Dorothy Day

For almost eighty years, the Catholic Worker Movement has stood as an authentic expression of Catholic Anarchism. ...

The founders of the movement made quite an odd pair as well. Peter Maurin, a poor French peasant from a family of 24, spent most of his adult life destitute and itinerant yet his mind contained an astounding collection of knowledge.[ii] Peter was a man of the reactionary French Right[iii] becoming involved with Catholic Action, Le Sillon,[iv] and would frequently recommend the work of Emmanuel Mounier.[v] 

The Servant of God Dorothy Day[vi] grew up in the American radical Left of the early 20^th century and got her start in journalism writing for several Leftist papers covering women’s issues and the working class. After the birth of her daughter and a conversion to Catholicism, Dorothy was introduced to Peter and the unlikely duo launched the movement on May Day, 1933.

Without Christ there would be no way to carry on, the founders knew.[viii] Both founders made the Sacraments the center of their life, Dorothy noted that Peter was a daily communicant, went weekly to confession and spent an hour daily with the Blessed Sacrament.[ix] Dorothy’s spiritual life was very similar; in addition, she prayed the Office daily[x] and was a Benedictine Oblate.[xi]

...

Dorothy was happy with Peter’s term “Personalism” to describe the philosophy of the movement, but she also at various times called it anarchism, libertarianism, and Distributism (which she equates directly with Personalist Anarchism). Anarchism, Dorothy noted in her diary, was properly based on self-government, personal responsibility and recognition of the dignity and “glory of our sonship and what it entails, what abilities it confers.”[xv]...

This philosophy put Peter and Dorothy at odds with both the dominant American culture as well as with most elements of the American left. They rejected both individualism and collectivism (in keeping with the social encyclicals); they were for communitarianism. The Catholic Worker proclaimed in the 1950s that “We are Un-American; We are Catholics.”[xix] Not only did they oppose every war and conflict that America was involved in, but also the Marshall Plan,[xx] Social Security,[xxi] and the “War on Poverty.”[xxii] Dorothy recognized that “Holy Mother the State” wanted a “nationalization of the poor”[xxiii] an idea that she rejected, knowing full well that it would do nothing but destroy their dignity as human persons. This can be seen clearly in her attack on Social Security which she states was

“a great defeat for Christianity. It is an acceptance of the Idea of force and compulsion. It is an acceptance of Cain’s statement, on the part of the employer. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’”[xxiv]

Dorothy stressed that Catholic Anarchism, Peter’s gentle personalism, would improve the lot of the destitute. Instead of always turning to the government to solve our problems, it calls for embracing voluntary poverty and personal performance of the works of mercy. 

The Catholic Worker Movement and Catholic Anarchism