In all of its history the Catholic Church has declared a total of only 37 men and women to be Doctors of the Church, saints who are recognized for their outstanding contribution to the understanding and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and the development of Christian doctrine. In 2018 when Archbishop Alas of San… continue reading
Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching: New Book Documents Why He Should Be a Doctor of the Church
August 10, 2026 by
Book Review: Be Transformed: A Biblical Journey Toward a More Just World by Micah D. Kiel
July 31, 2026 by
On many occasions in my 45 years as a member of a religious order, I have heard that we Christians must be “signs of contradiction” to the motivations and dreams of our society. To a young man, just starting out, this challenge energized and motivated me to seek to do and to embody such… continue reading
“We imagine that their sufferings are one thing and our life another” – Leo Tolstoy
September 9, 2023 by
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
June 18, 2021 by
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
April 27, 2021 by
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
October 8, 2020 by
“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
August 29, 2020 by
“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
March 19, 2019 by
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
May 28, 2018 by
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
July 29, 2017 by
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
