk said. “I worked with some truly talented people, and I am happy to see our hard work rewarded.

“I hope people continue to enjoy the show for a long time to come.”

“Divine Intervention” was hosted by Brendan Hughes, and told his own family’s story. The Catholic community in Boston at the time centered around a church on the Boston Common where his father was a priest.

Hughes’ father and mother would eventually meet at the church, fall in love, marry and start a family – but not before being involved in an activist movement that transformed the Catholic Church.

Peabody Awards honor excellence in electronic media including television, radio and podcasts. They are presented to works exemplifying “stories that matter,” and the award ceremony is set for May 31.

“For revisiting a fascinating, forgotten historical saga with a newly resonant message of resistance, ‘Divine Intervention’ receives a Peabody Award,” the Peabody Awards organization stated on its website Thursday.

Named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, the Peabody Awards honors excellence in storytelling that reflects the social issues and the emerging voices of the day. It seeks out “stories that matter.”

They are presented by the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia

An 18-member Board of Jurors selects the nominees and winners each year. The Board convenes at the University of Georgia in early April for final screenings and deliberations. Only unanimously selected programs receive a Peabody Award.