HCW newspaper. Apr 2019. Vol. XXXIX, No. 2.

Oscar Romero’s Theological Vision

Oscar Romero’s Theological Vision: Liberation and Transfiguration of the Poor, by Edgardo Colón-Emeric. Notre Dame University Press, 2018.

Reviewed by Louise Zwick

As we recently received thirty-six Central American men as guests in our house in one day, not only paying for their travel to get here, feeding them, acquiring extra mattresses, providing hospitality bags, answering a myriad of questions, helping them make travel arrangements to relatives in other cities, etc., we couldn’t help but reflect on why people are leaving their homelands in such great numbers in Central America. We noticed that in spite of their anxiety for the future, all the men were courteous, kind, and respectful. An eighteenyear-old shared that while he was here he spoke with his mother by telephone. She wept to know that he was being well taken care of in Casa Juan Diego.

On that particular day we received men, but the numbers of women and children trying to escape conditions in which

they cannot live are escalating alarmingly. Not in a fearful way, as some have taken advantage of the situation to say, but in a crisis for the humanity of countless families who cannot live under the conditions in their countries.

On the day the thirty-six new guests arrived at Casa Juan Diego, all human beings with the face of Christ, we were reading Oscar Romero’s Theological Vision: Liberation and Transfiguration of the Poor from the University of Notre Dame Press.

Already declared a martyr for the faith, Archbishop Romero is being considered by many to merit being declared a Doctor of the Church.

In this book, author Edgardo Colón-Emeric goes far beyond the idea that Romero is not an academic, but a potential “pastoral” Doctor of the Church. He is presented here as a Father of the Latin American Church, as other giants in theology and spirituality are remembered as the early Fathers of the Church.

Romero’s theology was liturgical, that it was developed

and presented through his homilies to the people of El Salvador, rather than through writing books in the language of the academy. As ColónEmeric states, “In life, most people encountered Romero through his homilies.”

This was true for the overflowing crowds who attended his Sunday liturgies, but also for the countless people who listened to his homilies on the radio. It was true for the Zwick family during our time in El Salvador. As Mark and I and our children, Jennifer and Joachim, walked through the streets in San Salvador, all the radios were tuned to the Catholic station, replaying Monseñor Romero’s homilies.

Colón-Emeric points out that Romero’s liturgical theology is steeped in Scripture and papal documents, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and the reflections from the gatherings of Latin American bishops beginning with the one in Medellin - but also reflects the horrendous situation faced daily by the Salvadoran people. The fruit

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Self-Interest or Vocation?

by Justin Golbabai

Some years ago Justin was a Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego

In 2008, I was a couple years out of college and searching for answers. Up to that point, I had known what it was to be successful: you study hard, get good grades, earn awards and honors, and keep on progressing upward and onward – from high school to college, from

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college to graduate school. Having now completed my education and gotten my start at the bottom of the corporate ladder, I struggled with how to evaluate my self-worth and measure my success or lack thereof. Money, a girlfriend, influence, prestige – with any of these as a benchmark I objectively could not be considered successful. But I also had a deep-seated sense

that these were not the right benchmarks anyway. I knew success had to be based on something bigger, and therefore different measures of success were needed.

At the heart of classical economic theory is the idea that success is a self-interested venture where the rational pursuit of self-interest leads to greater happiness. Building on utilitarian philosophy, economic self-interest is often defined as the attempts to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in a world of scarce resources. Following this theory, in any given transaction in a world of supply and demand, a buyer will seek the best value and lowest price while the seller seeks the highest price

Mary Magdalene, Apostle

by Louise Zwick

A number of years ago Mark and I attended a Spanish Mass on Easter. We were surprised when it was time for the homily and a woman began shrieking, “He is Risen!“ Two women ran down the central aisle in white robes, bringing dramatically to life what happened when the women discovered more than 2,000 years ago that the Lord had risen from the dead.

This drama, not so unusual in Latino liturgies, brought to our consciousness again but on a new level the event that changed history – establishing, as Nicolas Berdyaev said, Christ as the center of history. The Resurrection, the completion of the Paschal Mystery, was an astounding event after the Lord’s suffering and death, even for those who had accompanied him. Those who had been with him day after day had heard his prediction

about rising after three days, but it was hard for them to believe.

When we think of the resurrection, not everyone remembers that it was a woman, Mary Magdalene, who was the first to know and to believe, the first witness to the Resurrection. When she recognized the risen Lord, her tears over his suffering and death turned to joy, which she shared with the apostles as Jesus asked her to do.

Apostle To the Apostles

In 2016 Mary Magdalene was formally recognized by the Catholic Church as the Apostle to the Apostles. Her day in the Church calendar was changed from a memorial (the kind of celebration most saints have) to a major feast. Now her Feast day on July 22 is on the same level as the other apostles. And the Church clarified forevermore that it had been a mistake from the sixth cen-

Mark Zwick Founder

Angel Valdez

by Marie Abernethy

In November 2017, after having completed two years in Honduras as a volunteer at “The Farm of the Child” (a Catholic home for children), I was encouraged to come to Casa Juan Diego. Louise Zwick opened the door for me and presently I am very privileged to live at, and be a part of, this one-of-a-kind special Catholic Worker House. Today I am able to look back and ponder some truly grace-filled moments.

On this Candlemas Day, I read “a light for revelation to the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Lk 2:32) and “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven” (Mat 5:16.) St. Francis says we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. Now, after having quoted these three great saints, let me attempt to tell you a few special stories that have touched my heart as a Catholic Worker here at Casa Juan Diego.

Over the past two years, I have had the great joy of meeting and working with women and children from a myriad

Hospitality at Casa Juan Diego

suffered greatly; they know full well about physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial pain. They grieve the losses of country, family, friends, climate. They have no idea whether or not they will ever see their family or country in the future. Fear of the unknown consumes them.

It is important that we make these guests feel welcome and as comfortable as possible, relieving some of their fears. When they arrive at Casa Juan Diego, I find that they are so grateful to just receive a clean room and shower and some clean clothes. Frequently food doesn’t even seem that important to them as they are so depleted emotionally and physically from their long journeys. However, in order to placate the incoming children, we give each of them a toy, such as a new stuffed animal; this is only possible because of the gifts and donations that come to us every day.

Daily Miracles

We see little miracles every day. Sometimes our women just need time to purge and cry.

How blessed we are to have the volunteers who make themselves available to listen and give support. And frequently, the timing is just perfect! Let me share with you

They have no idea whether or not they will ever see their family or country in the future. Fear of the unknown consumes them.

of different countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, Congo, Yemen, Angola, Cameroon, and Nigeria. At first it was quite overwhelming to hear their stories in so many different languages - French, Portuguese, Swahili, and Spanish. Although there are vast differences between these cultures, I am learning that they also have a great deal in common. Some of these women and children have taken more than six months to arrive here and they have

he had donated! New Arrivals

On occasion I have accompanied our pregnant women to the hospital. In early January, one of the women from Honduras knocked on my door at 12:30 in the morning, advising me that she was in labor. Off to the hospital we rushed. What a delight it was for me to watch the birth of her 8-pound daughter at 5:30 am. Such joy for everyone!. As I drove back into our parking lot at 6:15 AM, there were already people in line for our clinic. It was time for me to brush my teeth and start a new day!

an incident that happened very recently. One of the women was begging me to let her use our coffee grinder to mash up food for her baby. No extra grinder was available so I had to refuse her. She went on and on. Within minutes the front door bell rang and when I opened the door there’s a gentleman standing there with two baby blenders that he wanted to donate. I will never forget that mother’s screams of excitement and joy when I introduced her to that kind gentleman and told her what

Another great memory for me was when one of our ladies from Angola went to the hospital to give birth to her fourth child. The next morning her seven-year-old son thoroughly cleaned their room, mopping the floor. He folded and put away their clean laundry and arranged the stuffed animals on his little brothers’ beds. Then he came to the office and asked for a card. When we gave him some construction paper and colored pencils in order to make a card, he shook his head and said that he wanted a Christmas card. I thought

always easy to do these works of mercy. On a more positive note, that front doorbell also is rung by people with many donations. Sorting donations can also be a difficult, “loving task” because there are many marvelous things that come to us. We are most grateful for the variety of things we receive, and as Louise reminds us, “We are also doing a service for the people who do not know what to do with all their stuff.” Daily I am reminded time and again of the Works of Mercy - both Corporal Works and Spiritual Works: Corporal Works of Mercy Spiritual Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry

Instruct the ignorant

Give drink to the thirsty

Counsel the doubtful Clothe the naked Admonish the sinner Shelter the homeless

to myself, how appropriate!

This truly was one of our holy families here at our home.

Difficulty with the Works of Mercy

One of my most difficult jobs at Casa Juan Diego is answering the constant ringing of the front doorbell with people requesting food, medicine, referrals to shelters, adult diapers, wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, etc. It is not

Forgive injuries

Visit the sick

Comfort the sorrowful

Visit the imprisoned Bear wrongs patiently Bury the dead Pray for the living and the dead

Transportation

Daily we transport women to appointments such as with

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Houston Catholic Worker Vol. XXXIX, No. 2

Editors Louise Zwick and Susan Gallagher

Translators Sofía Rubio, Blanca Flores

Proofreading Dawn McCarty, Marie Abernethy, Colleen Sheehy, David Miller

Technical Director Joachim Zwick

Circulation

Stephen Lucas

Victor Díaz , Julian Juarez, Manuel Rangel, Valentin Martinez, Josue González José Viola, José Salazar, Julio Carpio Manuel Sierra, Ramiro Rescalvo, Felipe Servellon, Diego Rivas, Aman Angusom

Permanent

Support Group Louise Zwick

Stephen Lucas, Lillian Lucas, Andy Durham, Betsy Escobar, Kent Keith, Pam Janks, Dawn McCarty, Julia Gallagher, Alvaro and Jane Montealagre, Monica Hatcher, Joachim Zwick

Volunteer Doctors Drs. John Butler, Daniel Corredor, Nageeb Abdalla, Magdy Tadros, Wm. Lindsey, Laura Porterfield, Joann Schulte Jorge Guerreo, Sr. Roseanne Popp, CCVI, Enrique Batres, Darío Zuñiga, Cecilia Lowder, Jaime Chavarría, Amelia Averyt, Deepa Iyengar, Justo Montalvo, Mohammed Zare, Joan Killen, Tammie Generette.

Volunteer Dentists Drs. Peter Gambertoglio, Michael Morris

Mercedes Berger, Jose Lopez, Justin Seaman, Florence Zare

Casa Maria Juliana Zapata and Manuel Soto

Casa Juan Diego

P. O. Box 70113, Houston, TX 77270

Telephone: (713) 869-7376, email: info@cjd.org

World Wide Web: http://www.cjd.org

L.V. Diaz

By Julia Gallagher

How Can We Shatter the Shackles of Poverty?

As a house of hospitality we know this line from the letter to the Hebrews, “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels” (13:2). We “shelter the homeless,” seeing the person as Christ, a corporal work of mercy. Another work of mercy is to visit the prisoner: “Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body” (13:3). First, of course, we are called to offer direct support to the incarcerated. However, I propose that the poor outside of the physical prison gates are also shackled in our economic system. It is impossible to leave prison on your own, or if the feat is accomplished the escapee is sought after by authorities. So, it is with the poor, it is nearly impossible to break the shackles of poverty alone. Yet we hear politicians and individualistic patriots profess that those at the bottom can just ‘pull themselves up by hard work and perseverance.’ Is this possible or is it as unrealistic of an expectation as a prison break?

We are called to be mindful of prisoners and share their imprisonment. What would it mean to share the poor’s imprisonment? First, as Dorothy Day called us to a ‘revolution of the heart,’ we need a greater understanding of our connectedness as humans. To take off our chains of judgement and embrace a spirit of solidarity. Your imprisonment is my imprisonment. Your shackles, your suffering is mine. The struggle is one as the body of Christ is one.

Saint John Paul II gives an explanation in his encyclical On Social Concern that brings us beyond simply a change in understanding, “Solidarity is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because

we are all really responsible for all.”

We could begin by looking at the log in our eye of our consumer decisions. Before we even draw near to the poor in deeper communion, we can share the imprisonment of literal slave-like wages and choose to avoid businesses that perpetuate this evil. Instead, we can research what organizations prioritize the person and their needs and give them our support.

In his encyclical Charity in Truth, Pope Benedict XVI expounds on the moral implication of our power as consumers and sellers. “It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral - and not simply economicact. Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in-hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise. Consumers should be continually educated regarding their daily role, which can be exercised with the respect for moral principles without diminishing the

bility as concerned with the person’s rank within the income distribution as a whole. The research shows that our ability to pull ourselves up is reflected in absolute mobility, showing that this generation is doing better than their parents’ generation. But relative mobility in the United States remains such that it is highly unlikely to pull yourself up past those born into a higher income status.

Pew’s Project explains the improbability of economic mobility in the United States, “Seventy percent of children raised in the bottom fifth of the income distribution will

known use of the phrase was in an editorial from an 1834 Nashville newspaper. The author, in response to a previous article writes, “Probably Mr. Murphree has succeeded in handing himself over the Cumberland river, or a barnyard fence, by the straps of his boots.” As the idiom spread it continued to imply an attempt to do something illogical or absurd. Until the early 20th century when James Joyce in his famous work Ulysses wrote “There were ... others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps.”

intrinsic economic rationality of the act of purchasing” (no.66).

We could adopt an approach of the common good for our consumer and producer decisions. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses, “The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons: The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around” (1912).

We want it to be so easy as every man for himself. I can be blind to my neighbor, focus on myself, and rest knowing that his own hard work will get him to my same hardearned success. The reality of economic mobility shows us this will not be the case.

According to the Pew Charitable Trust Economic Mobility Project, economic mobility is “the ability to move up and down the income ladder during one’s lifetime and across generations.” The project defines absolute mobility as upward and downward changes over time and relative mo-

The poor outside of the physical prison gates are also shackled in our economic system.

remain below the middle of the income ladder as adults. Among children raised in the top fifth, 63 percent will never fall below the middle.” The perspective of the wealthy can be so hopeful because of the difficulty to fall out of the highest income status, which in turn creates distorted ideas and judgements of how the poor can too achieve a better life.

According to a survey by the Pew Economic Mobility Project in 2009, over onethird of respondents said they “believed it was common for people born into poverty to become rich, and 71 percent said that personal attributes like hard work and drive, not the circumstances of a person’s birth, are the key determinants of success.” When the research tells us that seventy percent of children raised in poverty will stay in poverty we must be wary of the delusion of pulling up the income ladder all by oneself.

All that pulling on your bootstraps can do is put your boots on. To me an idiom about putting on your boots means you are ready to work. I think this is the case for many poor people trying to get by. They are eager for work. But we must acknowledge that access to employment contributes to the economic divide. For the poor it is rarely about their own will power to change their socioeconomic situation. When we inquire and pay attention to the lives of real people we see with clearer vision why the plight of the poor is so difficult and cyclical.

For the poor it is rarely about their own will power to change their socioeconomic situation.

The phrase pulling yourself up comes from the idiom “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” It is ironic because it is actually impossible. Just like the prison break. The first

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the poverty guideline for a household of 4 people is $25,750. This is the guideline to determine financial eligibility for federal programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Right now, I am working at a school designed for lowincome families. The average family income is $22,118 and the average cost of monthly rent is $850. This means

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Urban Karl

he can command for what he is offering. At the end of these self-interested transactions, those with more buying power have a greater ability to expand their utility or happiness. The collective process of each individual seeking his or her own selfinterest through purchasing power is what is commonly referred to as “the invisible hand of the market.”

In Adam Smith’s economic classic The Wealth of Nations, he contends that the virtues of such a system make for a better society as a whole: “By pursuing his own interests [man] frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”

With the utilitarian concept of the market as a series of self-interested transactions, it naturally follows that our economic success or our failure is measured materialistically. At a macro level, usually economic success is defined by measures of output and production such as Gross Domestic Product, the unemployment rate, and consumer confidence. Similarly, for the individual’s economic success, status and value are often tied to their ability or future ability to produce or to spend. This often takes the form of one’s potential for upward mobility, the position of influence you hold at work, what’s in your bank account, or outward appearances such as houses, cars, clothes, or vacations.

Yet the utilitarian philosophy that underlies economic theory is not without its critics. In Karol Wojtyla’s book Love and Responsibility, Wojtyla criticizes utilitarian theory for assuming that all actions are done egotistically and therefore denies the very ideas of selflessness and altruism. Further, utilitarianism is a philosophy that values others based on their usefulness – and in this way treats the human per-

Vocation vs. Utilitarianism

son as a mere tool. What is overlooked in this equation is that human beings have a dignity in and of themselves. Indeed, better still would be an economics where people see themselves and others not by their usefulness, but for their own good in a spirit of love and charity. As Wotyla puts it, “Man’s capacity for love depends on his willingness consciously to seek a good together with others, and to subordinate himself to that good for the sake of others, or to others for the sake of that good.”

Examples of this economics grounded in the common good and love can be found in the saints. Whether that was Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa, or John Bosco helping the poor or Thomas Aquinas and Augustine writing philosophy, or the story of martyrs being persecuted and dying for their faith – these were models that simply could not be categorized as motivated by “self-interest.” Rather the underlying motivation for action is focused on discerning, acting upon, and finding joy in responding to a personal call from God. Rather, this economic motivation is better categorized as vocation – “the calling or destiny we have in this life and the hereafter.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

Vocation is perhaps the opposite of self-interest. It is, by its nature, not primarily concerned with the self and one’s own needs and desires. Rather, it’s about emptying oneself and allowing God’s will to transcend one’s own.

It’s a paradoxical “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Vocation runs counter to the utilitarian goal of self-interest simply as such work is not about maximizing one’s own pleasure and minimizing one’s own pain. On the contrary, doing such work may end up leading one to suffer and ultimately die a pain-

towards goals with self-serving ends makes such work a risky and fragile endeavor. One could work everyday for years with the goal to get to the top of a corporate hierarchy or win an Olympic gold medal, only to not get picked by the selection committee or to tear a muscle the day before the race. In comparison, if the goal is based on the love and joy of daily following one’s calling, it doesn’t preclude one from getting to the top or winning an Olympic Gold medal, but it doesn’t depend on it either. The pursuit of vocation requires a willingness to sacrifice for others and for God in order to discover our part in the greater plan. Such self-denials and willingness to put others ahead of ourselves provides the foundation for a cooperative economy of people mutually

If the goal is based on the love and joy of daily following one’s calling, it doesn’t preclude one from getting to the top or winning an Olympic Gold medal, but it doesn’t depend on it either

ful and untimely death. Yet, paradoxically, if one follows the saints in faithfully discerning and following such a call from God in perfect trust, no matter where that leads, there comes a peace and joy in this life, and the promises of even greater joy with God in the next.

A pursuit of economics as vocation rather than selfinterest also shifts the relationship between human beings from one of competition for scarce resources to one of collaboration in a greater plan. In a world motivated by materialism and self-interest, the goals of being rich, being powerful, and being famous, simply by definition, necessitate one to have more money, more influence, and more attention than the common man – and therefore a race for these things competitively pits man against man. The competitive nature of working

lar to how the Country of Bhutan developed a Gross Domestic Happiness Index. Perhaps it’s creating a measurement tool of whether people feel that they’re economic actions flow from and are acting in accordance to God’s call in their life. Here, I think St. John Paul II beautifully paints this vision of this economy based on faith in his apostolic exhortation The Lay Member’s of Christ’s Faithful People.

“The eyes of faith behold a wonderful scene: that of a countless number of lay people, both women and men, busy at work in their daily life and activity, often times far from view and quite unclaimed by the world, unknown to the world’s great personages but nonetheless looked upon in love by the Father, untiring laborers who work in the Lord’s vineyard. Confident and steadfast through the power of God’s grace, these are the humble yet great builders of the Kingdom of God in history.”

assisting each other in their respective journeys, calls and destinies.

With that, I can’t help but wonder what it looks like to view economic success based on the pursuit of vocation rather than a pursuit of jobs or economic production. This surely would require different ways to measure the economy, perhaps by replacing the current measures of economic success (Gross Domestic Product, consumer spending and confidence, the stock market and the unemployment rate, etc.) with a measure simi-

What is success for our economy and what ought to be our motivation in making decisions? While many assume that self-interest and the pursuit of upward mobility in money, power, and fame is the only way to be successful in this economy, it is important to note that there are economic alternatives. The discernment of a vocation to use one’s gifts, talents, and treasures to do God’s will can not merely be dismissed as “self-interest” but is an economy of a different sort – and perhaps, one that can best provide a sense of joy for the restless soul.

Angel

Valdez

Ade Bethune

tury that confused Mary Magdalene with two other women, Mary of Bethany, but also the sinful woman who bathed the Lord’s feet with perfume. This confusion had led to some linking her name with sexuality outside marriage and even prostitution.

Miguel Pastorino wrote on the website Aleteia:

“The mistake of identifying Mary Magdalene with a repentant sinner…started with an Easter homily by Pope Gregory the Great in the year 591, in which he juxtaposed the repentant sinner of Luke 7:37 with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42), and with Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus had expelled seven demons (Luke 8:1), as if they were all the same woman…

“Many people still identify Mary Magdalene as the repentant sinner who appears in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke. She had also been identified sometimes as the adulterous woman who appears in the Gospel of John (chapter 8), but we don’t even know that woman’s name.

“From that moment on,

Mary Magdalene, Apostle To the Apostles

Magdalene the Apostle to the Apostles, Archbishop Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, described her role: “Precisely since she was an eyewitness to the Risen Christ, she was also the first to testify before the apostles. She fulfills the mandate the Risen Christ gives her: ‘go to my brothers and say to them … Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her’. In this way she becomes, as is already known, an evangelist, or rather a messenger who announces the good news of the resurrection of the Lord;

It is in the garden of resurrection that the Lord says to Mary Magdalene, “Noli me tangere.” It is an invitation not only to Mary, but also to all the Church, to enter into an experience of faith that overcomes any materialistic appropriation or human understanding of the divine mystery.

the common misconception that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, also identified with the repentant sinner who appears in Luke’s Gospel, started to appear in art, preaching, and the liturgy.”

Now St. Mary Magdalene is recognized clearly as the Apostle to the Apostles, as she had already been designated by St. Thomas Aquinas centuries ago.

The First Witness

In his commentary on the Vatican decree naming Mary

or, as Rabano Mauro and St. Thomas Aquinas said, ‘apostolorum apostola’, as she announces to the apostles what they in turn will announce to all the world. The Angelic Doctor is right to apply this term to Mary Magdalene: she is the witness to the Risen Christ and announces the message of the resurrection of the Lord, like the other apostles. Therefore it is right that the liturgical celebration of this woman should have the same level of festivity given to the apostles in

ening late after the long midnight services in our parish church, I read over the last chapter of the four Gospels and felt that I had received great light and understanding with the reading of them. ‘They have taken the Lord out of His tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him,’ Mary Magdalene said, and we can say this with her in times of doubt and questioning. How do we know we believe? How do we know we indeed have faith? Because we have seen

the General Roman Calendar, and that the special mission of this woman be highlighted, as an example and model to every woman in the Church.”

No to Materialism

Archbishop Roche reminded us that Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Lord was a spiritual one, and emphasized that reflection on that encounter should draw us away from materialism and worldly honors. He wrote:

“it is in the garden of the resurrection that the Lord says to Mary Magdalene, ‘Noli me tangere’ [Touch me not, do not cling to me. I have not yet ascended to the Father…] It is an invitation not only to Mary, but also to all the Church, to enter into an experience of faith that overcomes any materialistic appropriation or human understanding of the divine mystery. It has ecclesial importance! It is a good lesson for every disciple of Jesus: do not seek human securities and worldly honors, but faith in the Living and Risen Christ.

“St. Mary Magdalene is an example of true and authentic evangelization, that is, an evangelizer who proclaims the joyful central message of Easter.”

Dorothy Day, Mary Magdalene, and the Poor Dorothy Day wrote of Mary Magdalene in The Catholic Worker of April 1964 in an article entitled “The Mystery of the Poor:

“On Easter Day, on awak-

feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see. No ghost has flesh and bones as you can see I have.” They were still unconvinced, for it seemed too good to be true. “So He asked them, ‘Have you anything to eat?’ They offered Him a piece of fish they had cooked which He took and ate before their eyes.”

Dorothy wrote, “How can I help but think of these things every time I sit down at Chrystie Street or Peter Maurin Farm and look around at the tables filled

How do we know we believe? How do we know we indeed have faith? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them.

His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special! In that last glorious chapter of St. Luke, Jesus told His followers, “Why are you so perturbed? Why do questions arise in your minds? Look at My hands and My

with the unutterably poor who are going through their long-continuing crucifixion. It is most surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path.”

May we grow in the faith of St. Mary Magdalene and Dorothy Day.

Angel Valdez

Ziedy Harris

Visiting the Prisoner Means Sharing the Struggle Against Poverty

that almost half of a family’s monthly income is put towards rent, with just under $1,000 each month to take care of the rest of a whole family’s needs. Additionally, almost one-third of my students’ parents work jobs during the night time. This not only affects their own health and well-being but also impacting their attention to their child’s needs, development, and hope toward leaving the cycle of poverty.

A friend of mine is a single 24-year-old white American. She lives in a four-bedroom home with her parents in New York. She has a degree from a four-year university and is a registered nurse. She is employed by a non-profit organization that serves foster youth. The organization houses the youth and her role is to care for their health needs in a clinic setting. She makes $35/hour. Her co-worker is a middle-aged Latina naturalized citizen with no college education. She is married and a mother of two children. She shares an apartment with her sister and brother-in-law who have two babies under two years old. Her husband is an immigrant who struggles to find work. She works as a medical assistant, which my friend described as nearly the same role as her own. She makes $17/hour. Even in the same work environment we see that the co-worker will have barriers to raising her income status because of her education level. This has more to do with her family of origin than how hard she works.

A study from the Corporation for Enterprise Development in 2016 revealed that the median household net worth for white families is 15 times higher than black households and a similar gap holds for Asian and Latino households. The research noted access to employment, education, and home ownership/savings as contributions to the income gap.

Since our starting place, our opportunity for growth is unequal, our response cannot be the assumption of growth

solely from hard work. It must be from sharing and equalizing our opportunity. The Church believes in the world as God created it. In paragraph 86 of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, he quotes Saint Thomas Aquinas, saying “that multiplicity and variety ‘come from the intention of the first agent’ who willed that ‘what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another,’ inasmuch as God’s goodness ‘could not be represented fittingly by any one creature.’” The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us it is the will of God to depend on each other. “God wills the interdependence of creatures ...no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in the dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.” (340.)

I am not promoting one economic ideology or political agenda, but rather a purification of the misconception that the poor can and should find their way out of economic jail alone. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus shows us that His ways are not our ways. In the second chapter of Mark in the story of picking grain on the sabbath, Jesus prioritizes the human person and the authority of God over the law. Also, on the sabbath Jesus heals the man with the withered hand. Before doing so He asks a powerful question to the Pharisees wondering if it is lawful to save life rather than to destroy it. The scriptures tell us they remained silent. The reaction of Jesus is convicting. The Gospel of Mark reads, “Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored.”

When we find in our hearts the tendency to let law that destroys life be our guide, the forces in society that destroy the poor and the vulnerable, we too can stretch out our withered hand to the Lord. Heal us of our hardness of heart. Blessed are you

poor, He tells us at the sermon on the plain, for yours is the Kingdom of God. It is harder to confuse for whom is the glory when your work barely helps your family pay the rent and expenses. The blessed poor are not working to be the idolized self-made man that the American dream celebrates. Our call towards interdependence pushes us to share the chains of inequality, and propels us to make our individualistic society look more like the Kingdom of God.

https://aspe.hhs.gov/povertyguidelines

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/incomeinequality-2016_a7cf3ee4b0b87beec64154

https://www.huffingtonpost. com/entry/pull-yourself-upby-your-bootstraps-nonsense _s_5b1ed024e4b0bbb7a0e03 7d4

https://www.pewtrusts.org/ en/about/news-room/opinion/2014/01/28/spotlight-onpoverty-making-economicmobility-a-priority

https://www.pewtrusts.org/ en/research-and-analysis/video/2011/economic-mobilityand-the-american-dream

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/ history/2014/09/the_self_ made_man_history_of_a_ myth_from_ben_franklin_ to_andrew_carnegie.html

http://w2.vatican.va/content/ benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/ documents/hf_ben-xvi_ enc_20090629_caritas-inveritate.html

http://w2.vatican.va/content/ francesco/en/encyclicals/ documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/ hf_jp-ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html

Hospitality Changes the Giver

Continued from page 2

immigration, the YMCA, airports, Catholic Charities, Greyhound bus terminals, doctors, hospitals, schools, lawyers, clinics, etc. Many touching, sad, and brave stories are revealed and shared with us, often as we drive. It is an honor to be an integral part of this experience and with God’s help we pray that their healing is beginning. We continually strive to keep our house safe and welcoming.

Clinic

I also work in the clinic, where we see a multitude of undocumented people receiving medical and dental care. Our patients are so happy to see the doctors, get prescriptions for medications with refills, and have lab/blood/ultrasound work performed when necessary. Our doctors and volunteer staff are passionate about giving their time to the clinic. The patients always leave feeling better because they know that we care and that their needs are important to us.

This year I celebrate my 75th birthday. How thankful I am

Ade Bethune

to God for keeping me healthy and sound so that I am able to serve. God is good!

I will end with a quote from Dorothy Day:

“The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.”

Also, a special quote from St. Therese of Lisieux:

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

Fritz Eichenberg

There stood by the side of the cross Mary his mother (John 19:25)

by Bill Droel

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (www. kul.pl/21.html) just published The Catholic Social Ethic by St. John Paul II (1920-2005). This two-volume text of 500+ pages dates from the 1950s, when Fr. Karol Wojtyla was a young parish priest/teacher. About 300 copies were circulated around that time. Scholars have known about the text for over 20 years. Jonathan Luxmoore, an expert on Catholicism in Eastern Europe, reported on the text a dozen years ago. He recently summarized the new book for Catholic News Service (1/19/19) and for The Tablet of London (2/2/19).

Just as there are Biblical fundamentalists who selectively invoke one or another Scripture verse to support their preconceived opinion, so too there are some encyclical fundamentalists among Catholics. For example, a small but influential number of Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere

Catholicism Is Not an Ideology

pull a phrase from John Paul II or from Pope Benedict XVI to claim that Catholicism is in harmony with unrestricted

capitalism (also called neoliberalism). Similarly, a few Catholics have pulled out one another phrase to say that Ca-

Pope: Hear the Cry of the Poor

Excerpted from the Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis on the World Day of the Poor, November 18, 2018

In the midst of the storm Jesus stretches out his hand (cf. v. 31). He takes hold of Peter who, in his fear and doubt, was sinking, and cried out: “Lord, save me!” (v. 30).

We can put ourselves in Peter’s place: we are people of little faith, pleading for salvation. We are wanting in true life and we need the outstretched hand of the Lord to draw us out from evil. This is the beginning of faith: to cast off the pride that makes us feel self-sufficient, and to realize that we are in need of salvation. Faith grows in this climate, to which we adapt ourselves by taking our place beside those who do not set themselves on a pedestal but are needy and cry out for help. This is why it is important for all of us to live our faith in contact with those in need. This is not a sociologi-

cal option, the fashion of a single pontificate; it is a theological requirement. It entails acknowledging that we are beggars pleading for salvation, brothers and sisters of all, but especially of the poor whom the Lord loves. In this way, we embrace the spirit of the Gospel. “The spirit of poverty and of love – says the Council – is in fact the glory and witness of the Church of Christ” (Gaudium et Spes, 88).

Jesus heard the cry of Peter. Let us ask for the grace to hear the cry of all those tossed by the waves of life. The cry of the poor: it is the stifled cry of the unborn, of starving children, of young people more used to the explosion of bombs than happy shouts of the playground. It is the cry of the elderly, cast off and abandoned to themselves. It is the cry of all those who face the storms of life without the presence of a friend. It is the cry of

tholicism gives unqualified approval to Marxism. This new book by John Paul II got caught up in this pick-andchoose controversy, causing the long delay in publication.

The Catholic Social Ethic, along with John Paul II’s other writing and talks, shows that he never was a big fan of free market capitalism, says Luxmoore. John Paul II rejected “individualistic liberalism.” And of course John Paul II never mounted a defense of communism. Yet through study and experience of the communist regime in Poland he was well-versed in Marxist themes.

theories, extreme individualism in economics and culture, relativism (or what the White House calls alternative facts), and more.

Some Catholic leaders say they are interested in young adults. Maybe so. But does a young adult ever come upon ideas and experiences within Catholicism that suggest an alternative to emptiness and alienation? Does Catholicism have something interesting to say about the harshness of work, the arbitrariness in society or about our vacuous culture? Would a young adult ever hear themes about work expressed in spiritual terms?

all those forced to flee their homes and native land for an uncertain future. It is the cry of entire peoples, deprived even of the great natural resources at their disposal. It is the cry of every Lazarus who weeps while the wealthy few feast on what, in justice, belongs to all. Injustice is the perverse root of poverty. The cry of the poor daily grows louder but is heard less and less. Every day that cry gets louder, but every day heard less, drowned out by the din of the rich few, who grow ever fewer and more rich. In the face of contempt for human dignity, we often remain with arms folded or stretched out as a sign of our frustration before the grim power of evil. Yet we Christians cannot stand with arms folded in indifference, or with arms outstretched in helplessness. No. As believers, we must stretch out our hands, as Jesus does with us.

John Paul II, Luxmoore says, recognized that Marxism appealed to young workers because of injustices in their situations. To connect with young adults, Catholicism must have a sophisticated alternative to Marxism. It cannot merely condemn a mistaken ideology. Catholicism must furnish an approach to social justice and peace that fits the daily comings-and-goings of young adults. John Paul II, along with several other Polish theologians including Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (1901-1981), set about crafting an accessible theology of work.

In contrast to materialistic capitalism, John Paul II popularized the principle of the priority of labor over capital. That is, the worker is the subject of work; not the investment of money. Yes, investments are part of production and service delivery. But the purpose of the enterprise is the worker--inclusive of managers, owners on the scene, shop hands, janitors, truck drivers, clerks, all those who in some way fashion the service or the product.

And in contrast to materialistic communism, John Paul II outlined a spirituality of work which integrates business, family life, civic involvement and more with fidelity to Jesus’ gospel.

Young adults are familiar with today’s materialisms and other empty ideologies: careerism, cost-benefit analysis, consumer-ism, conspiracy

John Paul II’s theology of work project is suggestive, but not enough. Other theologians and particularly interested young Catholics have to take the matter a few steps further: More sources, more reflections, more conversations and for sure more focused action for justice and peace within the workaday world.

At the moment, The Catholic Social Ethic is available in Polish. Perhaps an English version can be published soon. It would be better if the English version were a summary with maybe a few pastoral comments--let’s say, 200 pages total.

Droel is editor of John Paul II’s Gospel of Work (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $7)

Sweet the nails and sweet the wood, sweet the burden on that rood (Good Friday Liturgy)

Ade Bethune

L.V. Diaz

Romero’s Theology: Liberation and Transfiguration of the Poor

flections from the gatherings of Latin American bishops beginning with the one in Medellin - but also reflects the horrendous situation faced daily by the Salvadoran people. The fruit of Romero’s studies for each Sunday homily, which he also discussed on Saturdays with his priests, was presented in the context of what was happening in the country.

One cannot overstate the situation the Archbishop faced as death squads of the rich and powerful and the government roamed at will, capturing and disappearing lay people and priests, and guerrillas organized in a desperate response to that situation The people struggled each day to survive.

Colón-Emeric notes that at Medellin the bishops were seeking to implement Vatican II in a Latin America where the vast majority of the people suffered from poverty and oppression. As they read the signs of the times, the bishops reflected that unlike in Europe where the concern facing the Council Fathers included currents of thought about the death of God, “the chief problem confronting the church in Latin America was not the death of God but the death of the people of God.”

As we looked on the faces of our new guests who again are fleeing from their homes in Central America, as Salvadorans did during the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, we thought of Colón-Emeric’s quote from one of Romero’s homilies: “The church too needs to learn to see again. It needs to learn to see Christ’s glory in the faces of campesinos without land…the faces of workers fired without cause, without enough wages to maintain their homes; the faces of the elderly; the faces of the marginalized; the faces of people dwelling in slums; the face of children who are poor and who from their childhood begin to feel the cruel bite of social injustice.’”

The Scandal of the Incarnation

The meaning of the Incarnation of El Salvador, the Divine Savior, is that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. entered history as the Word

made Flesh. Colón-Emeric compares and contrasts Romero’s insights regarding the Incarnation with those of Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the Fathers of the Church. Irenaeus, defended the reality of and wrote of the scandal of the Incarnation, the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

And, states Colón-Emeric, he defended the Incarnation against “those who believed in the hierarchical categorization of humanity and condemned life in the flesh as not worth saving.” As Hans Urs von Balthasar, who wrote a book on Irenaeus and The Scandal of the Incarnation, said, “The flesh and blood which Gnosticism so despised has been assumed by God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and glorified in the Resurrection and the Eucharist.”

One of Ireneus’ famous sayings was “Gloria Dei vivens homo…,” or “The glory of God is the living human.” Romero, reflecting on the Incarnation from the midst of the poverty and injustice in his country, where 90 percent of the Salvadoran people lacked the means for daily sustenance, declared, Gloria Dei, vivens pauper, “The glo-

behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and do not be afraid.’ And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.

robes of the Passion, then later an unveiling, with the Lord dressed in the dazzling white of the Transfiguration.

Colón-Emeric notes that “throughout most of its history, this celebration was patriotic. It became a scandal only when Romero translated it from the world of the poor. It became a stumbling block for the oligarchs who condemned the life of the poor as not worth living, and for all who were invested in the opaque and disfigured status quo.”

ry of God is the living poor.”

The Scandal of the Transfiguration

The Transfiguration was a central theme in Romero’s theology, associated with the Passion of Christ, and the Paschal Mystery.

“As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, ‘Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’ Then the disciples asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He said in reply, ‘Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”

“The church too needs to learn to see again. It needs to learn to see Christ’s glory in the faces of campesinos without land…the faces of workers fired without cause, without enough wages to maintain their homes; the faces of the elderly; the faces of the marginalized; the faces of people dwelling in slums; the face of children who are poor and who from their childhood begin to feel the cruel bite of social injustice.” - Oscar Romero

The story of the Transfiguration is recounted in the three Synoptic Gospels. Here is the text from Matthew’s Gospel:

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And

The Feast of the Transfiguration is the national feast of El Salvador, ever since Pedro de Alvarado conquered the indigenous of the area on that very Feast and named the country El Salvador, The Savior. For several centuries there has been a great national celebration on that feast day in El Salvador with parades beginning with a float with a statue of Christ dressed in purple

It was through the teaching and homilies of Archbishop Romero, facing the terrible reality in his country, that the feast came to be considered a vision for the transfiguration of the people of El Salvador. One might say that he brought to light for his time and ours the scandal of the Transfiguration.

Colón-Emeric credits Margaret Pfeil’s work as his starting point for developing this theme on the Transfiguration as central to Monseñor Romero’s theology, calling it the most conspicuous and significant exception to the lack of attention to the Transfiguration in other studies on Romero’s theology and Christology. Margaret is not only a professor at the University of Notre Dame, but a co-founder and current member of the Catholic Worker in South Bend, Indiana.

Oscar Romero’s Theological Vision traces the evolution in Romero’s homilies each year on the Feast of the Transfiguration. The homilies gradually transitioned from a traditional interpretation to one which related the transfiguration of Christ to his Passion, to his transfigured body in history and an insistence that faith and life could not be separated, especially in regard to the poor. As Colón-Emeric phrased Monseñor’s insights, “The light of the transfigured Christ has the power to transform the flesh of the poor into an icon of glory and to open the eyes of the blind to behold this glory and be changed.”

Our Responsibility as the Poor, the Image of Christ Today, Arrive on Our Doorsteps United States policies over

Continued from page 8

the past decades have contributed much to the devastation of the lands and the life of the poor (the vast majority) in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Our government’s response as the crisis for the people deepens each day is simply to build more prisons, more detention centers for desperate people and privatize them so that stockbrokers make money from their misfortune. And to try to build a wall across the whole border.

We have a responsibility now to assist the countries – and their refugee people. Catholics (with the blessing and encouragement of their bishops) in cities along on the U.S. side of the border are helping from 20 to 80 to sometimes hundreds of people daily as they are released from ICE custody to appear at a later date in court. Catholic Bishops on the border ap-

Romero: God’s Glory in the Poor

pear to reflect some of the theological under-standing of Saint Oscar Romero shared in this book.

We need to learn to see again. We need to learn to see Christ’s glory in the families refused entrance to the United States to apply for asylum after a long, terrible journey, in the faces of children separated from their parents, in the suffering parents trying to reclaim their children, in the poor children held in cages, in the children abused in immigration custody in privatized detention centers, in those who are deported to a bleak future in their own countries. And beyond, for example, in the thousands of children dying of hunger in countries like Yemen in a war in which the United States supplies the weapons.

The 36 men arrived at Casa Juan Diego at around

the same time that the news came out about JP Morgan announcing (under pressure) that they would no longer provide funds for privatized prisons and detention centers. There are glimmers of hope when people work toward the Transfiguration of the world in Christ.

Edgardo Colon-Emeric’s book demonstrates how Romero’s theology and legacy resounds well beyond the Catholic Church among other Christians. Colón-Emeric, a Methodist minister and professor of theology at Duke University, but well versed in Catholic theology, states that “the legacy of Romero is so rich that it overflows the Catholic Church itself.”

May the profound theology of Saint Oscar Romero, molded in the furnace of El Salvador, bring light to our dark times.

The Saints and Reform of the Church

by Mark Zwick

Dorothy and Peter were inspired by the lives of the saints, by those disciples of Jesus who are models for the Christian life–models of faith and courage, of prayer, of vision, of leadership in transforming society, great women and men who participated in the will and plan of God for their lives and their times.

St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most influential figures of history because of his personal concern for the poor and the oppressed, his disarmingly simple approach in dealing with the Church and with civil authorities and because the many thousands who flocked to him carried his vision to the ends of the earth

Francis wrote the book on reform and revolution. He changed the face of Europe without firing a single shot. His was a great reformation and like Attila the Hun he decided not to sack Rome to accomplish it.

Francis was totally changed by his encounter with the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of the poor.

The world flocked to this

Francis.

In the midst of church and state corruption, Franciscan little brothers and sisters emerged like flowers that rise out of dung heaps, springing up everywhere, crowding out the weeds of power and corruption.

The fire of reform burned so strongly in Francis that people thought the Church would go up in smoke. Brother Leo would caution him, “Put yourself out, Brother Francis. Put yourself out before you burn up the world.”

But Francis wanted to save the Church, not destroy it. He knew that the Church existed to make Saints in order to make the Church present in society. People need to see the splendor of their Redeemer in the faces of the Saints and in their works.

Don Divo Barsotti, confessor to Popes, says:

“Witnesses are needed to make sure that there is a living reality–the living reality created by the Saint. Without the saints the Church becomes a despotic power (I say this with a shiver), as in the frightening image of

Letters From Our Readers

Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor. Only holiness justified the Church’s teaching; otherwise even all the documents and statements of the Magisterium become empty words. There are men and women who are evident signs of a reality that is not of this world. Their differentness is thrust upon one; it is like finding oneself in front of a miracle. This is not because they are not subject to nature (they are wretches, like all others); but nature cannot explain this.

Salvation is not an assent to a generic moral code, or to the values of peace, of humanism, but to the person of Christ and to one’s own person. It is a passionate love for Christ that moves the people who meet saints.”

St. Francis is one of those saints who speaks to people of all ages and centuries. His life was a very radical adherence to the Gospel and is a continuing challenge to the Catholic Worker movement and to all Christians.

Reprinted from the Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XV, No. 5, July-August 1995.

Dear Louise,

Thank you for enlightening me about another unconscionable policy. Please accept the enclosed to help with the cost of returning another child to their family when it arises.

Vivian Estey, Houston

Dear Catholic Workers of Casa Juan Diego, Thank you so much for your publication recently sent. The articles are heart breaking, but so true. Let us pray to Fr. Hugo and his Canadian Jesuit friend to help us in today’s Church.

Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer, Somerville, Massachusetts

Good morning Doña Louise, I wanted to inform you that the lawyer called me . The good news is Naomia has been approved, now together with kids the judge can close the case

My family and I are very happy and thankful to Casa Juan Diego for all your support did for us.

Really, I am speechless for that but only one thing I remember when I decided to leave my country, one voice in

my heart sent me to Psalm 23. I am thankful for all, l don’t have a word. Thank you very much Mambuene

Dear Stephen Lucas,

Thank you for this thoughtful note. I have been reading and writing about Dorothy Day and in doing my research I came upon one of your messages. So glad to see the ongoing power and energy of the CATHOLIC WORKER.

I have also found Jesus again in my old age after turning aside for some years.

I think daily of this journey.

Keep up the good work, Norma

Thank you for all the work you do in love for Jesus and his people. Please us my donation to help care for children or to reunite them with their families.

I taught at St. Mary’s School in Marfa for two years, 1978-1980, and it was a peaceful town then. So sorry to hear that it is overrun with border security now.

Nancy Dolan, Quincy, Illinois

St. Oscar Romero