Three Stats and a Map - Food insecurity — "limited or uncertain" access to food — is a problem for every single county in the United States.
Notes from the Field - I've been playing sports ever since I can remember. I spent every waking minute that I wasn't in school on the softball or soccer fields and volleyball or basketball courts. These are the places I learned so many lessons and life skills that I still carry with me today: self-confidence, teamwork, commitment, and more.
One of the people who inspired me and continues to lead me to dramatic boldness was Fr. Daniel Berrigan, who recently died at 94. I recall the last time I was with him was before midnight on New Year's Eve 1999.
Two years ago, when a surge of migrants occurred, the Obama administration declared a policy of detention as deterrence. Non-criminal moms, dads and kids fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries are treated like criminals and locked up in jails.
"But with swift pace, light step and unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust, go forward securely, joyfully and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness . . ."
A Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, Karge is a graduate of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. She has practiced immigration law in Chicago for more than 30 years. She volunteers in immigration clinics in Chicago and with the CARA Pro Bono Project at the South Texas Residential Family Center in Dilley, Texas, the private prison for noncriminal asylum-seeking women and children. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
A church plan to build a nursing college in a rural village is upended when they discover the site has been turned into an illegal gold mine. The price of gold, lax regulation and an impoverished population of subsistence farmers practically guarantee against change in the West African nation.
Playwright Brian Mullin's love of theater began when he was a child growing up in a Catholic family outside of Boston. He says he used to corral the other neighborhood kids and write musical revues for them to perform. Today, Mullin is one of five writers-in-residence at Theatre503 in London, where his debut drama, "We Wait in Joyful Hope," premieres this week, starting May 17.
Many Catholics have never heard of spiritual direction, a practice of spiritual guidance that helps believers see God working in their lives. The practice, which has its roots in early Christianity, has its greatest support today from women religious and their communities.
"Human mobility, which corresponds to the natural historical movement of peoples, can prove to be a genuine enrichment for both families that migrate and countries that welcome them."