Maureen H. O'Connell is associate professor and chair of the Department of Religion and Theology at LaSalle University. She authored Compassion: Loving Our Neighbor in an Age of Globalization and If These Walls Could Talk: Community Muralism and the Beauty of Justice. She is a member of POWER (Philadelphians Organizing to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild), an interfaith coalition of more than 50 congregations committed to making Philadelphia the city of "just love" through faith-based community organizing.