María Celeste is a reporter in the Fall 2024 Sojourners Journalism Cohort. Learn more about the program.
María Celeste Masís Ocampo (she/her) is a Costa Rican writer and journalist currently pursuing degrees in Integrated Marketing Communications and English with a writing emphasis at John Brown University in Arkansas. Though born and raised in Costa Rica, María Celeste has lived in five different countries throughout the Americas, an experience she believes has given her “cultural souvenirs” that have shaped her into the person she is today.
As news editor for The Threefold Advocate, the university’s student-run newspaper, María Celeste focuses on covering international news tailored for an American audience, aiming to educate and broaden perspectives. She strives to highlight important issues affecting underrepresented communities, bringing her unique multicultural lens to her work.
When she’s not writing or editing, María Celeste enjoys exploring art and creativity through poetry writing and graphic design. She is also an avid reader and film enthusiast, with a particular fondness for sitcoms.
Posts By This Author
Trump Administration Erases Page Honoring Trailblazing Priest, Lawyer, and Activist
Photograph of Pauli Murray. Murray sent this photo to Eleanor Roosevelt in December 1955. Photo by the FDR Presidential Library & Museum and used with permission.
Faith leaders, historians, and advocates are speaking out after the National Park Service removed its webpage dedicated to Rev. Pauli Murray, a pivotal figure in civil rights history who broke barriers as both a legal scholar and the first perceived Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest.
Meet the Christians Countering ‘Your Body, My Choice’
Supporters of legal abortion rights gathered in Freedom Plaza and marched to the White House on Jan. 20, 2024. Robyn Stevens Brody/Sipa USA via Reuters
Megan Boyd wasn’t surprised when she first heard her child Daisy describe the phrase “your body, my choice” being used at school. Saddened, yes. Disappointed, absolutely. But for Boyd, the surge in misogynistic rhetoric following the election was just another sign of a growing boldness she’d seen in her New Hampshire town.
‘Justice Still Has Not Been Done Here.’
Jesuit Father Patrick Hyland celebrates Mass at Hospice Divina Providencia where Saint Óscar Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass. Photo by Jorge Palacios, Jr., courtesy Ignatian Solidarity Network.
When Ryan Medina stepped off the plane in San Salvador, capital city of El Salvador, he felt the thrill of being in a new country. He was eager to meet the fellow pilgrims he’d only known online and excited about the journey ahead. But as their van left the bustling city streets and began the drive to the gravesite of four U.S. churchwomen, the atmosphere shifted.
“I realized we were quite literally retracing the same route these women took after they were picked up from the airport on the night they were ambushed and killed,” said Medina, a teacher at Loyola Blakefield High School near Baltimore, Md.
The ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ Hoping to Sway the Election
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris briefly takes to the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS/ABACAPRESS.COM via Reuters)
While evangelical political engagement remains solidly in favor of Republicans, a group of evangelical leaders are organizing their support for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in the upcoming presidential election.