I had the pleasure of speaking with George Horton yesterday on the Sirius XM radio program JustLove, which explores Catholic social justice and American society. Horton is the director of social and community development for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of New York. The interview covered a lot of ground, including my hometown, St. Anthony of Padua, Dag Hammarskjöld, and being forced to discuss my faith on airplanes (that last one is a topic also covered in a recent Of Many Things column). You can listen to the program, in its entirety, here. The interview is in two parts, and there’s a long pause after the first part (apparently the ads aren’t on the podcast) so you can just wait it out or drag the player forward a bit, if you want to listen to the whole thing.

Also featured on this episode is Eileen Higgins of Catholic Charities Chicago, speaks about some of the programs for veterans offered by her agency. She has some great insights on the struggle of female veterans, in particular, and it’s a good listen for Memorial Day weekend.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.