Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker: the miracle of our continuance PDF
Preview Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker: the miracle of our continuance
D O ROT H Y DAY A n D T H e c AT H O l i c wO R k e R D O ROT H Y DAY A n D T H e c AT H O l i c wO R k e R The Miracle of Our Continuance Photographs by Vivian Cherry Text by Dorothy Day Edited, with an Introduction and Additional Text by Kate Hennessy empire state editions An imprint of Fordham University Press New York 2016 Catholic Practice in North America Angela Alaimo O’Donnell and John C. Seitz, series editors Funding for this book was provided by Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. Copyright © 2016 Fordham University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for exter- nal or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Visit us online at: www.fordhampress.com www.empirestateeditions.com Text design by Ann-Christine Racette Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker : the miracle of our continuance / photographs by Vivian Cherry ; Text by Dorothy Day ; Edited, with an Introduction and Additional Text by Kate Hennessy. — First edition. pages cm. — (Catholic practice in North America) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8232-7136-8 (hardback) 1. Day, Dorothy, 1897–1980—Portraits. 2. Catholic Worker Movement—Pictorial works. 3. New York (N.Y.)—Social conditions—20th century—Pictorial works. I. Hennessy, Kate, 1960– edi- tor. II. Cherry, Vivian, 1920– Photographs. Selections. III. Day, Dorothy, 1897–1980. Works. Selections. BX4705.D283D66 2016 267’.182—dc23 2015036364 Printed in Italy 18 17 16 5 4 3 2 1 First edition Vivian dedicates this book to Steven and Linda Rachel Schmidt Kate dedicates this book to all those who are continuing the Catholic Worker traditions, especially the New York City houses— Maryhouse and St. Joseph’s CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction 1 1. House of Hospitality 16 2. The Paper 43 3. The Farm 60 4. The Duty of Delight 84 5. Protest and Prison 107 6. Prayer 116 Epilogue: What Can One Person Do? 128 Excerpt Sources 130 Index of Photos 133 prEfaCE I t is difficult to imagine American Catholicism today without Dorothy Day. Compelling and prophetic, she captures the imagination through her vision and work for a world, as she was fond of saying, “where it is easier to be good.” Dorothy Day spent her life not only championing the poor but also, guided by the works of mercy, feeding, clothing, and sheltering the poorest of the poor. She did so in a way as simple as it is breathtaking, while living among them and giving up her own longing for peace, privacy, and comfort. Dorothy Day was born on November 8, 1897, in Brooklyn, New York, third child of five to Grace Satterlee and John Isaac Day. Raised in a newspaper family, she started working as a journalist at the age of eighteen. After the birth of her daughter, Tamar Teresa, in 1926, Dorothy converted to Catholicism, and in 1933, influenced by Peter Maurin, a French peasant and day laborer with a Catholic program of social action, she launched the Catholic Worker newspa- per. The paper’s mission was to speak to the growing numbers of homeless and unemployed at the height of the Great Depression. This quickly turned into the creation of a house of hospitality in the tenements of lower Manhattan as it became clear that Dorothy and Peter not only had to speak of the social problems of the day, but they needed to help the people they were addressing in any way they could. The opening of the house of hospitality was closely fol- lowed by the purchase of a farm as a way to provide work and food. ix From these small beginnings, the Catholic Worker movement was launched, and from a first run of 2,500 in May 1933, three years later the paper reached a circulation of 150,000. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker: The Miracle of Our Contin- uance is a collection of photographs taken by Vivian Cherry, a pho- tographer on assignment, twenty-two years after that small begin- ning, over the course of several weeks in 1955 and on a return visit in 1959. In 1955, the Catholic Worker was based on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, from which the movement continued to publish the paper, fed hundreds of men on the daily soup line, and permanently housed dozens of people. There were also two farms, Maryfarm sixty miles north in Newburgh, New York, and the Peter Maurin Farm on Staten Island. The photographs have been arranged in a manner that reflects the essential work and philosophies of the Catholic Worker. These elements existed from its beginnings, were present when these pho- tos were taken, and are still going strong today. Each chapter is ac- companied by a selection of excerpts taken from Dorothy Day’s col- umn “On Pilgrimage” and other articles she published in the Catholic Worker, spanning forty-seven years from 1933 to 1980. (Sources for the excerpts, along with photo captions, are provided at the end of the book.) Dorothy considered writing her vocation. As a journalist, she wrote numerous articles for publications other than the Catholic Worker, and she published five books, including The Long Loneliness, the story of her conversion, which has remained in print since 1952. Dorothy died on November 29, 1980, in her room at Maryhouse in Manhattan, the women’s house of hospitality she’d opened four years previously. In 2000, Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York City opened her cause for canonization, and the Vatican subsequently conferred on her the title of Servant of God. The Dorothy Day Guild has been formed to further the cause, which was unanimously endorsed in 2012 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Worker continues to thrive and expand— x
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