The very first thing our new Pope did was to choose the name of Francis for St. Francis of Assisi. No Pope has ever been named Francis before. If Pope Francis had not done anything else, just claiming the name of Francis would have had a tremendous impact. (Para leer este artículo en español, haga… continue reading
Pope Wants a Church of the Poor and For the Poor, But a Well-known Catholic Writer Rejects Saint Francis of Assisi
July 5, 2013 by
End Forced Medical Deportations with Houses of Hospitality
June 12, 2013 by
Robby Caceres was a young, undocumented day laborer who was cut down by a heat stroke while working on a roof last summer. Dazed with grief and fear, his brother and a cousin, also young 20-somethings, came to Casa Juan Diego with a plea for help. It turned out Robby’s heat stroke was no ordinary… continue reading
Immigration, the Invisible Hand of Agribusiness, and Farm Workers
March 31, 2013 by
Mark Muller is the Food and Community Fellows Program of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy About a year ago, Don Lassus reviewed the book Tomatoland in the Houston Catholic Worker. This article takes the perspective of the campaign to address the mistreatment of the agricultural workers in Immokalee, Florida, in the larger context… continue reading
Book Review: The Red and Rotten Tomatoes
February 11, 2013 by
Barry Estabrook, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2011. Reviewed by Don Lassus, MD Don is a former Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego and resident physician training in family medicine in Los Angeles County. A frequent task at Casa Juan Diego is to drive guests to… continue reading
Rural Roads to Distributism and Family/Community Farms
November 23, 2012 by
Richard Aleman is the Editor of the Distributist Review. Peter Maurin’s program for the Catholic Worker had an important agricultural aspect. Catholic Workers have always been interested in the Catholic Rural Life Program under the inspiration of Msgr. Luigi Ligutti. Thanks to David S. Bovee’s new book about the illustrious history of the National Catholic… continue reading
Book Review: The Hound of Distributism. Edited by Richard Aleman. American Chesterton Society, 2012.
April 24, 2012 by
With anxiety about the U.S. economy still running high, the paramount issue in the current race for president is boosting growth and putting Americans back to work. As it usually is, the choice between competing political visions, and thus the economic future, is being cast in the worn and tired ideas of capitalism and socialism. … continue reading
“For the Worker Is Worthy Of His Hire”: Reflections On Day Laborers
February 18, 2012 by
Biblical scholars have suggested that the day laborers of Jesus’ time were at the very bottom of the working ladder. Even slaves were better off, in the sense that they had someone to protect them – they had value as the owner’s investment. I knew before I came to Casa Juan Diego that the day… continue reading
Catholic Social Doctrine Could Save the Day
October 23, 2011 by
When the Catholic Worker began, one of Peter Maurin’s goals was to make the encyclicals “click.” He wanted people to know and understand the wisdom of Catholic Social Teaching in the time of the Great Depression and economic crisis. With the economic crisis of 2008-2011, we could do worse than to turn to the… continue reading
Justice in Economics is Not Socialism: The Catholic Worker and Workers
February 1, 2011 by
In some people’s eyes, the words Worker and Catholic Worker give the Catholic Worker movement a bad name, even today. We were quite surprised when someone we had known for twenty years introduced us to a colleague as people who could explain the good parts of socialism. “What?” we said. “We are not socialists!” “Then… continue reading
The Encyclical Caritas in Veritate Through the Lens of Casa Juan Diego
February 1, 2010 by
Josh is a Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego, recently graduated from North Park University in Chicago. Caritas in Veritate is an invitation to think differently. It is, above all, a challenge to think like a Christian in matters beyond one’s ‘personal religious experience’ or ‘private life.’ The Church has often-untapped resources, beyond that which… continue reading
