Voices
Jim McDermott, Los Angeles Correspondent
Jim McDermott, S.J., studied literature at Marquette and Harvard University and Old Testament and Liturgy at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. A former teacher at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Associate Editor at America, Father McDermott recently
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Articles By Jim McDermott
A cyclist passes the row of tents and tarps along the Santa Ana riverbed near Angel Stadium on Sept. 14 in Anaheim, Calif. Amid an uproar from residents, the city of Anaheim declared an emergency in an attempt to cope with a ballooning homeless encampment along a popular riverbed trail and speed the addition of shelter beds. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Politics & Society Dispatches
Tent City, USA: Southern California’s homelessness crisis
Jim McDermottSeptember 18, 2017
It is not only Anaheim, but Southern California as a whole that finds itself in the midst of a homelessness emergency.
Students at Our Lady of Loretto school in Los Angeles during an “Aid for Ecuador” April 21, 2016 event organized by the Los Angeles Missionary Childhood Association. Photography by Victor Alemán
Politics & Society Dispatches
How L.A.’s Catholic schools are growing when so many others are closing
Jim McDermottSeptember 13, 2017
“Our vision is growth. We’re the largest archdiocese in the country, largest Catholic school system in the country, and we still feel like we’re underserving our population."
Politics & Society
Twenty years after her death, Princess Diana is still a glimpse of something good.
Jim McDermottAugust 30, 2017
The thing you hear again and again about Diana is that like Pope Francis, she “saw” the people around her.
Arts & Culture Television
Game of Thrones has a serious point to make about Hurricane Harvey and climate change
Jim McDermottAugust 28, 2017
Climate change is the real battle before us, a battle quite possibly against extinction. It sounds ridiculously fantastic to put it like that; if only we had dragons and a Night King to help us believe.
Two people comfort Joseph Culver of Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12 as he kneels at a late night vigil to pay his respects for a friend injured in a car attack on counter-protesters rallying against white nationalists. (CNS photo/Jim Bourg, Reuters)
Politics & Society Dispatches
Charlottesville and Trump: A spiritual exercise for the overwhelmed and exhausted
Jim McDermottAugust 16, 2017
How do you continue to “bear witness” when every three or four days there is another crisis?
Politics & Society Dispatches
Does divestment evangelize or enable the fossil-fuel industry?
Jim McDermottAugust 07, 2017
One option for promoting just business practices is divestment, but investing to gain a seat at the corporate table is also an important advocacy strategy.
Arts & Culture Culture
Disney parks want us to escape reality, but real-world conflicts are sometimes unavoidable
Jim McDermottJuly 13, 2017
Last month, Disney announced that it would remove the "wench auction" from its popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Some fans were not happy.
Courtesy of Netflix
Arts & Culture Television
‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ invites us to the land of the happy fools
Jim McDermottJune 28, 2017
‘Kimmy’ takes on everything about life that is hard and makes it all so much bigger and more absurd.
Faith Dispatches
Want to keep your homilies fresh? Take a page from Louis C. K.
Jim McDermottJune 27, 2017
I’ve only been a priest for 13 years. How could I possibly be at the point that I am just recycling ideas?
Los Angeles ordinations in 2017. Photo courtesy of the Jesuit Conference.
Faith Dispatches
The Francis effect on Jesuit mergers: Being more present and going to the margins
Jim McDermottJune 21, 2017
The consolidation is a work in progress. The brethren have mixed feelings about it, and their provincials know it.