Old-fashioned Marxists considered religion to be a major obstacle to social economic change, branding it as the opiate of the people. In a debate in the 70’s with a representative of the Communist Party in New York, I proposed the contrary. I claimed that the Marxist sense of revolution was shallow and that the Theistic… continue reading
John Paul II: Globalization Must Not Be a New Form of Colonialism
August 1, 2001 by
In recent months John Paul II has been critiquing the economics of globalization, raising serious ethical questions about the way it is implemented. It is almost as if he knew that some prominent Catholic writers, especially in the United States, were advocating in the name of the Church an economics based on using people as… continue reading
NO TO PLAN COLOMBIA: Land Reform Essential for Desperate Campesinos
June 1, 2001 by
Once again, the first casualty of war has been the truth. Over the last two years, lost somewhere between blaring media headlines of Elian and Napster, elections and the Oscars, miniature paragraphs and news bites on the escalating crisis of Colombia’s civil war have been vainly competing for the attention of a sensation-hungry, otherwise-occupied public…. continue reading
Madeleine Delbrel–a French Dorothy Day–writes We, the Ordinary People of the Streets
April 1, 2001 by
Review of Madeleine Delbrêl, We, the Ordinary People of the Streets (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000). Last August during a catechesis delivered to French-speaking youth in Rome for World Youth Day, the president of the Jubilee Committee, Roger Cardinal Etchegaray, en-couraged young people to take up “the arduous battle of holiness” (le… continue reading
Christian Asceticism: Breaking Consumerism’s Destructive Hold
January 1, 2001 by
It has been my experience through fifteen years of priestly service that the personal and familial problems facing Christians are greatly intensified by the consumerism that characterizes much of contemporary American life. As I have come to appreciate the psychological and religious aspects of this influence I have also become increasingly convinced of the social… continue reading
Multinationals Rob Seeds of Poor: Vandana Shiva and Houston Catholic Workers Protest Patenting of Life Forms at RiceTec in Alvin, Texas
December 1, 2000 by
It seemed incredible. A corporation in Alvin, Texas, just an hour and a half by car from Casa Juan Diego, was trying to patent seeds that rice farmers had developed over centuries in India and Pakistan. Actually, they had already done so and were in the process of renewing the patent. Farmers in India and… continue reading
Easter at Casa Juan Diego Center for Immigrants and Refugees; Catholic Worker Hospitality, Easter 2000
August 1, 2000 by
It is Easter evening at Casa Juan Diego. The lights are out in most of the house since the men will be up at 4 a.m. and on their way to the Padre Jack Davis Hiring Hall where hopefully all will pick up a days’ work. Our men are mostly from Mexico and the Central… continue reading
My Friendship with Dorothy Day (Helene Iswolsky)
June 1, 2000 by
Helene Iswolsky, Daughter of the last Tsarist Ambassador to France, a Russian emigré who had become a friend of Dorothy Day, gave talks at the Catholic Worker on Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Soloviev. Dorothy described one of these occasions in the October 1949 CW: “The first week in September we had Helene Iswolsky at the farm at… continue reading
Dorothy Day and the LIGHT FROM THE EAST: Eastern Christianity, Fathers of the Desert, Dostoevsky
June 1, 2000 by
Dorothy Day read great literature all of her life and her reading especially included some of the Russian writers, most of all Dostoevsky. Her reading of authors from the East, which she shared with readers of The Catholic Worker, included not only fiction, but theology, monastic writings and history. She knew the monks from St…. continue reading
Women Left Behind Develop New Economic Models
April 1, 2000 by
This article is the fourth in a series by Dawn McCarty on the impact that undocumented immigration to the United States has on families and communities left behind in Mexico. Dr. McCarty teaches at the University of Houston-Downtown. During long road trips to rural communities in Mexico, I would have a reoccurring daydream: the women… continue reading
