“What blasphemy! As if there were anything really Christian about our modern capitalism.” This was Virgil Michel, O.S.B., responding in Commonweal in 1938 to an article inCatholic World which had called Christ “the first preacher of capitalism as the most workable thesis for society.” Michel had to respond to the neocons (Michael Novak, etc.) of his… continue reading
Virgil Michel, Benedictine Co-Worker of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin: Justice embodied in Christ-life and Liturgy
February 1, 2000 by
WITNESS TO HOPE: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel Falls Short
December 1, 1999 by
Pre-publication publicity promised that George Weigel’s new book, Witness to Hope, would be the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II. It is certainly a very long book (almost 1,000 pages). It is packed not only with details, events, fascinating personal incidents, and even gossip, but also beautiful passages about Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical studies and teaching,… continue reading
Young People of the World Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose Except your Chains: Call to Destiny and Mystery of the Gospel
October 1, 1999 by
Two ND Grads When we were on retreat recently talking with two young graduates from Notre Dame, they kept raising questions. It was almost like Emmaus! “Where are the ways of living out the Gospels and our Catholic faith in today’s world?” The young people asked. “We’re afraid of getting into the rat race of… continue reading
Roots of the Catholic Worker Movement: Distributism: Ownership of the Means of Production and Alternative to the Brutal Global Market
October 1, 1999 by
The plight of workers throughout the world is at a crisis stage. Many are not only working for slave wages, but have been removed from their own communities and local economics and left desperate. The Business pages of the Houston Chronicle of August 1, 1999, featured several entire pages on the economic devastation of Latin America… continue reading
Despair and Hope at Casa Juan Diego, the Houston Catholic Worker
October 1, 1999 by
Despair Yesterday we found Fernando on the floor in a pool of blood with seizures that wouldn’t stop. Fernando, seriously ill with kidney failure, has lived in the States many years, but can’t get any compensation. For the rest of his life, which won’t be too long, he lives on the verge of collapsing before… continue reading
Emmanuel Mounier, Personalism, and the Catholic Worker movement
August 1, 1999 by
Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) articulated the ideas of personalism, of human persons whose responsibility it is to take an active role in history, even while the ultimate goal is beyond the temporal and beyond human history. Mounier articulated it as “a philosophy of engagement…inseparable from a philosophy of the absolute or of the transcendence of the… continue reading
Immigrants are Not Criminals
August 1, 1999 by
Last week Noemí came to Casa Juan Diego to beg for a place to stay with her three children because her husband had been deported because of tickets. Well, not because of tickets, but because he was jailed for not paying traffic tickets on time. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has a desk in the… continue reading
John Paul II Calls for End to Usury: Support for Peter Maurin, Catholic Worker Theme
June 1, 1999 by
On April 14, 1999, Pope John Paul II addressed the members of the National Council of Anti-Usury Foundations and their regional delegations. The Holy Father gave a special welcome to about one thousand volunteers “who came to call the public’s attention to the worrisome and, unfor-tunately, widespread phenomena of usury, which often brings with it… continue reading
The Economic Religion of Michael Novak: Wealth Creation vs. the Gospel, as in Using Catholicism to Prop up Neoconservatism
June 1, 1999 by
There has been tremendous interest in the March April 1999 issue of the Houston Catholic Worker on Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of neoliberalism in Ecclesia in America, not to mention those who were so excited to discover the document itself in all its richness. Most of our readers understood clearly that neoliberalism, the current economic… continue reading
Pope John Paul II condemns neoliberalism in Ecclesia in America, as social sin that cries to heaven
April 1, 1999 by
Pope Condemns Neoliberalism “More and more, in many countries of America, a system known as “neoliberalism” prevails; based on a purely economic conception of the human person, this sytem considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and… continue reading
