Dorothy Day Guild May 2023 Missive

Casey Mullaney • May 09, 2023

Dear friends,

Hello from all of us at the Dorothy Day Guild! We are so excited to update you on recent Dorothy-related events and share some upcoming Guild news with you this month. May marks many significant anniversaries for all of us, particularly the 90th birthday of the Catholic Worker movement. Ninety years ago this month, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin published the first issue of The Catholic Worker (still available for just a penny a copy). ​​In honor of this anniversary, Jerry Windley-Daoust has assembled a collection of articles and reflections looking back on the origins of the Catholic Worker movement and ahead to its future. Check out these writings by Dorothy and other contemporary voices here. Many blessings on this anniversary to Catholic Workers past and present, and to everyone who has worked to "build a new world in the shell of the old." As Dorothy wrote in The Long Loneliness, “It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.”

Ferry Updates

The Dorothy Day set sail for its inaugural voyage on April 28th from the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. It was a joy to celebrate with so many of you on such a beautiful afternoon. Many thanks to everyone who contributed their labor and creative talents to the opening ceremony and prayer service bookending the ride. We were particularly moved by DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez’s (bilingual!) reflection on justice, activism, and the dignity of the poor, as well as The Dirty Rotten System band’s rousing rendition of “If I Had a Hammer (Ferry)”! If you weren’t able to join us in person, you can view the livestream of the opening ceremony here: Dorothy Day Staten Island Ferry Inaugural Ride

We’re sure Dorothy would have been proud to see many journalists present at the ferry station! Check out some of the ferry press at Our Sunday Visitor, The Irish Echo, The Tablet, and America.

We’re so happy that the Dorothy Day is now running its regular route between Staten Island and Manhattan, two locations that were the site of so many significant events and experiences throughout Dorothy’s life. To see the full album of pictures from the event, please visit our Facebook page, and if you get a chance to ride the ferry yourself, be sure to tag us on Facebook and Twitter!

Membership News and Upcoming Events

We’re moving! The Guild’s offices will officially move up to the Bronx next month to Manhattan College’s Dorothy Day Center for the Study and Promotion of Social Catholicism. We are so grateful for the many years that Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of New York have extended space to us at 1011, and we’re excited about the possibilities offered by a new home on a college campus. If you would like to make a contribution to support the move, or renew your annual membership with the Guild, please click here. 

 

In June, the Guild will also meet for its annual in-person retreat to pray together as well as welcome new advisory board members and develop plans for promoting Dorothy’s cause over the course of the next year. The official Roman phase of the canonization cause has begun, but our work is certainly not over! We could not carry on this work without you. Your financial support, as well as your commitment to prayer and action carried out “in the spirit” of Dorothy is bringing her message of nonviolence, voluntary poverty, and deep love for the poor and vulnerable to a world that needs her legacy more than ever. Thank you so much for continuing to take part in and support the work of the Guild.

Other Canonization Causes of Note

Many of our Guild members are also active and interested in other American canonization causes, particularly those of the “Saintly Six,” the Black American priests, sisters, and laity whose causes are currently in process. Ralph Moore, Jr. details some of the factors at play here  Although there are also active Guilds for Fr. Augustus Tolton, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, Mother Henriette DeLille, Ms. Julia Greeley, Mr. Pierre Toussaint, and Sister Thea Bowman, these causes have not received the financial support or attention from the wider Church merited by the heroic virtue of the Saintly Six.

Throughout her life, Dorothy was deeply concerned with racial justice, and as a believer and participant in the communion of saints, we are certain she would be eager to promote these causes! We encourage all members of the Dorothy Day Guild to pray for the canonization of each member of the Saintly Six. You can learn more about these candidates and how to become more involved in their canonization causes by visiting the website for each of their Guilds. We’ll keep you posted as we hear news from them, and stay tuned for future educational events that connect Dorothy’s legacy with those of the Saintly Six! For now, check out a new children’s book on Julia Greeley and please join us in congratulating the members of the Mother Mary Lange Guild and the Oblate Sisters of Providence on beginning the next state of her canonization cause– the Vatican recently approved her positio, opening the way for her to be declared “Venerable”. Mother Mary Lange, pray for us!

Peter Maurin

Today, May 9th, marks what would be the 146th birthday of Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin. Peter’s mentorship of Dorothy helped her to integrate her solidarity with the poor and commitment to nonviolence with her newfound Catholic faith. Peter’s vision of greater connection to each other and the earth in farming communes and agronomic universities prefigured the theological insights of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, and is taking on new life in a new generation of Catholic Worker farming communities. In honor of Peter Maurin’s birthday, the podcast “Coffee With Catholic Workers” has just released a conversation with Lincoln Rice, Peter Maurin scholar and member of the Casa Maria Catholic Worker community in Milwaukee. In this conversation, Lincoln outlines Maurin’s thought on labor and where his ideas converged with and differed from Dorothy’s. Check it out here, and also be sure to take a look at Lincoln’s latest book, The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: Easy Essays from the Catholic Worker, available here.

Here, we would also like to share with you a reflection from Dorothy’s column in the May 1965 issue of The Catholic Worker.

“First of all, it must be emphasized that Peter Maurin was a deeply religious man. He never missed daily Mass, and many a time I saw him sitting quietly in the church before or after Mass… He never rushed, but walked in most leisurely fashion, his hands clasped behind his back, ruminating no doubt, paying little attention to shops (except for bookshops) or to passersby or even to traffic.

 

Work, according to Peter was as necessary to man as bread, and he placed great importance on physical work. I can remember a discussion he had with the great scholar Dom Virgil Michel, who was the pioneer of the liturgical movement in this country.

 

“St. Benedict emphasized manual labor, as well as intellectual,” Peter said. “Man needs to work with his hands. He needs to work by the sweat of his brow, for bodily health’s sake. We would have far less nervous breakdowns if men worked with their hands more, instead of just their heads.”

 

Peter Maurin’s teaching was that just as each one of us is responsible for the ills of the world, so too each one of us has freedom to choose to work in “the little way” for our brother. It may seem to take heroic sanctity to do so go against the world, but God’s grace is sufficient, He will provide the means, will show the way if we ask Him. And the Way, of course, is Christ Himself. To follow Him.”

Many blessings and great thanks to all who are living out the Green Revolution in their homes, communities, and neighborhoods!

 

Please stay in touch, and keep a lookout for the next issue of our newsletter, “In Our Time,” coming to your inbox next month. “In Our Time” will be published quarterly, and you’ll also continue to receive these shorter monthly updates, so if you like what you’re reading, forward this email to a friend and encourage them to sign up for our mailing list linked here.

 

As always, we’re grateful to be on this journey with you!

 

Yours,

Dr. Casey Mullaney, on behalf of the Dorothy Day Guild

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SOWING SEEDS, What it takes to be a lifelong Catholic Worker

By Claire Schaeffer-Duffy and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy • 26 Apr, 2024
A desire to know God in the poor rather than any specific quest for community led the two of us to the Mary Harris and St. Benedict Catholic Worker houses in Washington, DC in the summer and autumn of 1982. Michael Kirwan, a graduate student in sociology at George Washington University, founded both a couple years earlier. We arrived shortly after graduating from college, coming by separate paths. Claire had just finished a senior thesis on the enduring, revolutionary value of the Catholic Worker movement. And Scott was reassessing his vocation after spending most of a year as a novice with the Capuchin-Franciscans. In those days, the talk between us was all about radical poverty and solidarity with the poor. The two small row houses Michael purchased were located on Fourth Street NW in a squalid neighborhood under the thumb of several drug-dealing families. Mary Harris house served women while St. Benedict house served men. Both were crammed with people who were mentally ill, addicted, or utterly alone in the world. Inspired by Michael, we saw the Catholic Worker as a place where Christianity could be taken literally. Fourth Street provided ample opportunity. There, the Gospel invocations of “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me,” “take nothing for the journey,” “take the lowest place,” “forgive not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” and “pray unceasingly” were translated into unlimited hospitality and incredible precarity. We slept on the floor, prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, and went to daily Mass in the midst of the chaos. In early 1983, Carl Siciliano, an eighteen year old contemplative came to volunteer at St. Benedict’s. He too was eager for the radical path, and the three of us immersed ourselves in the tumult of life on Fourth Street with enthusiasm. As Claire would say, “we’re like the three musketeers.” This was the era of Reaganomics, a time when thousands of unhoused Americans lived on the streets of the Capitol. The United States was arming wars in Central America and ramping up its nuclear arsenal to build weapons of incalculable destruction. Washington, DC was abuzz with protests. Despite the enormity of our daily tasks, we joined numerous anti-war demonstrations and went to jail on several occasions for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. In the autumn of 1983, we went on a peace mission to Nicaragua with Teresa Grady, who is now part of the Ithaca, NY Catholic Worker, and Carl. Following Michael’s advice, we left the care of the houses on Fourth Street in the hands of Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day while we were away. The responsibility of maintaining two small houses of hospitality often conflicted with our desire to participate in a nonviolent action. The one who went off to jail or a peace campaign could only do so if someone stayed back at the house to cook the soup and break up the fights. Deciding who did what was an occasional source of tension. New community members came, but did not remain long.

SAVED BY BEAUTY, Artists of Hope

By Carolyn Zablotny • 26 Apr, 2024
Bro. Martin Erspamer, OSB and Bro. Michael (Mickey) McGrath, OSFS are both liturgical artists, widely recognized for their creative work. Meeting in the pages of the Guild’s newsletter, they bring an artistry and open-heartedness long associated with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. From its very beginning, the Catholic Worker has been blessed by grace-filled encounters, their number suggesting more providence than coincidence. How else can the meeting between Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day be understood? He lit the match that set the new convert on fire to see what the Gospel, if lived, would look like, a match that led to a movement and even to a cause for canonization. Both still kindle our imagination with the possibility of new life, new hope. Beauty is an entryway to our imagination. Even as a young girl, Dorothy found deep inspiration and joy in literature, nature, and music. She must have felt a kindred spirit when she met nineteen-year-old art student, Ade Bethune, in 1933. Ade had come to the Catholic Worker on East Fifteenth Street. While she was moved by the hospitality offered to the poor, she felt the fledgling Catholic Worker newspaper wasn’t sufficiently conveying the spirit behind the work. She offered her artwork. To this day, her bold images continue to animate the paper.

GOOD TALK, Charles E. Moore on How to Live in Community

By Gabriella Wilke • 26 Apr, 2024
Charles E. Moore is a member, teacher, and pastor of the Bruderhof, an international Christian movement of intentional communities founded by Eberhard Arnold in 1920. A contributing editor and author for Plough , his published works include Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard , and Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together. Drawing on his expertise and experience, he spoke with one of In Our Time’s editors, Gabriella Wilke, on how to go about life together. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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