Casa Maria, Author at Casa Maria Soup Kitchen

SORRY POPE FRANCIS, FOR WOMEN THERE IS STILL NO JUSTICE IN THE CHURCH

Casa Maria May 26, 2015

4 min readBarbara is a leader of The Just Faith group at Our Mother of Sorrows and has done food pick-ups for Casa Maria for many years. By Barbara Padilla-Bassett, Yes I too have read the Joy of the Gospel and find it refreshing to hear Pope Francis implore us to live the Catholic Social teachings in our parishes and everyday lives. My parish in particular has even re written their mission statement to align more with Francis’ wishes for a more mission minded church. But as a Catholic woman I cannot look past the fact that even though these are monumental

EDUCATION FUNDING HELD HOSTAGE BY GOVERNOR

Casa Maria May 25, 2015

3 min readBy Cesar Aguirre, Last week Governor Ducey spoke to some of the state’s highest ranking business groups: Greater Phoenix Leadership, the Flagstaff Forty and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. This probably doesn’t surprise you, but Ducey’s threat to the group might. He made it very clear that if any of the business groups tried practicing their constitutional right of pursuing a ballot initiative to increase education funding that he, and the dark money backing him, would fight them vigorously. The business leaders in attendance felt very threatened by this. Read about it here: http://azc.cc/1HhZno7 In 2012 there was a ballot

MY DAUGHTER ALISSA’S NEW HERO

Casa Maria May 21, 2015

3 min readBy Cesar Aguirre, A few months back I remember my daughter Alissa coming to me with much excitement to tell me about a remarkable woman they were studying in history. She was fascinated by the strong will of this female role model and all of the accomplishments achieved by her in spite of her disabilities. I too remember studying the life of Helen Keller when I was in school and was inspired to do some more research in order to have deeper conversations with my daughter on the subject. What I found was a great surprise. Like most history taught

TREO EXPLOITING WORKERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER?

Casa Maria May 20, 2015

3 min readBy Brian Flagg, So, TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities) has now changed its name to Sun Corridor Inc.? (Page 1 Star May, 20, 2015). Seems to me like an admission that they are acknowledging that they are largely useless and mostly incompetent and making a change in their brand name is something that makes them a bit more relevant? I do admit that Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO is competent in pimping himself a salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars and getting a brand new office on East River Road. Joe and TREO insist that the name

ONE COUNCILMANS QUEST TO PUNISH TRANSIT AND ENRICH DOWNTOWN DEVELOPERS

Casa Maria May 18, 2015

3 min readBy Jimmy Ojeda Shame on Councilman Kozachik for trying once again to balance the budget on the backs of the poor! According to him the City of Tucson should prioritize and move in the right direction, by increasing bus fares and cutting services. In his last newsletter dated May 11, 2015 he wrote: “We have to take a serious look and simply stop doing that which is beyond our core responsibility (but transit is one of his core responsibilities!) If we added a 10% fare increase to the base fare, we’d add another $730K in revenues that would go to

A LESS THAN COMFORTABLE JESUIT NOVICE COMES TO TUCSON!

Casa Maria May 14, 2015

4 min readBy Jack McLinden – May 2015 I’m a Jesuit novice (aka Catholic priest-in-training), and I’m traveling on my “pilgrimage” right now, which has led me to Casa Maria! The Jesuits send us out one-by-one with $35 and a one-way bus ticket, and tell us to come back in a month. The pilgrimage is all about really developing our trust in God, and one of the greatest gifts for me has been the people I have met along the way. The people here at Casa Maria have welcomed me on my journey, and they have also really challenged me. My few

POPE FRANCIS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Casa Maria May 12, 2015

2 min readBy Brian Flagg, We here at Casa Maria are eagerly anticipating the Holy Father’s upcoming encyclical on environmental issues such as climate change. Pope Francis said recently that it was practically finished but needed only to be translated into various languages before it could be published. Hopefully it will read something like this cartoon from the National Catholic Reporter (May 8, 2015). And I bet that if the Holy Father lived in Tucson he would greatly appreciate the Tony Davis articles in the Daily Star on Sunday, May 10th and Monday, May 11th. In these stories Tony demonstrates how huge moneyed

NOW THIS IS EVANGELISM!!!

Casa Maria May 11, 2015

2 min readBy Brian Flagg, VIVA Raul! VIVA Fidel! VIVA CUBA! VIVA el PAPA FRANCISCO! In case you missed it, Cuban President Raul Castro visited Papa Francisco yesterday at the Vatican. They spoke in Spanish. He went to thank the Papa for helping to get the U.S. to lighten up on Cuba! Papa Francisco will visit Cuba in September en route to the United States. Raul said at a news conference, “I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church, and I’m

SPIRITUAL POWER

Casa Maria May 7, 2015

3 min readBy Brian Flagg, The summer before last I went to the 8 day silent retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, CA and somewhat arrogantly proclaimed to my young Jesuit seminarian spiritual director that “I’m here to gather spiritual power to unleash on a corrupt political and economic system that persecutes my people, the poor and working people”. Something to that effect. After 2 eight day silent retreats there and especially after last summer’s 30 day silent retreat, I can still totally relate to that proclamation, but hopefully with a much more contrite and humble heart, one that

Congratulations to Barbie Urias

Casa Maria May 6, 2015

< 1 min readBy Brian Flagg, Congratulations to Barbie Urias, long time South Tucsonan and soldier in the struggle. She also gets the coffee out to all our diners at 6:45 every morning. After raising 7 kids and 19 grandchildren, she has finally finished college! She is graduating from Pima College with a degree making her a Paralegal (legal assistant). She had a great graduation celebration last Sunday at Reid Park, complete with a DJ, a keg, mucha familia and cecivhe made by las chicas de Casa Maria! ______________________ Por Brian Flagg, Felicitaciones a Barbie Urias, quien es una Sur Tucsonense desde hace

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