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
Raising a Prophetic Voice: Civil Disobedience,Divine Obedience and the Catholic Worker
November 9, 2019 by
“You Shall Not Wrong Any Widow or Orphan”: Seeking a Better Way Than Family Separation
August 1, 2019 by
One of our guests sat weeping in our office as she contemplated her future. Her husband was in immigration detention and the possibilities for his release were not good. Our Honduran guest (we will call her Suyapa), eight months pregnant, had been released while her husband was sent to further detention in Georgia. Their baby… continue reading
Ben Salmon, Catholic Conscientious Objector
July 22, 2019 by
Michael J. Baxter co-founded and lived and worked at Andre House in Phoenix (1984-88) and the Peter Claver Catholic Worker in South Bend (2003-09). He directed the Catholic Peace Fellowship from 2001-2012. He currently teaches Religious Studies and Catholic Studies at Regis University in Denver and is completing a collection of his essays on Catholic… continue reading
Hospitality at Casa Juan Diego
May 21, 2019 by
In November 2017, after having completed two years in Honduras as a volunteer at “The Farm of the Child” (a Catholic home for children), I was encouraged to come to Casa Juan Diego. Louise Zwick opened the door for me and presently I am very privileged to live at, and be a part of, this… continue reading
Oscar Romero: God’s Glory in the Poor – and In the 36 New Men at Casa Juan Diego
March 29, 2019 by
Oscar Romero’s Theological Vision: Liberation and Transfiguration of the Poor, by Edgardo Colón-Emeric. Notre Dame University Press, 2018. Reviewed by Louise Zwick As we recently received thirty-six Central American men as guests in our house in one day,not only paying for their travel to get here, feeding them, acquiring extra mattresses, providing hospitality bags, answering… 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
The Summer of Family Separation at the Border
January 8, 2019 by
About ten years ago I spent the summer in Cuba. A fascinating country, but what I remember most was how heavily policed Havana was. Uniformed law enforcement seemed to be everywhere, to the point that it felt oppressive. It WAS oppressive, a police state, they say. Last summer in Texas was the summer of family… continue reading
The Eighth Work of Mercy And Caring for Our Common Home to Prevent a Refugee Crisis
November 3, 2018 by
In his Message for the 2016 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation entitled Show Mercy to our Common Home, Pope Francis unexpectedly announced an addition of two works of mercy to the original 14 – one corporal and one spiritual – compiled into a single phrase: “care for our common home.” We… continue reading
Catholic Worker Retreat – Encounter with Silence schedule 2021
October 20, 2018 by
Encounter with Silence Retreat “Encounter with Silence” is a six-day retreat, developed by Onesimus Lacouture, S.J., and formerly given by Father John Hugo. Perhaps the most famous lover of the retreat is the Servant of God, Dorothy Day. She made the retreat more than 20 times and wrote of it often. Day said it was… continue reading
Children Detained: Immigration and Jesus’ Story of the Rich Man and the Beggar
June 22, 2018 by
Those of us who work closely with immigrants, who share our lives with them at Casa Juan Diego, have had to come to terms with the increasingly cruel and aggressive policies of our government towards our guests. We have gotten accustomed to it, to be honest. I am not sure this is entirely a good… continue reading
