4 min readBy Brian Flagg, Our U.S. Congressman, Raul Grijalva, is standing tall in his opposition to the biggest trade deal of the 21st century. It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. If this aint pure unadulterated evil, I don’t know what is. Barbie Urias and I attended a packed Grijalva-organized town hall last Saturday on this subject. There was a very informative panel discussion that included Rebekah Friend, President of the State AFL-CIO, Sandy Bahr from the Sierra Club and former State legislator Phil Lopes. This pact seems to legalize multinational corporations’ ability to super-exploit, be it workers, the environment,

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

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

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