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About The Catholic Worker Worker Movement

The Catholic Worker Movement began when French street philosopher Peter Maurin met radical New York journalist Dorothy Day and they decided to do something about the poverty, lack of information and spiritual hunger they saw all about them in 1930s Depression era America.

The thing to do, it seemed to them, was to start a newspaper. The first edition of The Catholic Worker, edited on Dorothy's back kitchen table, was distributed for a penny a copy during the Communist Party's May Day Rally in Union Square 1933. It was to reach the dizzy heights of 150,000 subscribers before the Spanish Civil War and WWII split the editors from the main body of Catholic opinion, which rejected the paper's committed stance on Christian pacifism in favour of Just War arguments.

The philosophy of the paper soon expanded and took in many of Peter Maurin's ideas about agrarian Christian communities, regular meetings of volunteers for 'clarity of thought' sessions and the provision of Houses of Hospitality for the poor in the style of the medieval hostels [1].

The Houses of Hospitality and Catholic Worker Farms soon became the hallmarks of the movement, which sought to feed the homeless via soup kitchens and give them safe places to sleep, off the streets and out of the cold. Dorothy often quoted in the Gospel of Matthew and the Corporal Works of Mercy as the main duty of a Christian, and she lived this commitment to the full.

Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin never held conventional jobs again and spent their lives living and labouring alongside the poor people they tried help. Bringing the Gospel message through action and the pages of the paper Dorothy Day in particular achieved popular acclaim and she now bears the title Servant of God while the cause for her beatification is considered by the Vatican.

Despite the death of Peter in 1949 and Dorothy in 1980 the movement continues to this day with 185 Catholic Worker Communities currently in existence worldwide, still practicing the Works of Mercy, still caring for everyone who comes their way.

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[1] Peter Maurin's definition of the beliefs of the Catholic Worker Movement:

1. The gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism.
2. Personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother.
3. Daily practice of the Works of Mercy.
4. Houses of Hospitality for the immediate relief of those who are in need.
5. The establishment of Farming Communes where each one works according to his ability and gets according to his need.
6. Creating a new society within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new, which is not a new philosophy but a very old philosophy, a philosophy so old that it looks like new.

Bibliography

Personal Reflections

• Loaves and Fishes - Dorothy Day
• On Pilgrimage - Dorothy Day
• Peter Maurin: Apostle to the world - Dorothy Day with Franscis J. Sicius
• A Year at the Catholic Worker: A spiritual journey among the poor - Marc H. Ellis
• Do Not Neglect Hospitality: The Catholic Worker and the homeless - Harry Murray
• Confessions of a Catholic Worker - Michael O. Garvey
• Finding my Way: Journeys along the Rim of the Catholic Worker Movement - Toni Flynn
• A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker - Edited by Thomas C. Cornel, Robert Ellsberg and Jim Forest.

(Extened bibliographies for people involved in the Catholic Worker Movement can be found on their author pages.)

Histories, Surveys and Scholarly Works

• Breaking Bread: The Catholic Worker and the origin of Catholic radicalism in America - Mel Piehl
• American Catholic Pacifism: The Influence of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement - Anne Klejment and Nancy L. Roberts
• Word Made Flesh: Chicago Catholic Worker and the emergence of lay activism in the church - Francis J. Sicius
• Revolution of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Worker - Edited by Patrick G. Coy
• Voices from the Catholic Worker - Edited by Rosalie R. Troester
• A Harsh and Dreadful Love: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement - William D. Miller
• Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: Centenary Essays (Marquette Studies in Theology #32) - Edited by William J. Thorn, Phillip M. Runkel, and Susan Mountin
• New Heaven, New Earth: Practical Essays on the Catholic Worker Program - Richard G. Cleaver
• The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and spiritual origins - Mark Zwick and Louise Zwick
• The Catholic Worker Movement - Marc Zwick
• Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker - Nancy L. Roberts
• Catholic Worker Houses - Sheila Durkin Kierks and Patricia Powers Ladley

Find books about the Catholic Worker Movement from:
Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

If you'd like to submit an idea, book review, link or correction
please get in touch.

Locations

The Catholic Worker Movement is an international movement and has no central organising body. If you'd like to find a Catholic Worker House near you try this link to The Directory of one of the most substantial and well-visted Catholic Worker sites.

Links

General Links

• Catholic Worker website
• Catholic worker at Wikipedia
• Catholic Worker documents
  Site maintained by "an admirer of the Catholic Worker Movement."
• Dorothy Day / Catholic Worker Collection
  Marquette University's online special collection.
• Roots of the Catholic Worker Movement
  Saints and philosophers who influences Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.
• Seeking authenticity: Women and Learning in the Catholic Worker Movement
  Doctoral thesis by Marylin McKinley Parrish based on interviews with women from the early Catholic Worker Movement.
• Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker Movement
  Written by Dorothy Day and published in the Catholic Worker Newspaper in February 1940 this short editorial is still the best description of the philosophy of the movement.
• On Pilgrimage in Oklahoma City: A Catholic Worker Blog
  By Robert Waldrop of Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House.
• Cathworker
  A Yahoo Group discussion for "... Catholic Workers to talk about what's happening at their houses, ask for advice, share joys and sorrows...a place where friends of the movement, or persons interested in what Catholic Workers are about, can ask questions and share their experiences and gifts."
  

Dorothy Day Eileen Egan Jim Forest Peter Maurin Thomas Merton