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Hospitality and Honeybees: Worker Bees Inspire Catholic Worker

Casa Juan Diego’s hospitality has been stretched to new limits in recent months as we welcomed a colony of honeybees to make themselves at home in our garden. The ecological importance of bees is undisputed, but so are the heart-wrenching obstacles to their survival. An absence of honeybees and their pollination work would greatly destabilize… continue reading

How It All Began

We debated about calling the new/old section in the Archives, “What Were You Thinking?” or “The Early  Years” or “Our Kids Think This Is Normal?”  or “Giving It All Away” or “The Fire Years,” or “Youthful Energy,” but we chose “How It All Began.” In 1980 something very profound was happening in our community. Homeless refugees… continue reading

End Forced Medical Deportations with Houses of Hospitality

 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

Why Are Cuban Refugees Coming to Casa Juan Diego and Catholic Charities in Houston?

For more and more new Cuban refugees, the perilous journey to the U.S. is coming to an official end at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.  Over the past ten months, the agency’s midtown office has brimmed with scores of bedraggled immigrants, many having just made the 2,400-mile journey from Ecuador by any means… continue reading

Our Lady of Guadalupe in My Life – and Answer to Prayers

    It was exactly one year ago that I moved to the city of Houston. Starting a new life is not easy. One has to start from zero and try to adapt as quickly as possible. When I arrived here, I felt very alone, without realizing that I never was. Besides having my husband,… continue reading

Deferred Action: Half a Loaf is Way Better Than None, But It Is Still Half a Loaf

Like 9/11, the June 15th announcement of the new policy of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was, for me, one of those moments when something so shocking happens that you remember forever where you were and what you were doing. I have so much invested, professionally and personally, in meaningful immigration reform that my reaction… continue reading

The Homeless, the Sick, and the Injured

 Life in Houses of Hospitality is full of interesting events and surprises, together with painful, even tragic, stories. We never know who will come to the door. Today a woman arrived from Iowa who was fleeing domestic violence. She had found a place to stay with a family, but the family friend she had brought… continue reading

Dorothy Day Prayer Card Inspires Migrant

Caleb is a student at the University of Notre Dame. He spent several months living and working at Casa Juan Diego this summer. Three months ago I was fully initiated into the Catholic Church through the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation at my school, the University of Notre Dame. That day I was surrounded by… continue reading

Monseñor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero

Monseñor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero. A film by Ana Carrigan & Juliet Weber. Produced by the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Reviewed by the Editors, Mark and Louise Zwick Watching the documentary, Monseñor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero, brought back to us our intense experience of living in El… continue reading

What Dorothy Day Has Meant To Me

By Dawn McCarty, Ph.D., LMSW Almost every day I hear and read about the problems caused by undocumented workers. They take our jobs, overcrowd our social services, take away resources from our children and get away with breaking the law with complete abandon! You would think they are some powerful alien group who threaten the… continue reading