by Sue Weishar, PhD

by Nik Mitchell, PhD

Senate Bill 142 and House Bill 141 propose to eliminate capital punishment in Louisiana during this Legislative session. Overall, capital punishment is inherently immoral because it violates the condemned’s right to life. It is also a pointless practice, not a deterrent for crime, and a waste of money, time, and manpower. In conceptualization and practice, capital punishment is a continued exercise in futility and too often is an expression of White privilege.

Working families seek economic security, meaning that they earn enough to pay for basic living expenses while saving enough to pay for larger and longer-term costs. Increasingly in the United States workers and their families are not able to achieve this security, especially minority households. This pattern is particularly prevalent in Mississippi. The reasons for the gap in what Mississippi families earn and what they need are multifaceted. The State of Working Mississippi 2016 analyzes trends in population, education, labor force, jobs, employment, wages, income, and poverty.

by Fred Kammer, SJ 

On Thursday, February 11, 85 concerned Mississippians gathered in the parish center at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson for the annual Catholic Day at the Capitol.  Three issues were the focus of the advocacy gathering: adequate funding for the child welfare system in Mississippi; support for the maintenance of community-based mental health services; and raising adequate revenues to meet the State’s duties towards the common good.  

A ten year retrospective - Part 2

by Fred Kammer, SJ

Public Schools. New Orleans public education “can claim the most dramatic before-and-after Katrina picture.”[1] In the 1950s and 60s, whites fled integration to private and parochial schools. Middle-class blacks followed. The pre-Katrina system was 94% African-American with 73% qualifying for free and subsidized lunches. Orleans Parish public schools ranked 67th out of 68 Louisiana districts in math and reading. 62% of students attended schools rated “failing.”[2] Corruption was widespread.  

By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

A major criticism leveled against recent newcomers to the United States is that they are “takers” creating an economic drain on the nation. Not only are they takers, critics lament, but also categorically “illegal,” echoing past racist associations of criminality with African-Americans and many other people of color.

The Regressive Nature of State-Local Tax Systems

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

In the news lately are calls by Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and other governors to eliminate their state personal and corporate income taxes and to substitute higher sales taxes in plans that will remain “revenue neutral” (namely, no additional income, just shifting tax burdens). To assess such plans morally, one needs to look first at the current state-local tax burdens of state populations. Then we can assess the impact and morality of proposed changes.

Executing a Life and Human Dignity

By Alex Mikulich Ph.D.

DeSoto District Judge Robert Burgess set an execution date for Christopher Sepulvado for Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013. Sepulvado, 69, has served twenty years on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. 

A DeSoto Parish jury imposed the death penalty on Sepulvado in 1993 for the March 8, 1992 death of his stepson Wesley Allen Mercer, age 6.  Court documents describe the torture the preschooler endured for days leading to his death.

A Framework for Faithful Citizenship

Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

Celebrating The Church in the Modern World

by Fred Kammer, SJ

On October 11, 2012, we observed the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council—an event in Church and world history that is unprecedented in many ways.  It was the largest and longest meeting ever held—over 2,000 bishops, cardinals, and other prelates meeting for four months every fall over the course of four years.  Moreover, the tone and texture of its documents were like nothing before and have shaped public discourse in the Church ever since.