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Dorothy Day
Click on the following links to hear Dorothy's conversation with Alex.
Prologue: Dorothy Day
Dialogue: A Conversation between Dorothy
Day and Alex
Epilogue: Dorothy Day
Prologue (spoken by Alex):
Born in 1897, Dorothy Day became a New York reporter at the age of 19.
Later, she was among 40 women jailed in Washington, D.C, for demanding
the vote for women.
In 1927, Day became an unmarried mother. A short time later, both Day
and her daughter, Tamar, were baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Five
years later, Day met Peter Maurin. He invited her to publish a newspaper
for workers.
On May 1, 1933, Dorothy Day issued the first copy of the Catholic Worker.
By year's end, more than 100,000 copies, at a penny apiece, were being
sold. Soon, Day opened Catholic Worker houses in New York.
It is now 1957. My name is Alex, and I have come to one Catholic Worker
house in the slums of New York City to meet Dorothy Day. Together we are
peeling potatoes to provide lunch for the many people lined up outside
the house.
Alex: I find myself
wondering about you Ms. Day.
Day: Call me Dorothy. Everyone does.
Alex: Okay, Dorothy, tell me this. In this house you welcome people
each day. Some leave; some stay. Why not let them all live on the street?
Day: The early Church had a saying. It went like this: "Every home
should have a Christ room in it so that hospitality may be practiced."
Alex: What's do you mean by hospitality?
Day: I believe that it is practicing God's mercy.
Alex: Yes, but drunkards live here! I met one last night. People
who are down and out live here. They have nothing to contribute to the
house! How long do they get to stay?
Day: Forever. They are members of our family. They are our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Alex: Your paper says that we must look for Christ in each person
we meet.
Day: If we looked for Christ's goodness in each person, we would
live the Gospels. In the person who is strange to us, different from us,
we meet Christ.
Alex: Is that why you're a pacifist? Because you see Christ in
everyone, even the people we call enemies?
Day: We are one body in Christ. Do you remember the gospel story
about Peter drawing his sword?
Alex: I do remember that. It was the night before Jesus died on
the cross. His enemies had come to arrest him.
Day: That's it! Jesus said that all who draw the sword will die
by the sword.
Alex: That's not true. People go to war and come back alive.
Day: Some part of them dies. Some beautiful part that was innocent
and good.
Alex: So that's why you spoke out against World War I and the Spanish
Civil War in 1936 and World War II in the early forties.
Day: I spoke out because I believe Jesus gave us a way to live
in peace. He asked us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink
to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead, shelter the homeless,
visit the sick.
Alex: Our teacher calls those works of mercy.
Day: They are the works of hospitality, God's mercy. We can't do
good with one hand and take revenge on others with the other hand. We
can't do that and remain sane and humane children of God.
Alex: Not everyone is thirsty or hungry or imprisoned or naked
or sick. So do you help only a few?
Day: Look around you. Look at the volunteers in this room. Look
at the people waiting outside. Look at the businessmen on Wall Street.
We are all imprisoned in our own experiences, our own prejudices, and
our own loneliness!
Alex: You get fiery about this, don't you? I've heard you're a
real hothead!
Day: It's true. I don't deny it. As I said to someone one day,
"I hold more temper in one minute than you hold in your entire life."
It makes me angry when people dismiss the poor, when they don't take the
Gospels seriously.
Alex: Do you think Martin Luther King's nonviolence is a way to
take the Gospels seriously?
Day: I do. I think nonviolence always wins--in the end.
Alex: Are you going to get involved in the Civil Rights movement?
Day: I've thought about going down South.
Alex: Should you do that? You could be killed for helping Blacks!
Day: I could be killed walking across the street! Better to die
for something I believe in!
Alex: So what do you plan to do?
Day: I'm going to visit Koinonia.
Alex: Isn't that the Christian farming community in Georgia where
blacks and whites live together peacefully?
Day: Yes.
Alex: But Dorothy, just the other day the newspaper said that the
Ku Klux Klan had fired a machine-gun at one of the community's houses.
They've burned crosses on the community's property!
Day: That's true.
Alex: Dorothy, write about what's happening, but don't go there.
If you die, who'll carry on your work?
Day: You will. Volunteers will. Jesus' Spirit lives on. We can
let go and let God.
Alex: Dorothy, I'm afraid for you.
Day: Don't be afraid. Pray for me and my work. Years ago, in 1932,
when I was reporting on the Hunger March in Washington, I felt hopeless
about the needs of the people in the march. They wanted jobs! Unemployment
insurance! Old age pensions! Relief for widowed mothers and children!
Health care! Affordable housing! I felt helpless.
Alex: What did you do?
Day: I went to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
I asked God to open some way for me to use my talents for the poor.
Alex: And what happened?
Day: The next day, December 9, 1932, I came back to my apartment
in New York. Peter Maurin was waiting for me there. He changed my whole
life. He was God's answer to my prayer. Peter had the idea for the Catholic
Worker newspaper. Through it, I have given my talents to the poor.
Alex: Have you prayed about going to Georgia?
Day: I have.
Alex: Amen then. I can't go with you to Georgia, Dorothy, but I'll
pray for you, and I'll ask God to bless your work.
Day: As Psalm 127 says, "Unless the Lord build the house, they
labor in vain who build it." If our work is God's work, it will succeed.
Alex: I hope no one puts you in jail again for doing this!
Day: Don't worry! I've been jailed many times and will be again.
To live the Gospels, we may have to give up a little comfort.
Alex: I wish you only the best, Dorothy.
Day: And I wish you success in finding Christ Jesus in everyone.
Epilogue
Dorothy Day did go to Georgia in 1957. As she was taking a turn at the
sentry post, a car slowed down. A bullet barely missed her. Still she
continued to work for peace and justice. In 1973, she marched in a banned
picket line to support farm workers. Once again, the local authorities
threw her in jail. Day was 75 at the time.
Dorothy Day died on November 29, 1980. Today, many people call her a modern
saint for she tried to truly live the Gospels. I've decided to read her
autobiography, The Long Loneliness. I'll never forget one thing she said
to me as we peeled potatoes together. " If I have achieved anything in
my life, it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God."
