Two ND Grads When we were on retreat recently talking with two young graduates from Notre Dame, they kept raising questions. It was almost like Emmaus! “Where are the ways of living out the Gospels and our Catholic faith in today’s world?” The young people asked. “We’re afraid of getting into the rat race of… continue reading
Young People of the World Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose Except your Chains: Call to Destiny and Mystery of the Gospel
October 1, 1999 by
Roots of the Catholic Worker Movement: Distributism: Ownership of the Means of Production and Alternative to the Brutal Global Market
October 1, 1999 by
The plight of workers throughout the world is at a crisis stage. Many are not only working for slave wages, but have been removed from their own communities and local economics and left desperate. The Business pages of the Houston Chronicle of August 1, 1999, featured several entire pages on the economic devastation of Latin America… continue reading
Despair and Hope at Casa Juan Diego, the Houston Catholic Worker
October 1, 1999 by
Despair Yesterday we found Fernando on the floor in a pool of blood with seizures that wouldn’t stop. Fernando, seriously ill with kidney failure, has lived in the States many years, but can’t get any compensation. For the rest of his life, which won’t be too long, he lives on the verge of collapsing before… continue reading
Constitution Forbids Sub-Class; Catholic Values Promote Love of Immigrants
October 1, 1999 by
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
