Francis meets TED, Talks About ‘Solidarity’

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 10:40 am By Mark Gordon

How wonderful it would be if solidarity, this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word, were not simply reduced to social work and became instead the default attitude in political, economic, and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries. Only by educating people to a true solidarity will we be able to overcome the ‘culture of waste,’ which doesn’t concern only food and goods but, first and foremost, the people who are cast aside by our techno-economic systems which, without even realizing it, are now putting products at their core, instead of people. Read more

My Most Grievous Fault: The Moral Problem of Wealth

Last updated on: May 10, 2017 at 9:49 am By Mike Stafford

“How can I make you realize the misery of the poor? How can I make you understand that your wealth comes from their weeping?” – St. Basil the Great. “Not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth, but theirs.” – St. John Chrysostom It is always easier to accuse than to confess. But in reality we’re all sinners of one sort... Read more

Review of ‘The Reckless Way of Love’

Last updated on: April 22, 2017 at 3:50 pm By Mark Gordon

If you have any degree of devotion to, affection for, or interest in Dorothy Day, The Reckless Way of Love is a must-have addition to your library. And at 125 pages, it won't take up too much space. We owe a debt of gratitude for our friends at Plough for this accessible yet challenging introduction to Dorothy’s writings and Catholic Worker spirituality. Read more

Find Your Own Calcutta

Last updated on: March 25, 2017 at 9:48 pm By Elias Crim

Myself I’ve never met a saint of the Church and I’ve only met one person who ever knew a prospective saint. (It was someone who knew Dorothy Day well.) But we all need to meet more of them, even if it’s only in the pages of books like Fr. James Martin’s My Life with the Saints, now out in a 10th anniversary edition. The author picked out sixteen of his favorite saints (including saint-in-the-making Dorothy Day) and interestingly wraps bits of... Read more

A Lawless Man

Last updated on: January 9, 2017 at 3:41 pm By Mike Stafford

On Friday, January 20th, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America. It will be dark day for our nation, and a portent of even more dire days ahead, because the highest office in our land is being assumed by a fundamentally lawless man. Like Erebus and Nyx, Trump is born of Chaos. His campaign, indeed his broader public career and persona, have been characterized by the absence of any recognized constraints on his conduct and by the cavalier violation of... Read more

Good News & Great Joy

Last updated on: December 24, 2016 at 2:48 pm By Mike Stafford

To all people of good will fighting for social, economic, and environmental justice, defending the poor & the marginalized, ministering to the world’s sick and wounded, or working for peace and reconciliation among both men and nations- rejoice! You do not labor to build the Beloved Community in vain, but are instead the harbingers of a Kingdom that is, even now, triumphantly breaking into our world. To all people in darkness- the poor, the oppressed and abused, the migrants, the forgotten- rejoice!... Read more

Roasting Marshmallows at the Apocalypse

Last updated on: December 23, 2016 at 3:05 pm By Elias Crim

[A review of Nothing to Vote For: The Futility of the American Electoral Process, by Daniel Schwindt] One of the more misguided, even destructive projects of our hyper-merchandized culture is the labeling of entire generations into Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, etc. As though our society needed yet another mechanism for dividing ourselves from each other, especially via stereotypes based on shopping. As an example of the crudity of these generational labels, I offer the example of my friend Daniel Schwindt, a... Read more

The Ultimate Deal: Privatizing the Presidency

Last updated on: November 29, 2016 at 4:00 pm By Elias Crim

Dispossessed of jobs and their dignity for a generation now or more, the Trump voters are glowing as they await what they were promised: nothing less than the reversal of a great tidal wave of economic history, the one popularly referred to as globalization or offshoring or free trade. As their unlikely tribune of the plebs, they have elevated a man with businesses in 18 countries, including Trump-branded hotels in India (2), Istanbul, Uruguay, the Phillippines, South Korea, Panama, Rio... Read more

Blessed Are the Dissidents

Last updated on: May 10, 2017 at 9:50 am By Mike Stafford

“Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization.”- Masha Gessen “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.”- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn As I write this, reports are circulating that Donald Trump, our President-elect, intends to follow through on some of his most divisive campaign promises and actually create some sort of registry... Read more

Lights Coming Back on in Gary

Last updated on: November 21, 2016 at 12:35 pm By Elias Crim

I knew my involvement in civic matters in northwest Indiana would eventually take me to Gary, about 25 miles from my town of Valparaiso. As I’ve driven along Interstate 90 heading to and from Chicago, I’ve often peered down from the expressway into the city’s empty streets and dilapidated neighborhoods. For many long-time residents of the area, the town’s very name is an epithet for a landscape of failure and fear where it’s thought that no one stays who can... Read more