Marcus Mescher

The Trump administration is rolling out a new narrative about its aid program: Aid continues! More effective than ever! Trade over aid! And it's nonsense. Trump and Musk destroyed a program that was saving a life once every 10 seconds on average. This has been Trump's most lethal policy, and now he's doubling down by withholding vaccines from poor countries -- like a $3 vaccine against malaria, and a $4 vaccine against cervical cancer. Some 600,000 will die just from that. "Trade over aid" sounds fine, but what it means in practice is that if Zambia doesn't agree to sell copper and cobalt to American companies, we'll withhold lifesaving aid from Zambian villagers. Here's my column on the hollowness of Trump's attempt to dress up his destruction of humanitarian aid, after a year to assess results: nytimes.com/2026/05/09/opi…

Happy Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. To honor him, advocate for the rights of workers, unions and labor, all part of Catholic social teaching. Image: Ade Bethune.

The demanding witness of Dan Berrigan in a world at war americamagazine.org/faithinfocus/2…

1st station: "Every person in authority will have to answer to God for the way they exercise their power." Jesus says, "whatever you do to another human being, especially to the small & vulnerable, you do unto me. And it is to me that you will one day give an account."

#PopeLeoXIV: Jesus “revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving Himself, He allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.” vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…

Gaza: 96% of children say they feel death is imminent. After more than two years of war & relentless violence, young Palestinians face a deepening mental health emergency. Girls are at particular risk, including a rise in child marriage, @UNFPA reports. news.un.org/en/story/2026/…

“The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they're gonna live.” -Pete Hegseth There is no version of Christianity that can defend this. Rebuke it, in the name of Jesus… the Prince of Peace.

I encourage you to read my statement, “A Call to Conscience” archchicago.org/en/statement/-…

Lord have mercy on us, sinners

I wake up to Trump and Israel bombing Iran… hitting a girls elementary school, and now 53 little girls are dead. That should be the headline, because that’s the reality. Grown men start a pointless war, while little girls pay the price.

This PSA is being released today by survivors of Epstein’s child rape trafficking in anticipation of Ghislaine Maxwell’s closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee Monday and AG Bondi testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday:

Racist caricatures have always circulated in American life. What makes this a crisis is that it came from the presidency—the office that symbolically represents the entire nation. 1/

Righteous anger—expelling the filth and corruption without harming anyone and getting killed for it.

It’s heartbreaking to see Renee Good and Alex Pretti — who model such compassion, courage, and solidarity — executed in the street by federal agents. And then for officials in the White House to lie to the American people only heaps more evil upon evil. nytimes.com/2026/01/25/opi…

On MLK Day, @revdrbarber reminds us that we honor Dr. King by reaching down into the blood, picking up the baton, and continuing to carry the work forward.

A cartoon about my father from the 1960s. At the time he was assassinated, a poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in the United States. Today, his message has been distorted by many who would have hated him then, but evoke him now to deter justice and truth. #MLKDay #MLK #TheKingCenter #HistoryMatters #ReThinkKing

.@CardinalBCupich, @CardinalJWTobin, and Cardinal McElroy call for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” in which “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.” nytimes.com/2026/01/19/us/…

If people refuse to make room for others — like the poor, children and the stranger — then they also refuse to make room for God, Pope Leo XIV said as he celebrated the birth of Jesus. bit.ly/4q4G6nw

There's supposed to be a ceasefire in Gaza. So why do Gazan children continue to be killed? nytimes.com/2025/12/24/wor…