In 2005 and 2006, my wife and I led a group of high school and college students to Guatemala for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. We learned about Mayan culture and what refugees endured during a 36-year civil war, and we saw firsthand the widespread poverty, unemployment, and other social problems (substance abuse, domestic violence, gang activity,… Read More Migrants Are Fighting for Survival
I am the product of 14 years of Jesuit education. I see the world through the lenses of Cura Personalis and “Women and Men for and with Others.” I am who I am because of Jesuits – and many lay partners in mission – aspiring to be ever more attentive and responsive to God’s activity… Read More Learning and Living Magis
One of my professors in graduate school defined sin as a “failure to bother to love.” In this description of sin, Rev. James Keenan, SJ, invites us to consider sin less in terms of breaking rules and more in terms of what we fail to see, think, feel, say, and do. Looking at our southern… Read More Manufactured Fear vs. the Christian Call to Solidarity: Failing to Bother to Love
Do you remember where you were five years ago, when the white smoke signaled that the College of Cardinals had selected the successor to Pope Benedict XVI? I do. I was standing in the campus ministry office at Boston College, dumbfounded at hearing that the conclave has chosen a pope from Latin America … a… Read More The Mercy Pope: Five Takeaways from His First Five Years
Earlier today, Pope Francis released a message for the Church in preparation for the First World Day of the Poor, to be celebrated on November 19th. This particular Sunday—two weeks before the beginning of Advent and the Sunday before the Feast of Christ the King, which concludes the liturgical year—is given focus by the gospel… Read More Love Has No Alibi: Pope Francis Announces First World Day of the Poor Message
On May 4, Congressional Republicans gathered in the Rose Garden at the White House to celebrate a 217-213 vote to pass H.R. 1628 (the American Health Care Act, or the AHCA) that finally accomplished something they had tried more than 50 times before: to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as “Obamacare” (even though… Read More The AHCA Doesn’t Meet Catholic Social Teaching, Pro-Life Standards
A few weeks ago, a CNN poll showed that 85% of Americans reported the country is more divided now than in recent years. More than half said they are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in our country. January 20, 2017 will be a microcosm of our divided nation: millions of Americans will be… Read More Faithful Discipleship: Beyond Resistance to President Trump
Millennial 