A Jesuit On Dorthy Day

Diaries shed light on unlikely would-be U.S. saint
By Daniel Burke

Some excerpts.

....Over the course of the 20th Century, few people practiced a love of the divine, and the divine in others, as assiduously as Day. The Catholic convert, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement 75 years ago on May 1, 1933, made "works of mercy" -- feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and comforting the sick -- the center of her life.

....the Vatican named Day a "Servant of God" in 2000, placing her on the path to sainthood.

She's been called "the most significant, interesting, and influential person in the history of American Catholicism," and been made the subject of numerous biographies, plays, documentaries, and a Hollywood film. Day herself wrote memoirs, a novel, and thousands of columns for the Catholic Worker newspaper.

But Day's personal journals, published this month, reveal the most complete view to date of the snares and hitches on her pilgrimage from Bohemian journalist to Catholic icon, say writers and movement veterans.

Titled "The Duty of Delight," the diaries span from 1934 to just days before Day's death in 1980, and offer a uniquely intimate look at a modern would-be saint grappling with the joys and struggles of everyday life. "Given her place in the history of American Catholicism, the complete journals of Dorothy Day is bound to be a spiritual classic," said the Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit weekly America and the author of "My Life With the Saints.

"It shows how many plain, old human problems she had to face ... that holiness makes its home among humanity," added Martin. As matriarch of the Catholic Worker movement, including its "houses of hospitality" scattered throughout the U.S., Day's problems abounded. Bed bugs bit, volunteers bickered and bill collectors threatened. As wars raged, fellow Catholics questioned the movement's unbending pacifism.

The journals reveal Day's determination to press on, following the "little way" of her heroine, St. Therese of Lisieux. For nearly five decades, she rose at dawn to attend Mass, prayed the monastic hours, wrote anguished letters to God, examined her conscience and labored to "be gentle and charitable in thought, word and deed." The journals also show Day's playful side, as she watches baseball, chases after grandchildren and laughs at her own foibles.

....In many ways, Day is perhaps an unlikely candidate for sainthood. Before converting to Catholicism, she caroused with the likes of playwright Eugene O'Neill, committed every sin "aside from drug addiction" and had an abortion. Later, she chastised those who called her a saint, saying that everyone is called to holiness. But ultimately, the difference between a saint and a holy person, said writer Paul Elie, is that "a saint makes other people want to be like her." And by that criteria, Day is already among the elect, said Rosalie Riegle, a former Catholic Worker who has written a biography of Day and a history of the movement.

Link to the full article (here)

Photo credit: Dorothy Day facing her last arrest photo by Bob Fitch

More on Dorthy Day (here) , (here) and (here)

Dorthy Day and pacifism (here) , (here) and (here)

Pacificism (here) and (here)

George Wiegel's article on A Catholic Just War (here)