We are to build structures and conduct our daily lives with the idea that every person is loved specially and equally by God and thus is due never to suffer affront to his human dignity. This notion is reiterated constantly by Pope John Paul II, and is especially relevant to our treatment of immigrants in… continue reading
Emmanuel Mounier, Personalism, and the Catholic Worker movement
August 1, 1999 by
Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) articulated the ideas of personalism, of human persons whose responsibility it is to take an active role in history, even while the ultimate goal is beyond the temporal and beyond human history. Mounier articulated it as “a philosophy of engagement…inseparable from a philosophy of the absolute or of the transcendence of the… continue reading
Immigrants are Not Criminals
August 1, 1999 by
Last week Noemí came to Casa Juan Diego to beg for a place to stay with her three children because her husband had been deported because of tickets. Well, not because of tickets, but because he was jailed for not paying traffic tickets on time. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has a desk in the… continue reading
Agribusiness and the Land Crisis in Guatemala: No Peace without Agrarian Reform
June 1, 1999 by
I met José at the local school in Chex, Huehuetenengo, Western Guatemala. From our vantage point, we had a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. I asked José about his farm and his family’s future. In a sweeping gesture, he indicated the small green cornfields covering the mountain. “This mountainside belonged to my grandfather. It… continue reading
John Paul II Calls for End to Usury: Support for Peter Maurin, Catholic Worker Theme
June 1, 1999 by
On April 14, 1999, Pope John Paul II addressed the members of the National Council of Anti-Usury Foundations and their regional delegations. The Holy Father gave a special welcome to about one thousand volunteers “who came to call the public’s attention to the worrisome and, unfor-tunately, widespread phenomena of usury, which often brings with it… continue reading
The Economic Religion of Michael Novak: Wealth Creation vs. the Gospel, as in Using Catholicism to Prop up Neoconservatism
June 1, 1999 by
There has been tremendous interest in the March April 1999 issue of the Houston Catholic Worker on Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of neoliberalism in Ecclesia in America, not to mention those who were so excited to discover the document itself in all its richness. Most of our readers understood clearly that neoliberalism, the current economic… continue reading
Pope John Paul II condemns neoliberalism in Ecclesia in America, as social sin that cries to heaven
April 1, 1999 by
Pope Condemns Neoliberalism “More and more, in many countries of America, a system known as “neoliberalism” prevails; based on a purely economic conception of the human person, this sytem considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and… continue reading
Pope John Paul II’s New America: Ecclesia in America: Fr. Neuhaus should withdraw his Book
April 1, 1999 by
Fr. Richard Neuhaus, a proponent of neoconservative economics (known as neoliberalism in Latin America and most of the rest of the world), has written a book that can only be considered a counter document to that of Pope John Paul II and the Bishops of America which was presented as the closing statement, the Apostolic… continue reading
“Blowing the Dynamite of the Church”: Catholic Radicalism from a Catholic Radicalist Perspective
April 1, 1999 by
In the wake of their momentous encounter in December 1932, Peter Maurin subjected Dorothy Day to a pedagogical program that he dubbed “indoctrination,” which, from Day’s account, consisted of Maurin coming over to her apartment and expounding to her on God, the Church, the Church Fathers, the saints, the poor, hospitality, liberalism, capitalism, fascism, communism,… continue reading
