Jake was a Catholic Worker in Houston until very recently. He will be going to medical school in the fall. The hiring hall at Casa Juan Diego sits alongside a railroad line. Several times every morning a long freighter rumbles by, blaring its horn as a greeting and a warning, holding up traffic and waking… continue reading
The Victimization of Smuggled Immigrants
Yvonne Parks is currently enrolled at the University of Houston’s Graduate School of Social Work where she is working on her Masters Degree. The number of undocumented immigrants entering the United States is on the rise despite efforts to increase the number of border patrol officers. Immi-grants who manage to find work and achieve moderate… continue reading
Fraudulent Scholarship, Whether Archaeological or Neo-Gnostic, Misleads Christians
The headlines jumped out at us. Newspapers across the United States highlighted the indictment of four professional archaeologists and collectors in the Holy Land for fraud. Another indictment followed. Major artifacts had been forged and sold, charged the Israeli government, with the goal of changing history and religious beliefs (especially Catholic and Jewish) and to… continue reading
Bishop Ramazzini in Danger: Assassination Plot in Guatemala
A friend of the Houston Catholic Worker is in danger in Guatemala. Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, who collaborated with us in the development of Houses of Hospitality for immigrants and refugees in Tecun Uman, in his Diocese next to the Mexican border, has received very serious death threats again in his home country. Bishop Ramazzini has… continue reading
Slave Wages Condemned by Pope John Paul II
There has been a great effort in recent years by neoconservative and libertarian Catholics and Calvinists to revise Catholic Social Teaching in favor of the enormous corporations which control so much of the property and pay slave wages around the world to gain more property. Just as they opposed the Pope on war, so they… continue reading
Pope John Paul II Speaks on the Psalms
Pope John Paul II, in his weekly audiences, has been presenting catecheses on various Psalms. VIS, the Vatican Information Services, has provided excerpts from his texts on powerful themes for the life of the Christian. Several of these follow: DO NOT BASE YOUR LIFE ON FALSE VALUES VATICAN CITY, NOV. 10, 2004 (VIS) The Pope… continue reading
Why Catholics Should Be Wary of “One Nation Under God”: Richard Neuhaus in a Time of War
1. “I ALWAYS THOUGHT JESUS WAS AN AMERICAN” “I know you’re all going to think this is crazy, but I always thought Jesus was an American.” This statement was uttered by a young woman in a seminar at the University of California at San Diego on the first century of Rome and the dawn of… continue reading
Iraq War, Unjust, Illegal and Immoral; Just War Theory Condemns Invasion
Fr. Paul Surlis was professor of Catholic Social Teaching at St. John’s University, New York 1975-2000. He is now retired in Crofton, Maryland, writing and doing occasional parish ministry. The tradition of The Catholic Worker, under the editorial direction of Dorothy Day, was to publish two threads of discussions and theologies of war and peace,… continue reading
Celebrating 25 Years: Casa Juan Diego Opens to Help Poor Immigrants and Refugees in Houston
This article appeared in the first edition of the Houston Catholic Worker, May 5, 1981. Casa Juan Diego is the result of allowing ourselves to dream. The vision of a Catholic Worker house on Washington Avenue in Houston established to serve the poor and Spanish speaking first came to us in 1979 while working in… continue reading
New Pope Benedict XVI a Strong Critic of War
by Michael Griffin of the Catholic Peace Fellowship The election of Benedict XVI as pope brings hope for the continuation of peacemaking as central to the papacy. Just as John Paul II cried out again and again to the world, “War never again!” the new pope has taken the name of the one who first… continue reading