Deconstructing the Corner Drugstore

April 8, 2016 By Elias Crim

If you haven’t read Jeremy Beer’s The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity, well then tant pis pour toi, as the French used to say. It’s an eloquent historical essay on how we got from a theologically-grounded and localized culture of charity to the technologically-driven, globalist system of institutionalized do-goodery today. From the jacket blurb: “[Beer] exposes the way modern philanthropy’s roots are entangled with fear and loathing of the poor, anti-Catholic prejudice, militarism, messianic dreams, and the... Read more

Art For An Integral Ecology

April 5, 2016 By Guest Contributor

A. Vonn Hartung is a Puerto Rico-based artist who works across a variety of media, including painting, woodcarving, mosaic, and ceramics. His defining achievement came in 2001 when he was commissioned to paint the official portrait of Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago, the first Puerto Rican to be so recognized by the Holy See. Vonn’s portrait hangs in the Hall of Saints of the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican. Inspired by Pope Francis, Vonn and his wife Patty are now offering to the Church a powerful... Read more

Does The Environment Have Rights?

April 4, 2016 By Daniel Schwindt

Obviously Pope Francis thinks so. As he told the UN back in 2015: “It must be stated that a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist.” I remember those words from when he spoke them, and haven’t thought much about them since. But today I stumbled upon an article over at Crux, written by a Thomas D. Williams, titled “Perhaps Pope Francis should ask, ‘Who Am I to Fudge?’ ” wherein he states: “As a theologian, I confess that I cringe when... Read more

Can We Just Grow Jobs?

April 1, 2016 By Grace Potts

Those of you who know me know I have a few hobby horses I come back to rock on whenever I get the chance. Montessori education. Gardening. Homesteading depopulated upper mid-western cities. Food. Urbanism. I’m back onto homesteading cities today. I’ve advocated in the past for something like an Urban Homesteading Act. While I still think that or something like it needs to happen, the problem with folks just moving wholesale to American rust belt cities is that there are... Read more

Mother Maria Skobtsova, Martyr of Sobornost’

March 31, 2016 By Guest Contributor

By Matthew Franklin Cooper On the 31st of March, we celebrate the dies natalis of Mother Maria (Skobtsova), a beloved martyr and witness to Christ among the Russian émigré population in France. Her Essential Writings are particularly recommended during this Lenten season, as her essays, though brief, are spiritually and personally challenging on a number of levels. They should also certainly be of interest to the good folks of Solidarity Hall and The Dorothy Option, given the close association she... Read more

Boxed In

March 30, 2016 By Mark Gordon

A few years ago, my wife and I were assigned a case through our local conference of the Society of St. Vincent DePaul. It involved a family – Dave, his girlfriend Ellen and their three small children* – who had fallen behind on their rent and electricity bill. When we met with the family, Dave explained that he was a full-time employee of Home Depot. He had moved to southern New England from Maine when Home Depot offered him a... Read more

Good Friday Through a Mother’s Eyes

March 25, 2016 By Mark Gordon

Morning. 6:00 am You never really slept last night, and now the ache is settling in. At 47, you are already quite old, and your body is beginning to betray you. This rootless existence you’ve led since your husband died isn’t helping any. Without warning an image floats into your mind of a beautiful young woman and her snuffling baby boy, the two of them curled up in sweet, dreamless repose, without back pain or worry. What you wouldn’t give…... Read more

The Passion of the Poor

March 23, 2016 By Mark Gordon

“Ah, the pain, the anguish, the sin and despair, the remorse, at not living as one knows one should live, as a human being should live, fully and abundantly! The poor feel guilty too. It has been dinned into them so often that here we have a land of opportunity, of equality, of abundance. What is wrong with them that they cannot get out of the morass, they wonder. One of the saddest things about the poor and the destitute... Read more

What is the Opposite of a Happy Death?

March 21, 2016 By Elias Crim

In a neighboring town I have a wonderful friend Nate who serves as pastor of an Evangelical Free church with a weekly community meal program. The town is a rustbelt artifact, still breathing but just barely. His congregation is mostly young marrieds but many of the soup kitchen regulars are older unemployed men. Thinking of the recent history of this area, Nate and I were discussing what it must feel like to go for ten years, twenty years with no... Read more

A Conversation on War, Torture, and the Limits of Evil – Part 2

March 18, 2016 By Paul Grenier

[This post is a continuation of Paul Grenier’s dialogue on torture and solidarity. The first part can be found HERE. The previous section concluded with the Professor asking, in Socratic fashion, what motivated the US government to make use of torture after the attacks of Sept. 11.] AMBASSADOR. I take strong exception to this suspiciousness about America’s motives. Our motives were clear. We were attacked and something had to be done. The correct question to start with is not the... Read more