Defend DACA Today!
Join us TODAY (Thursday, Aug 31) for a national call in day to tell our elected leaders to keep the DACA program intact!
New Staff at the Quixote Center
Hello everyone! My name is Jocelyn Trainer and I am excited to serve as the International Program Coordinator at the Quixote Center this year through Loretto Volunteers. As a Loretto Volunteer I will spend my year living in an intentional community, learning about social justice and simple living, as well as exploring spirituality. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue social justice issues targeting inequitable policies and promoting peace through the Quixote Center.
Racism As a Social Sin: Excerpts from "Brothers and Sisters to Us"
“Brothers and Sisters to Us” is a pastoral letter on the topic of racism issued by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops in 1979. Some sections of the document may now feel dated, rooted as they were in the language and the context in which they were prepared. But many passages bear the same prophetic weight today as they did in the year they were composed. Below are a few passages that seem timely, relevant, and continue to challenge the Catholic Church even today. Think of all the work these words suggest and how much of that work remains to be done.
Mending Our Broken Earth: FEDICAMP in Nicaragua
Even as I write this post, we are waiting to see if the White House will reject the findings in a report on climate change prepared by scientists from 13 federal agencies. This news comes on top of the U.S.
Meet Us in Philly
On September 9, from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m., there will be a Quixote Center Garden Party in Philadelphia. We would love to have you join us!
We will be welcoming the Quixote Center's new executive director, John Marchese, and you can also get to meet the whole board, including board president Nancy Sulfridge, co-founder Dolly Pomerleau, Frank DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, Brother Frank O'Donnell, SM, and our host Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
Soil and New Life
“All of creation has been groaning”…
There is a lot of talk about soil in the bible. If you open up the lectionary for this week, you will see a passage in Isaiah on the rain and snow that fall from the heavens to water the earth, making it fertile and providing bread for food. In Matthew 13, we read about the sower who casts seed on good soil and rocky or thorny areas alike. These readings remind us that the relationship of humans to the soil is a simple fact of life on earth. We depend on soil for human life to thrive.
A Wake-up Call in the Vatican
The sexual abuse charges that have been filed against Cardinal George Pell, a high-ranking Vatican official in the Curia, raise many questions and have set off alarms about the effectiveness of Pope Francis’s response to allegations of clergy abuse of minors.
Solidarity With Migrants From Haiti and Central America
Last Friday, Save TPS Now! (¡Salvemos TPS Ahora!) conference participants and allies met with members of Congress and held a vigil in front of the White House to advocate for the renewal of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS allows the Department of Homeland Security to welcome citizens of other nations if their country of origin has become a place where living with human dignity is difficult or impossible due to conflict or natural disaster.
CSO: Next Chapter
Written by: Dolly Pomerleau and Kathleen Blank Riether, Quixote Volunteer
Catholics Speak Out (CSO), since its inception has focused on dialogue between the laity and hierarchy promoting equality and justice within the Church. We are now discerning the need for a shift and expansion in CSO’s mission as the national climate of polarization in our country based on marginalizing, scapegoating and excluding certain minority groups has intensified.
The Women’s March—Two Perspectives from Quixote Center Women
By: Dolly P.
At 75 years old, I’ve been around a few blocks more than a few times, with signs held aloft. The White House. The Pentagon. The Capitol. The Catholic bishops’ headquarters. The Vatican Ambassador’s place. The Vatican. The DC Republican headquarters. And so on.
After 40 years of pounding the pavements, I am rather jaded. When I first heard of a Women’s March on DC scheduled for January 21, 2017, I had a “ho-hum” reaction. I pledged to be there, of course, to add another body at a time when numbers mattered. But I wasn’t excited. Then…
Progress After Matthew: Yielding Change Picks up Steam
In October we watched as Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti, a country still mired in a years-long governance crisis that grew out of an earthquake in 2010. We were not optimistic about the outcome for Haiti's most vulnerable populations, the poor and the rural poor. The storm destroyed much of southern Haiti and the northwestern peninsula, but spared the heart of the country, including the densely populated capital at Port au Prince.
Blessed be: Inclusivity
My head has been solidly in two zones this past fall: the election and the intensive revision of the Inclusive Lectionary Sunday reading series. Then the zones merged into one — the use of language, and how it can cause pain to “the poor, the lame, the blind, the deaf.” and so on.
The language of the campaign was crass, insensitive, and hurtful to so many people. It objectified them, denying them their dignity as human beings. “How can I insult you? Let me count the ways” seemed to be the mantra. Group after group of people were insulted and mocked.