In 2013, early in his papacy, Pope Francis’s first trip outside Rome was to minister to the immigrants who were in detention on the island of Lampedusa. There he famously decried the “culture of indifference” which allows the world to ignore the sufferings of migrants and refugees, and instead he called for a culture of… continue reading
Raising a Prophetic Voice: Civil Disobedience,Divine Obedience and the Catholic Worker
November 9, 2019 by
Casa Juan Diego is a busy place, powered by an amazingly hard-working core of full-time, live-in Catholic Workers and aided by a vast and varied troop of part-time volunteers. Multi-tasking is a must, since the phone and the doorbell never stop ringing. Meals and meetings take place against the background hum of the immigrant mothers… continue reading
Blessed Are the Refugees: Spiritual Tools for Accompanying Migrant Children
March 24, 2019 by
Blessed are the Refugees: Beatitudes of Immigrant Children by Scott Rose, Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. and Staff and Volunteers of Catholic Charities Esperanza Center, Orbis Books, 2018 Reviewed by Susan Gallagher Currently some 14,000 minor children are being held in detention in the United States while their immigration cases are pending. The number is growing… continue reading
Catholic Bishops Call Forced Separation of Migrant Families Immoral
June 19, 2018 by
Forced separation of children and parents at the United States’ southern border, as a tool of a new, harsher immigration policy, shocks the conscience with its brutal indifference to the enduring injury it causes children and its callous neglect for human dignity. As the count of children separated from their families has grown into the… continue reading
Pope Rejects Possession of Nuclear Weapons; Catholic Worker Pacifism Influences Church Teaching
March 8, 2018 by
“To be true followers of Jesus today also includes embracing his teaching about nonviolence,” Pope Francis said in his January 2017 World Day of Peace message.1 The issue of nonviolence has particular urgency in this moment, when more nations are acquiring nuclear weapons, when reckless, bellicose rhetoric prevails, and when false alerts of incoming missiles… continue reading
Portraits from the Early Catholic Worker Movement
November 21, 2017 by
Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker: The Miracle of Our Continuance. Photographs by Vivian Cherry, Text by Dorothy Day, Edited, with an Introduction and additional text by Kate Hennessy Reviewed by Susan Gallagher More than 80 years have passed since the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 and despite myriad challenges, its work… continue reading
Sarah Maples, miraculously recovered from a brain tumor, later diagnosed with another one
April 17, 2017 by
Sarah Maples, a friend of Casa Juan Diego and an advocate for the canonization of Dorothy Day, died at her home near Athens, Oklahoma on March 11, 2017. She was 67. In 2009, when Sarah was suffering from a brain tumor and had been given a terminal diagnosis, her friend Dr. Richard Fossey began to… continue reading
“If We Had Any Guts We’d Start a Catholic Worker House”: Reflections at the Vigil Service for Mark Zwick
February 7, 2017 by
We are here to celebrate the life of Mark Zwick and his remarkable example of servant leadership. Mark laid the foundation for Casa Juan Diego which has fed and sheltered tens of thousands of people over the last 36 years. He founded a newspaper and with his wife Louise coauthored books illuminating the pilgrimage… continue reading
Mark Zwick, a Missionary of Mercy
January 20, 2017 by
“Mark Zwick passed away at the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Mercy,” said Maryknoll Father Rafael Dávila, “Mark died as he lived—as a missionary of mercy.” Preaching in both Spanish and English at Mark’s funeral Mass on November 22, 2016 at St. Anne’s Church in Houston, Texas, Father Dávila began by describing the meaning… continue reading
