Press and Updates

March 31, 2023

[Excerpt]"Harlandale trustees have voted to close Columbia Heights, Rayburn, Morrill and Carroll Bell elementary schools at the end of the school year.... Juan Cristan came with a large group of COPS/Metro community organizers who felt the announcement of the proposal to close schools came...

March 15, 2023

[Excerpt] The Network of Texas IAF Organizations, a labor and faith coalition that has staunchly opposed using school property tax breaks for incentives... railed against the Texas Jobs and Security Act. "It looks like it was written on the back of a napkin," stated...

March 09, 2023

Over 300 leaders, clergy, religious, and bishops from 20 organizations gathered last week in San Antonio to celebrate five years of Recognizing the Stranger, a West/Southwest IAF training, leadership formation, and parish organizing strategy.  The Convocation was highlighted by a video message from Pope...

February 24, 2023

Papal Biographer Visits San Antonio to Learn About COPS/Metro, Today's Catholic [image]  

February 07, 2023

[Excerpt] "In December, legislators killed a controversial tax abatement program known as Chapter 313, but its effects will last decades.... “There’s no accountability at the statewide level; nobody administers it,” said Bob Fleming, an organizer with [T]he Metropolitan Organization of Houston who campaigned against...

February 02, 2023

At a national gathering of Catholic Social Ministers organized by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), COPS/Metro's work with San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller was featured prominently in plenary sessions and a workshop around local organizing for gun safety reform.  During a panel...

January 13, 2023

[Excerpt] We were an interfaith group of 20 lay leaders, clergy and professional organizers from the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, a representation of a decades-long tradition of community organizing in the United States, of which Catholic communities and parishes have played a major role....

January 03, 2023

[Excerpt] When Pope Francis launched his newly invigorated process for the Synod of Bishops in 2021, he challenged Catholics worldwide to "become experts in the art of encounter," saying it was "time to look others in the eye and listen to what they have...

December 04, 2022

[Excerpt] More than 400 St. Thomas More parishioners and community members participated in the St. Thomas More Parish Assembly on December 4 to grow parish leadership and respond to the needs of the community.  

October 25, 2022

A delegation of 20 leaders and organizers from the West Southwest IAF, including COPS/Metro Leaders Rose Garcia, of Our Lady of Guadalupe,  Sr. Pearl Cesar, CDP and Lead Organizer Josephine Lopez Paul, met with His Holiness to share our collective work of broad based...