September 18, 2005
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was one of the most interesting people I ever met in my whole life. Dorothy was not easy to deal with. She was very, very direct and sometimes rather fast on the draw. If she didn’t quite understand what you were about, you could be left somewhat disconcerted. It happened to me. However this never stopped me from my great admiration of this dedicated woman who had a beginning so far away from Christ and the church and who is now proposed for possible beatification. She has been declared a Servant of God. Cardinal Cooke referred to her as a saint.
Dorothy began living in Staten Island as a member of the communist party and a rather energetic person. At the time of her conversion many people were amazed. However she brought into the church the same radicalism that she had had as a member of the anarchist movement. She opened Catholic Workers in various places throughout the country and published a newspaper of opinion, which still goes throughout the United States. If you visited the Catholic Worker as I often did, you would find people with every conceivable background there. Some were terribly needy and very dependent and others were very accomplished people, but also people looking for God and looking to find Christ. It was never dull at the Catholic Worker. Occasionally in those days when I was a very young priest Dorothy invited me to give talks at the Worker in the lower east side. Despite her rather leftist beginnings and hostility to capitalism, Dorothy Day was also a very orthodox Catholic. She often had a rosary in her hand and when talking to you. If she shook her hand at you, the rosary would be right in front. She objected strenuously to liberties that people were taking with Catholic doctrine and discipline at the end of the council and she was not amused by much of what went on. Many people who admired Dorothy Day don’t know that side of her personality.
Dorothy and Baroness de Hueck Catherine Doherty, who we reviewed last week, were both remarkable women way ahead of any idea of feminism. They had no special cause in terms of women’s rights. They were unique human beings and it did not seem to faze them at all that the world treated them as women. You were not likely to forget that they were people of their own mind and in many ways far more assertive than the vast majority of men that were ever in their presence, including myself. When I think of these two ladies along with some of the great nuns I knew in my past, I often wonder about some of claims that people make about women not having had a voice in the church in the past. These two people, Dorothy and Catherine, had as much more voice in their time as Catherine of Siena had in her time. You can find much more about Dorothy Day by going to www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/index.cfm.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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