God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ.

Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world's poorest people.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.