Pope Benedict’s Secretary of State for the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, recently gave an interview to the Italian journal 30 Giorni in which he condemns the practices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as usury. Several Catholic news services have reported on his recent interview. The National Catholic Reporter reminded readers that even in… continue reading

Naomi is the granddaughter of Mark and Louise Zwick and a student at Incarnate Word Academy. In England, July 2, 2005, there was a Make Poverty History Rally. This occurrence would naturally give the public hope that something concrete was going to happen to help with the poverty level in Third World countries. Though it… continue reading

For decades, as financial policies were imposed upon countries around the world with strict control by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank the people were told that this neoliberal economic system will raise all boats, eventually. Each year, however, the yachts of the rich countries have become bigger and more elegant, and the… continue reading

There has been a great effort in recent years by neoconservative and libertarian Catholics and Calvinists to revise Catholic Social Teaching in favor of the enormous corporations which control so much of the property and pay slave wages around the world to gain more property. Just as they opposed the Pope on war, so they… continue reading

I am fastly approaching the end of a very rewarding summer at Casa Juan Diego. I have spent the last two and a half months basking in the presence of God’s favorite people: the poor. I have learned so much from the immigrant guests and their heart-wrenching stories. It is these stories which have inspired… continue reading

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw an article just written by Peggy Noonan in TheCatholic World Report. At first it seemed right on-decrying the greed and terrible practices of CEO’s of the last decade which are giving capitalism such a bad name. It turned out, however, to be simply a defense of the… continue reading

In recent months John Paul II has been critiquing the economics of globalization, raising serious ethical questions about the way it is implemented. It is almost as if he knew that some prominent Catholic writers, especially in the United States, were advocating in the name of the Church an economics based on using people as… continue reading

It seemed incredible. A corporation in Alvin, Texas, just an hour and a half by car from Casa Juan Diego, was trying to patent seeds that rice farmers had developed over centuries in India and Pakistan. Actually, they had already done so and were in the process of renewing the patent. Farmers in India and… continue reading

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

In December President Clinton and the United States government promised 80 million dollars in disaster assistance to the countries of Honduras and Nicaragua, which have suffered such devastation from Hurricane Mitch. Unfortunately, this aid will have little impact given that Honduras and Nicaragua must pay over 80 million dollars every five weeks to service their… continue reading