“Slum priests” continue to play an important role in many villas in Buenos Aires, helping these marginalized communities organize for social services and reforms.
Latin America
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
American hearts bleed for Ukrainians. But Latin Americans? Meh.
Do Americans care about Ukrainians because they recognize them as victims of Vladimir Putin? Do Americans need a “big baddie” to hate before we take action on behalf of the poor and persecuted?
Posted inDispatches, Faith
A Jesuit’s Palm Sunday with the ‘crucified church’ of Belize
The prayer of Father Sam Wilson is that more of his brother Jesuits will answer the call to serve in assignments on the peripheries like southern Belize. “It’s where we should be,” he says.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
In El Salvador, churches are essential to ending gang violence. But the government’s crackdown could hurt those efforts.
When gang members were asked about what they must do to exit the gang, a little over half said they must join a church or follow God.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
The immigrant neighborhood—and interfaith friendships—that made Pope Francis
The portrait of Pope Francis that emerges from conversations with his friends is that of a man as resolutely down-to-earth and dependably Argentinian as his immigrant neighborhood.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
The war in Ukraine is not as simple as good versus evil for scholars of liberation theology
While the United States and Europe have quickly elevated Vladimir Putin to the role of primary wrongdoer, many leading Catholic theorists in Latin America are not willing to promote a simple vilification of the Russian side.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Vatican in ‘pain’ at Nicaragua expulsion of papal nuncio
The Vatican on Saturday expressed “surprise and pain” at Nicaragua’s expulsion of the papal nuncio, which comes at a time of growing pressure on opposition figures in the Central American nation.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Brazilian bishop: I hope the synod will end clericalism in the church
“It is clericalism that prevents the church today from being missionary,” Bishop Cipollini said. “I have great hope that the synod on synodality can make clericalism collapse—perhaps not entirely, but at least in its major strongholds.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
El Salvador charges ex-president Cristiani in 1989 massacre of Jesuits and associates
Prosecutors announced charges against former president Alfredo Cristiani and a dozen other people, including former military officers, in the massacre. The list of charges will apparently include murder, terrorism and conspiracy.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Migrants at the U.S. border are often traumatized. JRS provides the mental health services they desperately need.
The limbo experienced by asylum seekers waiting to be admitted to the United States and the traumatic experiences that forced them to leave their home country in the first place take a profound psychological toll.