[ubipetrusest]

Catholic Worker (CW) founder Dorothy Day attempted to graft Communist ideas onto the Catholic Church. Advocates of her cause for sainthood present an idealized portrait that softsoaps this fact and emphasizes the movement's (ever dwindling) works of charity to the down and out.

Day's followers wear two hats: radical and "Catholic." They reminisce publicly about burning their draft cards in the 1960s, while younger members participate in actions such as the pro-abortion Women's March in Washington, DC, because "although we still pray for an end to abortion, we have much to thank [the feminist] movement for in terms of respect and dignity afforded all members of society" (Ric Rhetor, "The Book of Notes," "CW, March-April 2017, p. 6.)

The author reveals: "Associate editor Tom Cornell defended the late pacifist leader AJ [Muste] for his WWII era declaration: 'If I can’t love Hitler, I can’t love anyone.'” Cornell is a Catholic deacon on the Advisory Committee of the Dorothy Day Guild [for her canonization], which receives funds from the Archdiocese of New York. Martha Hennessy, Day's granddaughter is also a member.

"Pacifist" Day wrote in the September 1956 "CW": "We need to change the system. We need to overthrow, not the government, as the authorities are always accusing the Communists 'of conspiring to teach to do,' but this rotten, decadent, putrid industrial capitalist system which breeds such suffering in the whited sepulcher of New York." More information is available at the blog "Dorothy Day Another Way" and in Carol Byrne's "The Catholic Worker Movement (1933-1980): A Critical Analysis."

[utahagen]

Dorothy Day's memoir, The Long Loneliness, is worth reading. Day was a sincere convert to Catholicism and, from everything I've read, her Catholicism was orthodox. Before she converted — she had been raised nominally Episcopalian, I believe — she did live with a man she wasn't married to, had an abortion, and had a baby out of wedlock. However, Day regretted her abortion and repented of it once she became Catholic. She also was a devote mother to her daughter, Tamar (?).

As for Dorothy Day's politics, it should be pointed out that the conditions of the poor in this country were dramatically different when Day was young than they are now. Almost all of what Dorothy Day would have wanted poor people to have — food stamps, medical care, housing — long since have become entitlements in the USA, and even the most ambitious conservative Republican hopes merely to trim waste. In addition, there is social security and unemployment insurance.

While there is no arguing that Dorothy Day was a political radical by the standards of her day, the Catholic Worker folks of today who insist she would be a radical leftist — meaning far to the left of the Democrat Party — in 2017 may be off-base, perhaps even disingenuous. While one could bet Day would favor maintaining or expanding social programs, I do not believe for a moment she would compromise on the issue of abortion. She believed abortion to be murder and regretted her own abortion for both moral and religious reasons.

In any case, it would be a shame if people — Catholics and non-Catholics — didn't read The Long Loneliness because they are (understandable) put off by the beliefs of today's Catholic Worker folks. I recommend the book.