At Sugar Creek 2025, Good Conversations and Plenty of Fun Refresh Catholic Workers
About 75 people attended the 2025 gathering this past weekend; Jerry Windley-Daoust shares the highlights.
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Catholic Workers Heal Souls and Soil Across America
A “green revolution” was an integral part of Peter Maurin’s vision for the Catholic Worker. Today, it’s not just rural Catholic Worker farms that attempt to bring that vision to life; many urban houses of hospitality are also tapping into his philosophy…and harvesting more than just food for the table.
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‘If You Can Do It, I Can, Too’: Peter Maurin House Shows How Vibrant Community Life Is Possible for All
The aims and means of the Catholic Worker movement shouldn’t be a niche calling, says Colin Miller; in fact, they can be the basis for a more joyful, satisfying communal life for all Christians. And at the Peter Maurin House CW, two families are trying to live out that vision.
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‘They’re Trying to Gaza-ify the West Bank’: An Interview with Mark Colville
Mark Colville was one of three Catholic Workers who traveled to the West Bank as part of a larger international, interreligious peace delegation at the end of August. Their mission was to provide a protective presence for the Palestinians living in the West Bank at a time when Israel has dramatically stepped up attacks there. (According to the United Nations, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 600 people in the West Bank this year.) Here’s a transcript of Colville’s interview with Jerry Windley-Daoust for the Catholic Worker Roundtable newsletter.
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Illegal Land Seizure Relied on Forged Title and Bribes, CW Activist Says
Catholic Worker activist Elizabeth Nakiwolo continues to recover from her 80-day extralegal detention after being released last week. Meanwhile, Michael Setikoleko explained details surrounding the illegal land grab that displaced 37 families.
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Catholic Workers Bring Messages of Peace, Repentance to National Eucharistic Congress
The Catholic Worker had a tiny presence at the National Eucharistic Congress last week in Indianapolis, with about twenty Workers and pilgrims coming together in a park near the Indiana Convention Center for a picnic supper and roundtable.
But despite those small numbers, most of the 50,000 people attending the Congress got to hear about the Catholic Worker Movement and Dorothy Day.
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Ugandan CW Sekitoleko Detained, Tortured, Following Intervention in Illegal Land Grab
Michael Sekitoleko, founder of Uganda Catholic Worker, was released after being detained for 28 days for intervening in an illegal land seizure. He and other activists were arrested, mistreated, and tortured. Despite his efforts to aid peasant families, corruption and land seizures remain rampant in Uganda. Sekitoleko seeks financial and international support.
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Christ Room Hospitality is about Relationships and Family, Hosts Say
Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin called for every Christian household to have its Christ room. What would it be like if even a fraction of Christian households adopted the ancient practice of opening up a room to someone in need? Generally, people object to the idea on practical grounds. And yet, some people have taken the leap and found the experience to be deeply enriching and rewarding, if not always without its stresses and problems. Their stories provide a glimpse of what it might look like to realize Peter and Dorothy’s original vision in which hospitality was a habit of every Christian community.
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After Arrests, Students Renew Call for Notre Dame to Follow Catholic Teaching on War, Investments
At the University of Notre Dame, student protesters and their allies are drawing on Catholic social teaching and the Catholic Worker tradition to press the university to divest from companies that violate Catholic teaching on war and the arms trade. The South Bend Catholic Worker has been providing practical and pastoral support.
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At the Factory That Makes Parts for World War III, Protesters Call for a Change of Heart
In the pre-dawn hours on Monday, April 15, dozens of Catholic Workers and their allies gathered at the Kansas City National Security Campus. Their mission was to beg the workers there to stop assembling the parts necessary for a global nuclear war.
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Biogas, Solar, Creativity, and a Joyful Spirit Fuel Sustainable Living on Peter Maurin Farm
On Peter Maurin Farm near Brisbane, Australia, the Dowling family has created a comfortable, joyful way of life with a low environmental impact. Through a variety of creative adaptations, they consume less than 1/20th the amount of energy as their Australian neighbors. Here’s how they do it.
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In Kenya, a Catholic Worker for Those with Mental Illness
It took Japheth Obare ten years to receive the right diagnosis for his psychotic episodes. Faced with desperately scarce mental health resources in his native Kenua, he set out to create a group for people with mental illness to help one another. Now, Catholic Friends of the Mentally Ill is only the second Catholic Worker community in Africa…and the only one anywhere run by and for people with mental illness.
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What’s Next for the Uganda CW: How about a House…and a Farm?
In the third part of our series, “The Catholic Worker in Africa,” Uganda Catholic Worker founder Michael Sekitoleko dreams of creating a sustainable, revitalized community—in spite of a skeptical priest and a stalled fundraising campaign.
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Goodbye, Holy Family CW; Hello, Rechabite CW
Sean and Monica Domencic, co-founders of the now-dissolved Holy Family CW in Lancaster, are starting something new: the Rechabite Catholic Worker.
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At the Uganda Catholic Worker, Healing and Hope
In the second part of our series, “The Catholic Worker in Africa,” founder Michael Sekitoleko carries on the work of the Uganda Catholic Worker in the wake of his two co-founders departing. One of the ways he copes is by forming his guests into an ad-hoc community with set routines and responsibilities. But when COVID-19 hits, the community is overwhelmed by people desperate for help.
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The Catholic Worker in Africa: ‘We Need It Now More Than Ever’
Michael Sekitoleko, founder of the Uganda Catholic Worker, embraces the Catholic Worker vision of a society radically re-ordered around love, mercy, and justice, and he has ideas about what that might look like not only in Uganda, but for the African continent.
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Dixon Hopes Israeli Settler’s Trial Draws Attention to Attacks on Palestinians
“These settlers act with impunity because Israel has impunity in the world, and they have that because of the U.S.,” Cassandra Dixon (Mary House CW) says. She hopes the September 7 trial of the Israeli settler who attacked her might help to change that.
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Heard Around the Catholic Worker #9
In this issue: A new Catholic Worker in St. Louis; Claire Schaeffer-Duffy reports on her trip to Ukraine as part of the Zaporizhzhia Protection Project; St. Francis House plans a nine-day celebration for its 50th anniversary; “The Provocations of Dorothy Day” by Kate Hennessy; Vatican covers 90ths anniversary of CW; and much more.
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Great Turning CW Reaches Goal, Acquires 2nd House
After raising more than $195,000 to purchase a second house, The Great Turning CW turns to the work of hospitality and expanding its urban farming operation.
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Heard Around the Catholic Worker (#8)
In this issue: The Institute for Religious Peace and Justice changes its name to honor Jim Forest; Amistad Catholic Worker raises money for tiny houses; Theo Kayser is live-blogging the Catholic Worker Eurogathering; and Brian Terrell makes the case that Catholic Worker communities need to go beyond “hyper-local” activism.
