Dear Friends of Casa Juan Diego, Thanks be to God and generous people, Casa Juan Diego has completed its 39th year. Because of your generosity thousands of poor people have been served and many refugees and immigrants and their families have been helped. Our Houses of Hospitality have been full for many months. The food… continue reading
A Meditation on the Incarnation
November 26, 2019 by
Reflection on the Good News announced by the angel on that Holy Night when Jesus was born brings to us an awareness of the profound beauty and reality of the Incarnation, but also the contrast of the harsher reality of the world of that time, as well as that of our own time in history…. continue reading
Death While Waiting at the Border
November 26, 2019 by
A few days ago, we received word that the brother of a current guest of Casa Juan Diego, who had been forced to await his day in a U.S. Court in one of the refugee camps just across the border in Mexico, had been murdered. We don’t know the details yet, but a fellow migrant,… continue reading
Cultivating Hope in Troubled Times at Casa Juan Diego: Samaritans and Solidarity
November 13, 2019 by
My job during the Tuesday food distributions at Casa Juan Diego is basically to organize the hundreds of people who come to the door. Most come just for food and they organize themselves, really. Before the sun comes up, they have formed a line out the door and into our parking lot and sometimes… continue reading
Raising a Prophetic Voice: Civil Disobedience,Divine Obedience and the Catholic Worker
November 9, 2019 by
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
La Révolution du Coeur: Le Café Dorothy and The Catholic Worker in France
November 1, 2019 by
More French-speaking guests have been arriving at Casa Juan Diego from Africa. We have been fortunate to have volunteers who speak French and some of our Catholic Workers who have never studied French have begun a study of the language. Last spring we also had a visit from Pierre from Paris, who told us about… continue reading
Reflections at Casa Juan Diego on Tropical Storm Imelda and Climate Change
September 21, 2019 by
Continuing Mark Zwick’s tradition of sharing the faith in the light of current realities with the guests of Casa Juan Diego, last night we reflected with the 35 men at Casa Don Marcos on the recent tropical storm here and climate change. We shared a section of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si on climate change, mentioning… continue reading
Bishop Ramazzini, Friend of the Poor, Named a Cardinal
September 8, 2019 by
We received with joy the news that Bishop Ramazzini of the Diocese of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, is one of the new Cardinals that will be created by Pope Francis at the October consistory. Mark and Louise Zwick met Bishop Ramazzini in the in his former Diocese of San Marcos. They were concerned about the plight of… continue reading
“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
Vintage Mark Zwick and the Catholic Worker
July 25, 2019 by
During the first 20+ years of the Houston Catholic Workernewspaper, we regularly ran a column entitled “The Pilgrimage Continues in Houston.” Written by Mark Zwick or by Mark and Louise Zwick together, it was inspired by Dorothy Day’s famous column “On Pilgrimage” and it offered a glimpse of life at Casa Juan Diego. In it,… continue reading
