The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins Book

This volume is my introduction to any real understanding of the Catholic Worker movement. So, while I can't speak at all to certain issues of accuracy, I can say I've now seen a great deal of primary source materials from Dorothy Day, and secondarily Peter Maurin, painstakingly collected and organized thematically around several of the largest influences and values of the movement. This is not a focus on their day-to-day lives or work so much as a careful review of their theologies and inspiration for the work they did.

The intimacy of the focus on Day's personal theology and the passion of the writers (themselves participants in the Houston Catholic Worker house) impacts the writing here in several ways. The heartfelt and loving approach to the subject lends a devotional feel to the book. I feel having read it that I have spent time in prayer. I feel I have more visceral knowledge of the marriage of contemplation and action toward justice, and the marriage of intellectual study and manual labor, especially as Day explored, expressed and combined these sacred things. Day believed that "all are called to holiness", and envisioned a world "where it is easier for people to be good." Her approach was to both embrace suffering in the cause of love, and savor and encourage joy. I feel I have some understanding of how deeply rooted this was in her faith, in her love and admiration for saints like Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux, and her knowledge of the damage done by current structures of capitalism and militarism.

This same intimacy of author and subject also has the effect of exacerbating some blind spots, either of authors, subjects, or both. For example, out of 320 pages, there are 2 pages devoted to human sexuality in general; within that two pages, the *only* example given of extramarital sexuality was pedophilia, and the pedophilia epidemic within the church is portrayed as the inevitable result of the sexual revolution (both comments the authors make). A dozen more scattered pages are devoted to Day's regret regarding her own abortion, which she had early, ostensibly to "hold on to" a man, and which she regretted the rest of her life. This is the full extent of the treatment of human sexuality in this volume -- a subject that I have to believe Houses of Hospitality have had to grapple with far more frequently and deeply than this treatment suggests.

In another example of a blind spot, the Reformation is characterized here as bringing little into the world but degradation of the human spirit, through the attendant changes in economic systems. The Catholic Church's only pre-Reformation influence worth remarking on, according to these writers, was great charity and good works... until the rise of Protestantism dismantled that and left the poor to fend for themselves. To me, this particular blind spot borders on irresponsibility. Since the work at hand is not propping up the Church but doing the work of Christ, I don't think such a skewed version of church history supports our understanding of the work at hand.

The authors consistently use a very indirect method of defining key terms. While personalism, pacifism and distributivism are critical to the subject at hand - and are frequently explored - they are never given straightforward, concise definitions. They are instead unpacked, contemplated, expounded on and examined at length. While I sometimes thirsted for a more succinct approach, I also found the authors' strategy here complements the subject matter. I mention it here as the approach may not work for everybody!

Overall, I am glad to have this book and to have read it, I'm glad to know more about Dorothy Day's love for the world, and I'm glad to have direct experience of the love others have for her and her ministry.