HCW newspaper. April 2024. Vol. XLIV, No. 2.

CATHOLIC WORKER

Reconstructing the Social Order Through the Works of Mercy in an Age of Migration

By Louise Zwick and Noemí Flores

The fabric of our social order is being harmed and even destroyed today by the following of false gods. This includes the misuse of the Lord’s name in overt expressions of hostility towards groups in our society (especially migrants and refugees), extreme capitalism that increases the wealth of the few while many poorer people suffer, and by some expressions of Christian(?) nationalism which increase divisions.

During the Great Depression, Peter Maurin echoed the call of Pope Pius XI in the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, asking us to help to reconstruct the social order. Much of that work remains to be done. And this may be a very special moment in which to do it. As Bishop Mark Seitz recently said in America magazine, “Migration is a privileged space in which the salvific mystery is being acted out.”

Misusing God’s Name

Those who say terrible things about refugees and migrants, those who defend unjust business practices in the name of God and freedom might meditate on the full text of the Commandments, especially the one against misusing God’s name. In an article entitled “An Impossible Fraternity?” in the Jesuit magazine La Civiltá Catttolica, Giovanni Cucci writes of the consequences of misusing God’s name: “Significantly, in the Decalogue, the prohibition against taking God’s name in vain is followed by the threat of punishment (“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord

will not acquit anyone who misuses his name,” Exodus 20:7), which is not mentioned in the context of the other commandments, as if to reiterate the seriousness of such a transgression. To ‘misuse’ God’s name is to appropriate his name to justify self-interest, violence, murder, as can be associated with fundamentalism, terrorism and abuse of religious authority. The text distances itself from such perversions, denounces their seriousness, but at the same time also reveals their presence throughout history.”

Misusing God’s name includes presenting to the world a “version” of Christianity which, while calling itself Christian, on close observation can be found not to be Christianity at all, but rather a “new” religion that promotes disparagement of others, encourages threats of violence and oppression, the identification of only one country with its religion, and the violation of other commandments as well: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Some partisans of this other religion believe that persecution of refugees and migrants, the seeking of absolute power, lies, and even murder are justified.

They have omitted the knowledge that God created all people in His image and likeness and also have overlooked key passages in the New Testament.

The Commandments: Do Not Follow False gods, Do Not Worship Idols

The warnings from the prophets of the Bible that we not be taken in by false gods should give us all pause.

The Bible story from the prophetic book of Daniel about worshipping false gods is not as well-known as Daniel in the Lion’s Den, but it is significant for our times.

The story of Daniel tells of how the King of Babylon asked his friend Daniel why he did not worship the idol, Bel. revered and worshipped by the king and the Babylonians. The whole nation worshipped that god. Daniel’s answer to the king was that he did not worship man-made idols, but only the Living God, who created heaven and earth. The king was surprised and said to Daniel, Do you not see that Bel is a living god? See how much he eats and drinks every day. We give him twelve bushels of flour and forty sheep to eat each night long with fifty gallons of wine.

Continued page 6

Artist: Angel Valdez

OUR NEEDS

School supplies

Used school uniforms

Backpacks

Duffel bags for travel

Twin size sheets

Bath towels

Bed pillows

Adult Diapers

Baby wipes

Pots and pans

Skillets

Forks, knives and spoons

Canned chicken

Pinto beans

Rice

Men’s jeans (waist 28-34)

Men’s T-shirs

(Sm – Lg)

Long sleeved T-shirts

Tennis shoes, flat shoes for women

Tennis shoes for children or men

Flip Flops

Donations may be dropped off or shipped to: Casa Juan Diego 4818 Rose Street Houston, TX 77007

Casa Juan Diego was founded in 1980, following the Catholic Worker model of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, to serve immigrants and refugees and the poor. From one small house it has grown to ten houses. Casa Juan Diego publishes a newspaper, the Houston Catholic Worker, four times a year to share the values of the Catholic Worker movement and the stories of the immigrants and refugees uprooted by the realities of the global economy.

• Food Donation Central Office: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007

• Women’s House of Hospitality: Hospitality and services for immigrant women and children

• Assistance to paralyzed or seriously ill immigrants living in the community.

• Casa Don Marcos Men’s House: For refugee men new to the country.

• Casa Don Bosco: For sick and wounded men.

• Casa Maria Social Service Center and Medical Clinic: 6101 Edgemoor, Houston, TX 77081

• Casa Juan Diego Medical Clinic

• Food Distribution Center: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007

• Liturgy: In Spanish Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. 4811 Lillian at Shepherd

• Funding: Casa Juan Diego is funded by voluntary contributions.

EDITORS

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Translate for doctors in our clinic Wednesdays & Thurdsdays at 7am

Help with Works of Mercy

Full-time Catholic Workers are needed. Room and Board and Health Insurance provided.

Practical Spanish or French language needed.

Learn to fill out work permit applications and assist with that.

If you can help, please email us at info@cjd.org.

Louise Zwick & Susan Gallagher

TRANSLATORS Blanca Flores, Sofía Rubio

CATHOLIC WORKERS Dawn McCarty, Marie Abernethy Mattie Jenkins, Grace Riordan Joachim Zwick, Louise Zwick, Kevin Mcleod

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Joachim Zwick

DESIGN Bea Garcia Castillo

CIRCULATION Stephen Lucas

AYUDANTES TEAM........................... Wilmer Salazar, Ramiro Rescalvo Julian Juárez, Daniel De la Garza, Reynaldo Arioliga, José Rivero Juan Peñalosa, Ernesto Lopez, Cesar Cerrato David Calazan

PERMANENT SUPPORT GROUP................Louise Zwick, Stephen Lucas

Dawn McCarty, Andy Durham, Betsy Escobar, Kent Keith Julia Gallagher, Monica Creixell, Pam Janks Monica Hatcher, Joachim Zwick

VOLUNTEER DOCTORS................................. Drs. John Butler, Yu Wah Wm. Lindsey, Laura Porterfield

Darío Zuñiga, Roseanne Popp, CCVI, Enrique Batres

Homero Anchondo, Deepa Iyengar, Mohammed Zare

Maya Mayekar, Joan Killen, Stella Fitzgibbons

VOLUNTEER DENTISTS.................Drs. Justin Seaman, Michael Morris

Peter Gambertoglio, Mercedes Berger, Jose Lopez

Maged Shokralla, Florence Zare

CASA MARIA.....................................Juliana Zapata and Manuel Soto

Casa Juan Diego

P.O.Box

MARK ZWICK – Founder

Houston Catholic Worker Vol. XLIV, No. 2

REFUGEES at RISK in TEXAS

1,000 March in Support of Annunciation House

We are all aware of how Governor Greg Abbott has been busing many refugees and migrants to other states over the past several years. More recently, the state of Texas has been trying to close down a non-profit in Texas for doing the same thing. The state Attorney General has brought suit against Annunciation House in El Paso, a center where Ruben Garcia and his staff and volunteers have been doing the work of the Gospel for 43 years in providing hospitality, food, and information on immigration law to refugees. The state accused Annunciation House of running a “stash house” (a term normally used in human trafficking or prostitution cases) and helping people to travel to other parts of the United States.

This is in direct contradiction to the requests Annunciation House and Casa Juan Diego regularly receive from ICE and other government agencies to help asylum applicants reach their families. On March 21, 2024, more than a thousand people marched through the streets of El Paso in support of Annunciation House and the immigrants they serve. The march and prayer vigil for Faith, Compassion, and Human Dignity were led by Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino of El Paso, Auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelley of Dallas, Bishop Peter Baldachino of Juarez, Mexico, and various members of the El Paso faith community.

Texas Senate Bill 4 Puts Immigrants and Refugees at Risk

A Texas law (SB4) that was scheduled to be implemented on March 4, 2024, is under injunction while the law is debated in an appeals court. The law, if implemented, would place every undocumented person in the state of Texas at risk of arrest and immediate incarceration pending deportation by state judges untrained in immigration law( rather than the federal immigration courts). Persons who cannot provide identification or give answers that raise suspicion could be immediately arrested by any peace officer in the state of Texas—Police, but also Sheriffs, Parks and Wildlife Commission

law enforcement, Fire Marshals, Insurance Commission Investigators and others. The question in the courts is about a state trying to take over the role of the federal government in immigration enforcement. According to NPR, Alan Lizarraga, a spokesperson for the Border Network for Human Rights, stated that if enforced, the law would have a chilling effect: “We know that this law is going to increase racial profiling. We know that this law is going to strip people of their constitutional rights. We know that this law is also going to lead to the mass criminalization of our communities.”

I once read that the most effective reflections on the Gospel are not necessarily those which are pronounced from the pulpit or are shared by a scholar or theologian. Instead, many times it is the Christians who preach with their lives consecrated to the Gospel, who pray and actively work on the construction of the reign of God here on the earth, preaching with the example of charity, with sacrifice, and a non-transactional love for the other, give glory to God with a mercy that has the power to draw in the most cynical person. They are the ones who, without many words, transmit to us the grace that will allow us to be close witnesses of their work. And thus be able to visualize in ourselves this possibility, that of evolving from a mercy of words to a mercy of action—an action that weeps, that grieves, that is concerned about the other--this mercy that we are all called to practice, not only to talk about and contemplate, always remembering that an act of mercy is incomplete and insufficient if it is only conceived as alleviating the physical need. It is also called to provide the fuel of the possible, hope—this hope that has been shared with us in the Gospel of the Good News that we are called to share.

I am a candidate for the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. My path to conversion, like the path of our brother migrants, has had many involuntary stops. Sometimes there are setbacks and disillusionments, as when after weeks or months on a journey our brothers or sisters are deported, extorted or robbed by souls that do not know Christ. But also on the journey there are joys and moments of enlightenment as when a Christian, sometimes anonymous, as Rahner defines it, becomes Christ for the other and in an act of disinterested or non-transactional love, provides a warm meal, a secure place to sleep, takes off his jacket to give it to the migrant who is shaking with cold, or even more powerful, when a person who shares the same poverty from which his brother is fleeing, divides his taco in two and shares it, as he gives him encouragement

My Peferential Option for the Migrant, Necessary Stop for our Conversion

By Jesús Gerardo Cedillo | Artist: Angel Valdez

to continue on his way. This joy, this fraternity that unites us together is within reach if only we give Christ the opportunity to work within us.

It Has Not Always Been This Way

Twenty-five years ago when I was 23 years old, recently graduated from a prestigious university in the north of Mexico, I was offered my first job as an electrical engineer in a city I did not know, the city of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, across the border from Nogales, Arizona. In retrospect now I understand that upon closing the plant in Horsham, Pennsylvania, this maquiladora (factory) which belonged to the United States, took advantage of the framework of NAFTA to maximize profits and reduce the costs of production, employing qualified workers in Mexico for a fraction of the cost, eliminated dignified work in the United States to create marginal jobs on the Mexican side. This was a clear example of what Father Gustavo Gutierrez calls structural sin, that loses sight of the value of the sanctification of dignified work to give place to monetization and hoarding. It was there that I experienced that powerlessness toward responsibility, where I remained cowardly incapable of responding to injustice and the suffering of the migrant, where I became a little more cynical.

Having landed in Hermosillo, Sonora, I went to the bus terminal and boarded a van which transported 9-10 persons toward Nogales, Sonora, a trip of about 3 to 4 hours. When we were approximately 21 kilometers from our destination, there was a police checkpoint.

On this occasion, the federal and migration police asked us all to show our identifications. It was there that I noticed that this family that had traveled silently, that included a father, mother, small son, and an adolescent daughter, possibly were not Mexicans. This was confirmed when the police asked all the family to get down from the van, took the girl into their offices for several minutes and returned with the girl crying. Then the father was taken to the offices and sadly, with hi head down, got onto the van again and embraced his daughter, who was still in tears. The next 15 to 20 minutes were gloomy and seemed eternal. All of us in the van were confused and sad upon contemplating the possibility that

various injustices had been committed against this family, but fear prevailed.

The family did not speak; they were silent with their heads down. Nobody in the van intervened, no one in the van asked anything, as if hoping that the silence would erase everything. Upon arriving in the city, the people got off at different stops, quickly, almost sneaking, ignoring the suffering of the family. At approximately the last stop, the driver asked the family, where are you going to get off? With a broken, tearful voice, with a Central American accent, the father answered, “I don’t know… wherever on the bus line.” While he put together some change that his wife looked for in their belongings.

I could never erase this scene from my mind. Why, when I had some bills, did I not have the generosity to help them on their way and try to alleviate, with a little bit of solidarity, their pain? Why, being able to ask them about these actions, did I not do it? Perhaps because I was afraid of corrupt officials, in an area new to me? Why, being able to at least give them encouragement and hope with a word, did I not give it? Perhaps because in so many years I had received an excellent technical education, but not an adequate Christian formation.

That afternoon I saw Jesus wounded, insulted, robbed, and I did not help Him, I didn’t even ask him, I didn’t recognize him, as I did not relate to him. Why? Because I was afraid, afraid to get involved, afraid of doing the right thing, afraid of having mercy. My inaction still haunts me and still sometimes, I am ashamed. Jesus sometimes asks to disguise himself in us and we ignore him Why?

God Never Leaves Us As He Found Us

God always loves us as he finds us, but never leaves us as he found us. How does God show us that salvation from sin is possible? How does Christ, if we allow him to do so, truly help us to be better and not carry out actions that separate us from Him?

Sometimes when one hears these concepts in the Church, they seem far away. They make us yawn and predispose ourselves to only hear without listening. We perceive them as complicated and even sometime a little bit corny or cliches. continued page 7

By Grace Riordan | Artist: Angel Valdez

Only Say the Word and My Soul Shall be Healed

In the middle of this past Lenten season, I went on retreat. A priest and spiritual director recommended that I make the Gospel of Mark an integral part of my Easter preparations. I then began to read one chapter of Mark’s gospel every day, and what I discovered there suddenly came to life in front of me at Casa Juan Diego. Mark provides us with a compelling account of Jesus, the healer. In one particular instance Jesus heals a paralytic man whose friends lower him down through the roof of the house where Jesus is preaching (Mark 2: 2-6). After reading this passage, I began to see this paralytic man and his friends everywhere at CJD and in myself.

We attend to a handful of sick and injured people in Houston to provide food and hygiene products that make living with particular illnesses possible. People line up to receive much needed food and hygiene products that make living with particular illnesses possible. The people lined up at our door for these supplies become for me the paralytic man who without guile or duplicity, finds the courage and grace to ask Jesus for healing and comfort. The sick people that I encounter at CJD inspire me to ask for healing, too. While living and working at CJD, I was diagnosed with gastritis and gluten intolerance. Prior to these diagnoses, I had spent months trying to manage my pain and my diet, often with little success. I also spent months simply wishing that what had been afflicting me would simply go away. When I think of the paralytic’s healing, it fills me with inspiration. Could I too approach Jesus with a similarly open spirit, a trusting and faithful heart?

Before I came to CJD, I used to read the healing and miracle accounts with no small amount of suspicion, maybe even with some derision. How could instant healing be possible? And perhaps a more honest question, why couldn’t it happen to me? My own lack of faith reminds me of a movie I watched recently called The Miracle Club, starring Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith and Laura Linney. In this movie, three women and their parish win a trip to Lourdes; some of these ladies have fixed ideas about what is going to happen to them when they get there. One of these women, Kathy Bates’ character, is sorely disappointed when she learns that since 1858, only 62 miracles had happened at the pilgrimage site (The Miracle Club, 2023).

In the film, Bates’ character then accuses her parish priest of lying to her and to the other pilgrims, because given those odds, it was unlikely that she would ever be a recipient of a miracle. Since reading Mark’s gospel at CJD, I realize I have thought and acted a bit like Bates’ character in The Miracle Club towards my own health problems. I haven’t been able to see that begging for an affliction to end and asking for healing, are not in fact, the same requests. I think many of our sick and injured friends have come to know the truth that we read in the Book of Revelation: in Jesus all things are made new. Healing is a transformative endeavor. What ails me might remain unchanged, but in healing, my relationship to that which causes me pain is transformed. I am renewed in the belief that I am not alone in my pain.

If I had to compare myself with the folks I meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I would be forced to conclude that I haven’t shown the same faithful spirit towards my ailments as they have. But through their companionship, they point me in the right direction. I think what has been so special and encouraging for me as a Catholic Worker is the realization that I am surrounded by a community that yearns to be healed together in Christ. We yearn to be healed from illness, from the painful separations of our families, from violence, and from addictions. But like the paralytic man’s friends who dared to ascend a rooftop, the healing that we need at CJD comes from each other’s accompaniment in faith.

I believe that what is left unwritten in Mark’s account of the paralytic is what happens after he regains use of his legs: this man, whoever he was, had a continual need for healing and for conversion for the rest of his life. Jesus is our constant healer, who tends to our souls if we ask Him to. It is my prayer for myself and for this community that we may experience a spirit open to continual conversion and healing in our lives.

Reference: The Miracle Club, 2023. Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan. Grace came to the Houston Catholic Worker last summer after her graduation from the Catholic University of America. Her fluency in the French language has been a real gift for a number of our guests.

Daniel laughed and said, Do not be deceived., O king. This is but clay and brass and it never ate or drank anything.

Through Daniel’s practical wisdom, the king learned that the seventy priests of Bel and their wives and children had been going through underground tunnels to get the food and eat it each night. The king put the priests to death, and gave the idol Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple. (Daniel 14:1-22).

God Walks with his People Today

This earth is not our permanent home. As Servant of God Dorothy Day said, “We are on a pilgrimage to our real home” with the Lord, with the angels and saints.

In our life journey, for many it is hard to find a temporary home here on this earth. People in great numbers around the world are leaving their earthly homes. They are dying from hunger or violence. They are seeking a peaceful place to live for themselves and their families and practice their faith, if they are lucky enough to escape violence or destitution before it all overwhelms them. Often the social order not only does not support them, but makes their suffering worse. Pope Francis, though, speaking of this journey, reminds us that the Lord, the Living God, is present with His people including migrants and refugees, as they walk:

“During this journey, wherever people find themselves, it is essential to recognize the presence of God who walks with His people, assuring them

Reconstructing the Social Order

what is now Europe. Their journeys affected world history and geography in a major way.

Scholars remind us that those centuries should not be referred to as the Dark Ages, or an age of Barbarian Invasion, but instead, as the Age of Migration or the Migration Period.

During that time when the Roman Empire was breaking up and Germanic tribes migrated to Gaul and other parts of the Empire, there were certainly signs of darkness, violence, and changes in social realities. It turned out to also be an age of opportunity for followers of the Nazarene to respond creatively.

It is fascinating to read about the role of the Church in those centuries and especially that of the monasteries in bringing together peoples from different countries and different cultures, and actually reconstructing the social order. This happened especially from the example of the monks and monasteries who inspired the people. There were heresies and divisions in the Church then as there are now, but goodness and the monastic ideal prevailed.

Monks, Monasteries, and the Reconstruction of the Social Order

of His guidance and protection at every step. Yet it is equally essential to recognize the presence of the Lord, Emmanuel, God-with-us, in every migrant who knocks at the door of our hearts and offers an opportunity for encounter.” (Pope Francis, Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 2024)

A major Instruction from the Vatican on The Love of Christ Toward Migrants.(2004) emphasized the scope of the reality of migration: “Today’s migration makes up the vastest movement of people of all times.” (Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Erga migrantes caritas Christi (The Love of Christ Towards Migrants). Erga Migrantes, as many other documents from the Vatican and from local Bishops over the past decades, asks Catholics to address in a positive way the pastoral challenges of this reality.

Reactions vary to migration, sometimes bringing angry rhetoric and even hatred to uprooted peoples trying to survive in difficult times. The Church and the Catholic Worker Movement in its founders can show us a different way to respond. There is historical precedent.

A Previous Age of Migration

The historical period that used to be pejoratively referred to as the Dark Ages (300 to 1000 A.D.) was a time when peoples from different countries and cultures were on the move. Peoples organized into tribes came from many lands to parts of the Roman Empire and

Among the books Peter recommended in The Catholic Worker on this subject was Ireland and the Foundations of Europe by Benedict Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick’s book provides a substantive history of the reconstructive activity of Irish missionaries in Europe from the sixth century to the eleventh, flowing from the great ancient Irish civilization. “Abbeys and schools had arisen on the foundations of Roman ruins or the clearings in German forests. Pilgrims came and went in peace. Universities laid their foundations in the metropolitan centers.” The Irish monks carried the learning of their civilization with them as they journeyed to many different points in what is now Europe, often literally carrying their books on their backs as they walked. “Stories are told of one or another digging his staff into the ground in the middle of a forest, where bears and other wild animals roamed, to begin his new monastic life there and relate to the people in the area.” (Benedict Fitzpatrick, quoted in Mark and Louise Zwick, The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins.)

The Benedictines

St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine monks, lived from about 480 to 547 A.D. The connection between the Benedictines and the Catholic Worker is profound. Dorothy Day was a Benedictine Oblate. She often wrote about the Benedictine Rule which emphasized that “the Guest is Christ,” and that the monks should not continued page 8

Artist: Angel Valdez

Essay by Peter Maurin

THE IRISH MONKS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOCIAL ORDER

Conversion through Grace and Encounter

continued from page 4

The Holy Father and the Bishops ask us to reconstruct the social order.

The social order was once constructed through dynamic Catholic Action. When the barbarians invaded the decaying Roman Empire Irish missionaries went all over Europe and laid the foundations of medieval Europe.

Through the establishment of cultural centers, that is to say, Round -Table Discussions, they brought thought to the people. Through free guest houses that is to say, Houses of Hospitality, they popularized the divine virtue of charity.

Through farming communes, that is to say, Agronomic Universities, they emphasized voluntary poverty. It was on the basis of personal charity and voluntary poverty that Irish missionaries laid the foundations of the social order.

If only we took the time to understand, if instead of two hours or a day or more of Youtube, Instagram or Facebook, we would give ourselves this time to know Christ better. As Fray Nelson teaches us, the process of salvation from sin takes place in us in stages. The first stage in this process, is having the will, the freedom, and accepting our sin, without justifying our mistakes and blaming others, taking responsibility for our actions.

This identification of sins can be understood in a simple way if we reduce it to only the Ten Commandments, which definitely one must abide by. But in this modern world we are surrounded and bombarded with what some theologians call the apparent good, something which according to the Gospel separates us from God. Thanks to marketing, the culture of our society, the government, the media sell them to us as acceptable, as correct in the eyes of men and women, even, it seems to us, in the eyes of Christ. As an example, I can mention that when one obeys the Ten Commandments to the letter without much reflection, it could be not so obvious why abortion is so terrible, or excessive consumerism, usury, harm to the environment, sins of omission, especially those pointed out in Matthew 25:35-37.

The second step is to discover what we should be. This is said to be very easy, but for the same reasons mentioned above, it is confusing, if we do not anchor our understanding in the Gospel. Christ invites us to share in the kingdom of love, mercy, peace, joy, etc.—not imitating or renouncing our personalities and trying to be someone that we are not, but rather, inviting us within our own essence to take the form of Christ, softening our temperaments and spurring us to godly actions, rediscovering our good and holy nucleus and casting off what is bad in us.

It is there, upon discovering this inability, where our will and freedom can lead us in different directions. One is desperation, believing that we are a lost cause, the hopelessness that I was created defective and there is in me or in the other neither goodness nor virtue nor hope. Another attitude that we can adopt is cynicism: that is who I am and that is how people accept me, that’s how I am and even though I know that I am wrong I don’t do anything to improve myself, because I have lost the hope to believe that Christ can work in me and I am satisfied with living in this comfortable prison of indifference, ignoring the possibility of being able to act through the other.

But also, our will can point us to Grace in Christ, that same grace which is gratuitous and from within ourselves motivates us toward virtue, that same grace that through the Holy Spirit moves within us if we are docile and cultivate our relationship with Christ through prayer and works of mercy and charity. That grace which moved the Apostles after Pentecost and now, Yes… to act, to get involved, to shake off fear and conflict, that same grace that transformed and motivated those same Apostles who weeks before had abandoned Him on the cross, denying Him three times, those who argued and were jealous of each other--to have within themselves the possibility to initiate the process where now, Yes, they risked it for Christ, where now, Yes! they became involved and did not deny their obligation to love the other. In the end, the majority of them ended giving their lives in martyrdom and sacrifice.

The third is discovering the inability of being able to arrive on our own to the way we must be. This is another great obstacle in our times, especially when in Tik-Tok, Youtube, Facebook, and in self-help books we are constantly bombarded with messages that everything, absolutely everything can be overcome by our own efforts, with discipline, with good habits, with committed friendships, with magic solutions, etc. It is clear that we can always improve something in ourselves, but that we will always be inadequate or fickle if we do not make Christ a part of this change in ourselves.

Jesus can come back to life in us. Yes. We all have written in our hearts, this goodness, this capacity to love the most vulnerable in spite of our imperfections, to clothe and feed the migrant and the poor, to give a chance to drink of a new life to the desperate, to the person who is fleeing insecurity, hunger, injustice, inhumanity. To believe that the United States can also be a part of the promised land, if we shake off cynicism, take courage and trust fully in Christ and His promises. If we do this, the reign of God is within our reach, and not only will it be so in Heaven, but here in our homes, in our city, united in Christ in mercy, all in one.

Artist: L.V. Diaz

Reconstructing the Social Order

treat a rich person with more respect than a poor person. Dorothy quoted John Henry Newman in The Catholic Worker in 1944 of how the Benedictines worked to restore the physical and social world that they found in ruins:

“It was a restoration rather than a visitation, correction, or conversion. The new world which he helped to create was a growth rather than a structure. Silent men were observed about the country or discovered in the forest, digging, clearing, and building; and other silent men, men not seen, were sitting the in cold cloister, trying their eyes, and keeping their attention on the stretch, while they painfully deciphered and copied and re-copied the manuscripts which they had saved. There was no one that ‘contended or cried out,’ or drew attention to what was going on; but by degrees the woody swamp came a hermitage, a religious house, a farm, an abbey, a village, a seminary, a school of learning, and a city. Roads and bridges connected it with other abbeys and cities, which had similarly grown up, and what the haughty Alaric or fierce Attila had broken to pieces, these patient meditative men had brought together and made to live again.” Quoted by Joshua Brumfield, “The Dorothy Option?” in Dorothy Day and the Church: Past, Present, and FutureConferencee).

The Social Order Can be Reconstructed Today in a New Age of Migration

Today we are in what might be called a new age of migration. There are signs of darkness – violence, untruths, hatred of other groups. Sometimes the lives of Catholics are even shaped and influenced by politicians rather than from the heart of the Gospel and the wisdom of the Church. We see the dark side of globalization, a world-wide laissezfaire capitalism that destroys the environment and the lives of people and causes them to leave their homes. We see the lasting harmful effects of colonialism.

are famous for creating small businesses. Some people think the refugees are not worth anything, but the people we meet here every day are people of a bright future in this country, if they are allowed to stay.

Parishes are receiving refugees at their Masses and are helping in many ways. Hopefully, more parishes will reach out, because refugees are often invisible in their communities.

today, talking about His Passion, Jesus says: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified” (v. 23). What does He mean?

“He means that glory, for God, does not correspond to human success, fame and popularity; glory, for God, has nothing self-referential about it, it is not a grandiose manifestation of power to be followed by public applause. For God, glory is to love to the point of giving one’s life. Glorification, for Him, means giving Himself, making Himself accessible, offering His love. And this reached its culmination on the Cross, right there, where Jesus outspread God’s love to the maximum, fully revealing the face of mercy, giving us life and forgiving his crucifiers.” (Pope Francis, Angelus, March 17 2024).

Hope for Remaking our World is Through the Paschal Mystery and the Works of Mercy

There is hope, however. With the Lord we can participate in the reconstruction of our world. Not through violence, insurrection, power seeking, but through the Works of Mercy, through support for small businesses and farms, support for workers, with hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone. Not through what is being called Christian nationalism, but through the way of the Cross, through the Paschal Mystery, with Jesus the Christ to resurrection.

A renewal of the social order today will include the refugees and immigrants who have always been willing to do the hardest physical work, such as farm work and construction work and who

Building the world according to the plan of the Living God will require giving of ourselves as the Lord did and working to change destructive systems that make it difficult for people to see God’s glory. As Pope Francis recently said, “On the Cross we will see His glory and that of the Father (John 12: 23, 28).

“Jesus in the Gospel (cf. Jn 12:20-33) tells us something important: that on the Cross we will see His glory and that of the Father (cf. vv. 23, 28).

“But how is it possible that the glory of God manifest itself right there, on the Cross? One would think it happened in the Resurrection, not on the Cross, which is a defeat, a failure. Instead,

The Catholic Worker Option

The Catholic Worker Movement provides an option for responding to the crises of our times. It offers a different way for us to live from what Pope Francis has called comfortable, consumerist isolation; a way that can take us beyond divisions to embrace the people of the world who are uprooted.

The Monastic Way, The Catholic Worker Way

The Catholic Worker movement began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. When Peter Maurin presented his vision for the CW to Dorothy Day and to the world, he brought his studies of history to his teaching. He was also responding to the call of Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno for Catholics to participate in reconstructing the social order. The Holy Father had made clear to all that neither Communism nor unfettered capitalism could address economic injustice:

“Just as the unity of human society cannot be founded on an opposition of classes, so also the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching.” (QA 88)

Peter Maurin’s model had nothing to do with violent revolution, but was rather based on transforming the culture through the daily practice of the Works of Mercy. Peter Maurin brought to the CW movement a model of the unity of manual labor and prayer and ideas. Some have said, “Why this sounds like monasticism.” There is some truth to this.

Peter presented the example of how the reconstruction of the social order was accomplished in the early centuries through the monasteries, centers of what he called cult (worship), culture, and cultivation (small farms) and encouraged

Artist: L.V. Diaz

Through the Works of Mercy

parallels for the Catholic Worker movement to the work of the monks during that Age of Migration.

Both Peter and Dorothy read the Desert Fathers. He and Dorothy frequently pointed out that in setting up Houses of Hospitality and centers of thought in agricultural centers, the monks had brought light and learning to the people. Through voluntary poverty and personal charity they laid the foundations of the social order. Peter and Dorothy insisted that the method of the monks was a revolutionary technique, not the band-aid operation the Catholic Worker was sometimes accused of being.

As Joshua Brumfield wrote, “For Dorothy, Peter, and the early Catholic Worker Movement, making the [Fr. Hugo] Retreat, reciting prayers, and living a version of monastic life was all ordered towards loving God by loving neighbor, which meant changing the social order via the Works of Mercy.” Dorothy Day wrote about the challenges involved in her book House of Hospitality:

“The new social order as it could be and would be if all men loved God and loved their brothers because they are all sons of God! A land of peace and tranquility and joy in work and activity. It is heaven indeed that we are contemplating. Do you expect that we are going to be able to accomplish it here? We can accomplish much, of that I am certain. We

Essay by Peter Maurin

LABORARE

ET ORARE

The motto of St. Benedict was Laborare et Orare, Labor and Prayer. Labor and prayer ought to be combined; labor ought to be a prayer.

The liturgy of the Church is the prayer of the Church. People ought to pray with the Church and to work with the Church.

The religious life of the people and the economic life of the people ought to be one.

can do much to change the face of the earth, in that I have hope and faith. But these pains and sufferings are the price we have to pay. Can we change men in a night or a day? Can we give them as much as three months or even a year? A child is forming in the mother’s womb for nine long months, and it seems so long. But to make a man in the time of our present disorder with all the world convulsed with hatred and strife and selfishness, that is a lifetime’s work, and then too often it is not accomplished.

“Even the best of human love is filled with self-seeking. To work to increase our love for God and for our fellow man (and the two must go hand in hand), this is a lifetime job. We are never going to be finished.

“Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much.”

REFERENCE AND RECOMMENDED READING:

Joshua Brumfield , “ The Dorothy Option? Dorothy, Benedict, and the Future of the Church ” in Dorothy Day and the Church: Past, Present and Future: Conference held at the University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne Indiana. 2015.

Dorothy Day, House of Hospitality. Sheed & Ward, 1939.

Matthew Desmond , Poverty, By America . Crown Publishing Group, 2023.

Benedict Fitzpatrick , Ireland and the Foundations of Europe . Funk & Wagnalls, 1927.

Peter Maurin , Easy Essays . Wipf & Stock Publishers.

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi: The Love of Christ Toward Migrants 2004.

Pope Pius XI , Quadragesmio Anno. Encyclical.

Leila Simona Tilani, “Migration and the ‘Dark Side’ of Globalization” European Politics and Policy Blogs. 2022.

Andrew L. Whitehead , American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church . Brazos Press, 2023.

Mark and Louise Zwick , The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins , Paulist Pres,.2005.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Dear Louise and Catholic Workers, Your January-March 2-24 publication about the “Cosmos, the Glory of God, and the Mystery of Iniquity” was filled with inspiration for all readers. I am one of those finding a “renewed interest in cosmology.” Each of you teach by example about what true Christians should be doing today for the Kingdom of God, embracing and teaching voluntary poverty to those who lose all closeness to one sacrificial Lord in today’s world.

As a people of God experiencing the Listening Synod and then the Eucharistic Renewal, we at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Selma, Texas, of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, are now launching Stephen Ministries as a way to move out into the chaos of the human condition— becoming Missionary Disciples of the Lord in order to be the hands, feet, and heart of the Lord to our parishioners in crisis. Please pray that the Holy Spirit provides us to be instruments of the Word and Altar of Our Lord.

Deacon Bill and Sylvia Hartman

Louise,

Enjoyed your article on “Cosmos.” A little hope in the dark tunnel of going on in our world. Mary Ann Bass, Houston

Dear Louise and All,

Thank you for your loving, selfless service. Face to face with so much sorrow. Here is a s mall bit of help. Know that you stay in our heart, our prayers.

Sisters Kate O’Brien, Rosa Ange, IHM, Monroe, Michigan

Dear Louise and HCW Friends,

Thank you for the fantastic newspaper. The drawings are incredible. On the post card, and of course, in the paper itself.

In Jesus’ name, Caroline Gaudet, Jackson, Mississippi P. S. A beam of light and joy (and struggle) in these difficult times.