Professor Joe Vail directs the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Houston. He was formerly an immigration judge. There is a building located just north of Beltway 8 approximately 2 miles to the east of the Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport. The building is owned by a private corporation called the Corrections Corporation of America… continue reading
Locking Up the Huddled Masses: Innocent Refugees in Cyclone and Barbed Wire Fences
December 1, 2006 by
Into the Dark with God: A Christmas Meditation on the Incarnation, for a Troubled World
December 1, 2006 by
And the angel said to them: “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you Good News of a great joy that will come to all the people: for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you… continue reading
Vatican Declares Catholicism a Peace Church: Follow the Way of the Great Prophets of Peace, the way of Conscientious Objection and of Alternative Social Service, the way of Nonviolence
December 1, 2006 by
Excerpted from Cardinal Bertone’s first address as new Vatican Secretary of State to the Vatican Diplomatic Corps, all the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, on September 29, 2006. Our contemporaries hope that the diplomats in their role will contribute to establishing and maintaining “an international order, the art of establishing reasonable human relations among peoples”… continue reading
Death Sentence for Rafael and Other Immigrants
December 1, 2006 by
Rafael (not his real name), a construction worker, came to us a sick man. We went the usual procedure of trying to arrange help for him before his cancer became any worse. We tried to arrange an eligibility card—called a Gold Card—but were unsuccessful because he didn’t have a picture ID. We accompanied him to… continue reading
Pope Benedict XVI: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness on Nonviolence in the Middle East: We Will Not Be Quiet
October 1, 2006 by
During the recent war in Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI cried out at every public appearance for all, in the name of God, to immediately lay down their arms. He said, “We will not keep quiet, we will do everything possible so that those in power hear us.” The Vatican Information Service has faithfully reported his… continue reading
Meeting Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin
October 1, 2006 by
Stanley visited the Catholic Worker when he was and idealistic 18-year-old and began to help. He could never decide if he wanted to stay or not for sure, but died as a Catholic Worker at age 80. One morning in the Williamsburg branch of the public library I picked up The Life of Christ by… continue reading
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, Indicts International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Usury
October 1, 2006 by
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
Bring Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Sick and Injured
October 1, 2006 by
Casa Juan Diego is a busy place.. A nurse called today from Ben Taub Hospital to tell us to be nice to Pedro—he had lost all of his fingers on one hand in an accident and wasn’t handling it too well. He was injured in an accident in southern Louisiana. No hospital there had the… continue reading
Milk Supply Threatened: Why Do Immigrants Keep Coming to the United States?
October 1, 2006 by
How the United States resolves the immigration issues will have tremendous impact on a number of industries throughout the nation. Employment of undocumented workers is no longer limited to the Southwestern states and those who traditionally travel for a few months each year to work the crops in a few other areas. Immigrant workers are… continue reading
My Dorothy Day
August 1, 2006 by
Tom Cornell is a long-time Catholic Worker who worked with Dorothy Day. He is a deacon in the Archdiocese of New York. Joe Zarrella, among the first Catholic Workers, preferred her old publisher’s publicity photo from the Thirties, Dorothy in wavy shoulder-length hair. I prefer the one from the mid-Sixties, before she lost her weight,… continue reading
