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Nice profile of local Catholic Worker and awesome person Patty Angevine in the Telegram and Gazette. Among other things, she co-founded the great soup kitchen at St. John’s. (Note that it’s rarer than you might think for Catholic Workers, like Patty, to work professionally in social services.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Michael Iafrate makes the case against Thanksgiving, then admits:

. . . I am not about to be so politically smug that I would simply refuse to participate in my own family’s traditions.

Me neither. I love celebrating a fall feast with family, and I love celebrating a utopia in which natives and immigrants could co-exist. I’d embrace a chance to have a more honest celebration without giving up the joy.

Don’t forget that the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day. I’ll be doing my bit to “keep the Christ in Christmas” by keeping myself out of the mall. For a great example of a joyous Buy Nothing Day, see Mark Dixon’s 49 Hours at Wal-Mart.

Worcester Police on Twitter

The WPD’s Twitter feed makes me wonder when we’ll see our first Worcester crime blogger. Seems like anyone could gather quite a bit of info with a computer, police scanner, and telephone.

River Sims
Thanks to River Sims and Mike the intern for a wonderful, unexpected tour of San Francisco last week.

If you’re interested in the Catholic Worker movement in 2009, you might want to read about River’s ministry, read his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

Michael Spencer on the death of Michael Jackson
From the Internet Monk podcast:

We should remember how many people came to Christ because they had concluded that the gods of the old world were empty and meaningless. Our task is to keep Jesus from being one of the gods of the old world.

Amen.

Bonus mp3 link: Stale Urine covers “Billie Jean”

Organizing a Janitor’s Union in Worcester: July 8, 7pm, 52 Mason St
A presentation at the SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker:

Chris Patterson, a community organizer with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, will speak about the campaign to expand membership in Worcester’s union of janitors. Discussions and refreshments to follow. The event is free and open to the public. All are welcome. For more information, please call 508 753-3588.

“Pope Calls for New Economic Order”
Dave Griffith:

So, I know that the any headline that begins with “Pope” is going to be divisive–either you’re on the bus or off right away. But I think the new encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” ( “Charity in Truth”) should be of great interest to many, Catholic or not, because it calls for an end to capitalism as we know it.

Haven’t read this encyclical yet. Will revisit the topic when I do.

Last week, a friend asked: Do Catholic Workers go to church? His impression was that the answer was No, and that “not going to church was part of the thing.”

I would say, by-and-large, the answer is Yes.

• The Catholic Worker movement is decentralized, and there’s nobody in a position to enforce these things.
• Many folks in Catholic Worker communities are not Catholic or not church-goers.
• That said, based on visits to dozens of communities and meetings with hundreds of Catholic Workers, I think that most Catholic Workers are at least occasional churchgoers.
• Some Catholic Workers make churchgoing a priority. Co-founder Dorothy Day attended mass every day. There are Catholic Workers who are priests, nuns, and deacons. On this website, we have archived many homilies from masses at the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker in Worcester. I think most of those who go to mass there on Fridays also attend at their own churches on Sundays.

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This week’s This American Life has a great piece on activist Brandon Darby, who became an FBI informant whose work led to the conviction of 2 young RNC 2008 protesters.

I’d never heard of him before fellow RNC arrestee Drew Wilson told me about him; turns out several of my friends worked with him and admired him.

If you’ve listened to the radio piece, it’s worth reading Scott Crow’s critique. (Scroll past the first few comments to see it.)

Worcester Chopped Sea Clams
Holmes looks up trademarked items named after Worcester.

The Foundation of All Activism . . . Dental Floss
Erik Marcus makes a point about taking care of yourself.

P&C’s Michael Paulukonis was part of the team behind Skipscreen, the red-hot “free Firefox add-on that lets you skip all the clicking and waiting on sites like RapidShare, Zshare, MegaUpload, and Sharebee.” 120,000 downloads this week–congrats!

Mozart: music pirate
Charming musical post about “Gregorio Allegri’s arrangement of Psalm 51″ from Rocco Palmo, just in time for Holy Week.

Are protests effective?
Management prof Brayden King says yes. I’m eager to dig into the research to see if any strategies seem to be more effective than others.
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