Dorothy Day is a woman I greatly admire. She died in New York city in November 1980. She was well- known in Catholic circles in the USA. She is not so well known outside the USA but she is much admired for her commitment to justice, to serving the homeless and to bringing about a peaceful world. She had a strong social conscience. Some are working to have her declared a saint.
Dorothy was born in 1897 in New York City. Her family were not well off. She was not born into the Catholic religion. She was born into a free-thinking, non-religious family. After school she wanted to be a writer and journalist. She lived a bohemian life-style.
She was a thinker. She was socialist in outlook and admired those who worked for justice and equality in society. As well as writing for radical publications she soon became an activist – going on protests and pickets against war and racism.
She then went to live and work with some radicals in Chicago. She married and was divorced. She returned to live in New York where a great change was to take place in her life.
In 1927 when she was 30 years of age, she decided to become a Catholic. On 28th December 1927 she was baptised in the Catholic Church, much to the surprise of her friends and her family.
Before she became a Catholic she had a relationship with a man and she gave birth to a child whom she named Tamar. When she decided to have her baby baptised in the Catholic Church, the man left her. She continued to rear the child on her own.
In 1932, Dorothy met a French man called Peter Maurin who shared many of her radical views. He was a committed Catholic and together they decided to start a house for the homeless in New York city. They called it the Catholic Worker house. They also started a newspaper which they called “The Catholic Worker” in order to make their ideas and their work better known. The monthly paper sold for a cent and still does to this day. They also secured a small farm to grow their own vegetables.
Soon small groups of committed people were setting up Catholic Worker houses in all the major cities in the USA. People active in the Catholic Worker movement are still very involved working for peace and justice as well as in caring for the hungry and the homeless.
Alongside this charitable work for the poor and homeless, Dorothy joined the civil disobedience movement against War and against nuclear weapons. She became friendly with other resisters like Thomas Merton and the brothers Fr Phil and Fr Dan Berrigan.
Of course, not all Catholics admired her. Because she was opposed to the US army fighting a war in Vietnam where thousands of innocent women and children were being killed, many conservative Catholics who supported the military refused to support the Catholic Worker movement.
Dorothy protested against the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The arms industry is very powerful in the United States and is backed by many members of the Catholic and other Christian churches including ministers of religion.
Those who want to see change in the world –especially change with regard to the arms industry which supplies guns to Israel and many other countries, are up against the power and propaganda of the State.
Dorothy also opposed the official Catholic Church’s support for war. The Catholic Church had a teaching called ‘the Just war’ which allowed governments to engage in war in certain circumstances. Many Catholics supported the American war in Vietnam. Dorothy and other Peace activists opposed the Church’s official position. In support of her pacifist stance Dorothy quoted the words of Jesus to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Put your sword back in its scabbard”.
Because of her opposition to war and the arms industry she lost many supporters who had supported the Catholic worker in the charitable work she and her volunteers were doing to find food and shelter for the homeless. It was all right to look after the homeless – but for some it was not OK to oppose the US government’s involvement in war and killing in places like Vietnam.
Dorothy Day was a woman who believed that the Gospel was truly good news for the poor. Because of that radical faith she devoted most of her life to opposing war and the arms industry as well as to providing shelter for homeless men and women. She had the courage to take on the power of the state, the military and at times the official Catholic Church.
Dorothy Day has inspired many people to follow in the footsteps of Christ. As she made clear in her writings, any religion that is not about building justice and peace on Earth is not true religion. This wonderful woman, who was a convert to Christ and to the Catholic faith, took the Gospel seriously.
When Dorothy died she had no money -not a penny to her name. The Catholic Archdiocese of New York paid her funeral expenses. Her headstone in a cemetery in Staten Island has her name inscribed and underneath just two words – DEO GRATIAS.
She died as she lived… simply!!
Nice article, Joe.
Thank you Joe Dorothy’s picture is in front of me as I write. She was a founder member of The Catholic Worker Movement devoting her life to the world’s poor. I had the privilege of staying in a Catholic Worker house in Baltimore. It changed my life .