header icons

“We imagine that their sufferings are one thing and our life another” – Leo Tolstoy

At our Friday evening meeting just before Pentecost, we shared with the men of Casa Juan Diego the reading from the Acts of the Apostles about the coming of the Holy Spirit. When the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in different languages, those in the large crowd from many nations heard… continue reading

Moderna vaccines at Casa Juan Diego

  COVID-19 VACCINES CASA JUAN DIEGO 4811 Lillian Houston, TX 77007 Tuesday June 22, 2021 Tuesday July 20, 2021 8am – 12pm Social Distancing & Masks Required                     VACUNAS Contra el COVID-19 CASA JUAN DIEGO 4811 Lillian Houston, TX 77007 martes 22 de junio del 2021 martes… continue reading

PROGRAM ON HOLD: Peter Maurin’s Agricultural Ideal: Now There is Help for Minority Farmers

This is what Black farmers feared when they heard the good news: U.S. Farmers Of Color Were About To Get Loan Forgiveness. Now The Program Is On Hold https://www.npr.org/2021/06/11/1005560226/u-s-farmers-of-color-were-about-to-get-loan-forgiveness-now-the-program-is-on-ho     A key part of Peter Maurin’s practical program for implementing Catholic tradition was family or community farms. In the U.S., smaller farms have been… continue reading

Fratelli Tutti, New Encyclical of Pope Francis

“FRATELLI TUTTI With these words, Saint Francis of Assisi addressed his brothers and sisters and proposed to them a way of life marked by the flavor of the Gospel.” Thus begins the third encyclical of Pope Francis, with words that could change all of our lives if we take them to heart.  Pope Francis teaches… continue reading

Catholic Social Teaching, Matthew 25 and Land Reform: Blood in the Fields and In the Streets

 “In the eschatological parable of the sheep and the goats, Christ identifies so closely with the hunger, thirst, homelessness, nakedness, sickness, and imprisonment of others that he takes on their afflictions and they become his own.” (Blood in the Fields, p. 206) The demonstrations and protests of 2020 in response to the death of George… continue reading

Grassroots Transformation: A Christian Response to Pollution From Discarded Plastic

Colleen, a recent graduate from Purdue University, is a Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego Because Pope Francis composed such a beautiful discourse on our common home in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si,  I will interlace his writings and mine in the piece that follows. His both tender and impassioned reflections cannot be overstated nor… continue reading

How To Avoid the Student Loan Catastrophe: Student Loans and the Evil Of Usury

The Student Loan Catastrophe; Postcards from the Rubble, by Richard Fossey. ISBN 978-1-5485-9171-7 Reviewed by J. Rick Altemose, Ph.D., a former Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego. Let’s start with a pop quiz. Of the following people, which one faces a “catastrophe?” PERSON A, a wheeler-dealer whose habit of taking extreme business risks worked out… continue reading

Alternatives to Economic Libertarianism: Not Just Solidarity, But Fraternity, an Economics of Inclusion

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus came to bring good news to the poor. We are grateful that so many people support our work with the poor. But as Dorothy Day said, there should not be so many poor in this world that God loves. In a milieu in which the possession of material goods… continue reading

The Son of God Was Homeless

Excerpted from Pope Francis’ talk at his meeting with homeless persons at St Patrick’s Parish in Washington, D.C. Saint Joseph had to face some difficult situations in his life. One of them was the time when Mary was about to give birth, to have Jesus. The Bible tells us that, “while they were in Bethlehem,… continue reading

The Pope, the Cuban Embargo, and Inequality; A Personal Note

As I write this, I am still reeling from that part of Pope Francis’s speech to the Congress where he singled out Dorothy Day as one of four great Americans to be honored for their work and service. Dorothy Day was the inspiration for Mark and Louise Zwick starting Casa Juan Diego. For thirty-five years,… continue reading