The following comes from an August 9 story in the Los Angeles archdiocese paper, the Tidings.
The following is adapted from a talk Archbishop José H. Gomez delivered at the third annual Napa Institute Conference on Aug. 1.
Pope Francis has been urging the Church to renew its attention on people and the dignity of the person. In his inaugural homily, he spoke of the need for us to “protect people” and to show “loving concern for each and every person.”
And unfortunately, this need is urgent in light of continuing developments in our culture. We need to protect people — especially children and the elderly and those in need. But more than that, we need to protect and defend the idea of the human person in our society.
I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that right now our culture is facing a crisis of “anthropology.”
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions on marriage revealed once more that our society is confused about much more than the true meaning of marriage, the family and sexuality. Underlying these confusions there is a more basic confusion. We have no idea anymore in our society of what “human nature” is or what it means to be a human person. And this is rooted in our loss of the sense of God in our society.
As a way to begin talking about some of these issues, I want to recall the American Servant of God Dorothy Day.
My brother bishops and I are promoting her “cause” to be canonized as an American saint. And I found it providential that, earlier this year, our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI chose to talk about Dorothy Day in his final public audience before retiring as Pope. It is fascinating to reflect that he chose this lay woman from 20th-century America as the last example of holiness that he wanted to propose to our Church.
Dorothy Day’s is one of the great conversion stories of modern times. Her life tells a kind of spiritual diary of the 20th century. She was born before the dawn of the century, in 1897, and she died in its twilight, in 1980.
And when we look at her life now, we see that it was Dorothy Day’s destiny to experience firsthand some of the century’s most influential ideologies and movements — feminism, communism and the sexual revolution. What all of these movements have in common is a distorted understanding of the nature of the human person.
If the Church finally finds her to be a saint, Dorothy Day will be the only saint who, prior to her conversion, ever wrote about her own abortion. But her search for truth left Dorothy open to God’s grace and the gift of faith. She came to repentance, confessed her sins and was baptized.
She went on to lead a transfigured life, in the image of Jesus Christ. She became our country’s most radical witness to Christ’s love for the poor and his call for us to be instruments of his peace and justice. She criticized, like a prophet, America’s failures to live up to its high ideals.
One night, Dorothy Day was in Arkansas where she was giving a speech on the rights of farm workers and African Americans.
But when she was done that night, she came back to her room and she felt totally overwhelmed. She felt a terrible sense that what she was doing with her life and ministry didn’t really matter. That she would never see results. She was feeling desperate and she started to pray — and this is what happened. These are her words:
“And suddenly, a most wonderful sense of the glory of being a child of God swept over me. So joyous a sense of my own importance that I have reflected on it since. I would pray that [you] have it, and grow in it. This sense of [our] importance as … sons of God, divinized by his coming. All things are possible to us. We can do all things in him who strengthens….”
To read the entire story, click here.
Many thanks for running this!
Wasn’t Dorothy Day a communist promoting social justice? Just askin.
Barbara,
She was at one time a Communist who is supposed to have converted; however she still was very supportive of many Communist causes, such as the defeat of South Vietnam by the Communist North Vietnamese.
To my mind, she is a very mixed bag of causes.
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Maybe Dorothy Day knew the North Vietnamese would succeed in taking the whole country, and so she would’ve seen the war as a waste. After all, if she really was brought by God into the realm of extremely holy, then she likely would’ve been able to see the situation. Perhaps the VN war served to put an end to the cold war, regardless of territorial gain in southeast Asia … just surmising, because I have yet to hear of any universally agreed upon historical view. btw, the Anon at 12:16 is also Skai.
No. She converted to Catholicism and is now up for sainthood. Conversion is Catholic; in contrast the belief that one is born a Catholic is A. not Catholic, and B. is Jewish. Read St Paul in Acts on the Judaizers.
Dorothy Day is not being considered a saint for her pre-Catholicism life, but for her exemplary Catholicism. Catholics do not inherit the Kingdom of God via genetics but via conversion … in all cases. I get not only tired but bored with these pseudo-Catholic presumptions that Saints are all conceived without original sin … that distinction belongs only to Blessed Mary Ever Virgin. Every other saint worked his or her way into Heaven, either by martyrdom or by achieving purity … key word being “achieving”. Too bad the bishops don’t preach the Gospel of salvation rather than that of presumption.
I can’t believe what I’m reading here! Not one of us can achieve anything without the Holy Spirit and the power of God’s Will through prayer and the Eucharist. If you think ANYONE, can do it through good works and self-achievement then you’re really missing the point, Skai. I’m really surprised that you would write anything like that. You can give away all you have to the poor, live on bread and water for the rest of your life, but without humility and dependence on salvation and mercy that is only of our Lord’s gift, then you will work in vain. You’re sounding so cranky and judgmental anymore. I hope everything is okay with you? Don’t be so upset that not everyone shares your view of D.D. She was a very smart, appealing woman who really set the bar high. If it’s God’s will she will be made a saint. Do we all have to be in lockstep on this? Did she try share the truth of Jesus with Saul Alinsky? Jesus ate with tax collector’s but he shared the good news with them. Did Cdl.Dolan share the good news with obama? I’m just thankful I don’t have to be the judge, aren’t you?
Why is he promoting the someone who promoted Communism and shacked up with some of her boyfriends, got pregnant and had at least one abortion? What kind of an a saintly example is that? Just because she advocated for social justice is not enough of a reason for sainthood. The only reason she is being promoted is because she has found favor with the LCWR and other leftist dissidents who oppose Catholic Moral Teaching and the Magisterial Authority.
For that matter, why promote some coward who denied he even KNEW Jesus three times and abandoned Him in His time of need?
Oops — that’s Saint Peter.
I guess we can convert, change, and become holy.
Shacked up, and even pregnancy out of wedlock? Take that, so-called “Saint” Augustine!
You do know how saints are made? I could say similar things about Augustine.
Based on your reasoning, Augustine, who sinned gravely and consistently before his conversion, shouldn’t be a saint either. You are out of step with Catholic teaching on this.
SoCal, your take on what Catholicism is, is diametrically opposed to what it is. Jesus redeems. Now you souls who are perfect have no need of a redeemer, so why would you be worried about it? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you have no knowledge nor any idea of what the Church is or who Jesus Christ is. How is it that people like you go for decades through life believing you’re Catholic and all the while have no clue? What is wrong with you?
Oh, Dorothy Day! Oh, Dorothy Day!
I hate m’ job, it’s such low pay!
I dread a goin’ to work each day,
Please pray for me , oh , Dorothy Day!’
I got a paper cut on me hand
an’ my boss is nothin’ but a mean old man,
I slave away on the net all day
so I don’t even have the time to pray;
Oh, Pray for me,oh pray, oh pray, that I may live another day!
Obama care is what I want
and cell phones oh so free
and nine days off for each three I work
so I can spend all day in prayer…
and pray for those in need like me
that have so tough a life,
it’s only fair
to care and share
to save our fellow man
which is me, dear Dorothy, as you know so well
c’mon and help me win the lottery, I won’t tell!
(really free verse, meant to be sung by the famous ’30’s folksinger Wooly Lamb on his 12 string cigar box)
I used to read the Catholic Worker as a young student in New York. I found it to be substantially a copy of the Daily Worker, except for a few holy images. The woman was still a lefty in the seventies. I don’t know when she turned from Saul Alinsky into a saint but I remain to be enlightened.
My question: What’s the hurry?
Dorothy Day seems to have remained orthodox in her personal belief and practice her whole life as a Catholic and cannot be held accountable for all that her followers have done since her death (and former colleagues far more liberal than I have soured on the Catholic Worker). On the other hand, she had some opinions I’d call appalling, such as that Catholic Spaniards should have been non-resisting as the Red slaughtered their religious and burned their churches in the 1930s.
Day counseled nonviolent resistance, not passivity.
In her editorial on “The Use of Force” (CW, November 1936), she wrote, “And are the people to stand by and see their priests killed? That is the question that will be asked. Let them defend them with their lives, but not by taking up the sword.”
As you continue to read what the archbishop wrote, you find, “…feminism, communism and the sexual revolution. What all of these movements have in common is a distorted understanding of the nature of the human person.”
Dorothy Day’s distortion of views on communism (with her admiration of some of the things Mao and Lenin did in their countries), her support of North Vietnam during the war, and her remaining a pacifist in WWII should give one pause (though it seems not the case with the bishops). There are other valid questions that should be asked about her sainthood – it seems too bad that the “devil’s advocate” post has been done away with for it would surely keep this person busy.
I am not sympathetic to her cause, but she should not be judged on her opinions of America’s foreign or domestic policy, but on living a life of heroic virtue in accord with Catholic teaching, of which her writings also should called into witness. If she persistently offered sympathy to totalitarians, that’s a big problem.
Ditto, “heroic virtue”: Countless cradle Catholics who have never sinned in their entire lives simply express aghastness at those terrible sinners who convert and then spend their lives tagging along as best they can, usually by holding onto the unraveling threads on Jesus’ worn robes … which they have to do because their ability to see clearly was so messed up by their pagan ways. Reminds me of the parable of the priest and the old sinner, both explaining to God their needs. The priest tells God that since his life has been so flawless he should be rewarded greatly, and the old sinner begging God for mercy because of such a miserable and sinful life. Cradle Catholics take heed, you often have no idea that your are the most miserable wretches of all, aka hypocrites, the bottom of the heap of obnoxious sinners, the very ones who stand in the way of Jesus’ salvific works.
Shame on the snide attempts at humor and the belittlement of Dorothy Day, especially by those who consider themselves “faithful” Catholics.
Whatever the eventual outcome of her cause, the fact that the Church has accepted Day’s cause for sainthood and proclaimed her to be a “Servant of God”, should be authority enough to answer the specious and insulting claims made against her here.
I hope you don’t think I was belittling her, Brian. I was poking fun of me! I used to have an opinion on this one, but like you, am letting the powers that be make the decision. When it comes to saints, believe me, the truth will out! It’s just her name is so rythmical. Peace.
Here’s a post conversion, pacifist Dorothy on Cuba and Castro in “About Cuba” (Catholic Worker column). Note in particular the last several paragraphs, e.g., “We are on the side of the Revolution.” Or, “…we do not believe in violent revolution. Yet we do believe that it is better to revolt, to fight, as Castro did with his handful of men, …than to do nothing.” Oh, and “God bless Castro and all who are seeing Christ in the poor.” https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/reprint.cfm?TextID=246
Can Abp Gomez be so unfamiliar with her history while promoting her cause, or well aware of it – and promoting her cause?
Thanks for the link, Hymie, the article was very illuminating. However, it was not the pro-communist advocacy you claim.
In this article, she criticized clergy who seek comfort and social connections while ignoring the needs and scandals around them.
She condemned the false treatment of American workers in California farm fields, performed against them to aid in their insistence on cheaper, foreign labor.
She condemned the reliance upon governmental charity, exemplified by the church which turned the needy away in favor of government subsidy and assistance.
Can any of this seem unusual to the readers of these pages?
And yes – she called for a different understanding of property – as did Leo XIII.
Choose to follow your Church, Hymie, not your political masters, and read the words of this Servant of God again, this time with charity.
The Archbishop should be speaking and spending his time on – “how to get Catholics to adhere to their Faith – 100%”,
and what catechesis he intends to put into place for all adults within his Diocese.
(Most Americans will ignore Dorothy Day, and her checkered political past will only confuse many who care enough to pay attention.)
The Church can do more than one thing at a time, Dottie.
I am happy to see this cause go forward mostly because public discussion of this fine American’s record will especially encourage American Catholics to better adhere 100% to their faith, particularly those whose adherence is complicated by their political habits.
Dottie, get rid of the “adhere” business; it makes you seem ridiculous, ignorant, and faith challenged. Jesus never told us to “adhere” to any book, but rather to follow Him. Those who believe that Catholicism is nothing more than following a set of rules are really no more than the off kilter Jewish scribes, pharisees and sadducees who had perverted what God had given them into a rule book. You put yourself forward as being Catholic but you fail at the essence of faith in Jesus. St Paul warns the Church about the threat of the “judaizers” … so stop being one, and pay attention and strain your brain towards understanding the issue. Other bloggers have explained the role of the CCC the way the Popes have explained it … so stop perverting what the Church is teaching by turning Jesus into a book such as many protestants have done.
When I was explaining to my beautifully faithful protestant sister about how Jesus is the Word and that we Catholics are able to take Him directly into our very selves it really helped her understand how Catholics view the Bible, and how the Eucharist is the very source and summit of our faith. We’re not people of the Book, as protestants are. I love how Dr.Scott Hahn makes the Eucharist come alive as he explains just what it is we celebrate. It has to be taught so that we can take a more active role in this sacred meal. God bless you Skai and Dottie. If you haven’t read “The Lamb’s Supper” I highly recommend it. We should all be so joyful and generous for what we are given at each Mass.
Skai, you must adhere to the Doctrine of the Faith (which is contained in the CCC). Yes Jesus told us to follow Him. But if you do not read, how do you expect to follow Whom/what you do not know?
Let me remind you of: Mt 16:18-19 and Mt 18:18 – which you like to ignore.
And before you state it is up to the Bishops to teach (which is absolutely true), many do not. And that is why the Church in the USA is in such a sad state – with only 27% of all Catholics stating they are strong Catholics, and of the 27% only half of those attend Mass once a week.
See “Dying on the Vine” 8-22 by ChurchMilitantTV. https://www.churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2013-08-22
Skai, instead of fighting our last 3 Popes who have asked us to study the CCC so we will know our Faith, and instead of bad-mouthing others who agree with our Popes, – why don’t you constructively tell all of us what we as individuals can do to teach the Faith ACCURATELY (not our own or your own potentially flawed opinions) ? Be very specific instead of hand waving.
Ah, yes, Saul Alinsky, beloved of St Teresa:
“Nov. 1 is All Saints Day. Nov. 2 is All Souls Day. This year, among all our other dead, we commemorate the deaths of Saul Alinsky and Paul Goodman, both of whom I believe did a great amount of good and had the clear intelligence the older St. Teresa so esteemed in spiritual advisors … Both men brought about great clarification of thought (the first plank in Peter Maurin’s program), and brought hope and self-respect to the oppressed in the field of economics and education.” Dorothy Day – CW 1972
Maybe obama will dedicate a special day in Alinsky’s sainted memory? Thanks, Hymie…that speaks absolute volumes. I remain neutral but it certainly raises many …eyebrows? hackles? questions? temperatures? objections?
So, Hymie, what was the context of Day’s quote? Without knowing the context, the quote makes no point: for example, maybe conditions were worse for those particular poor prior to the Alinsky activism. Same thing in parts of the Church today, where the conditions of boys is bleak compared to those in most of Russia. The Gospels pretty much don’t name names or get into ideologies, but simply say to help the poor. Many armchair theoreticianalists put ideologies, ideas, and various other vanities ahead of simple charity. When bishops stand in the way of helping poor people, then whatever it takes to get them shoved aside is called for. Jesus used a whip to clear out the deadbeats from His Father’s temple, and Dorothy Day evidently did what it took to clear a path for the public to extend charity to the poor. Same conditions today, in that the bishops are preventing the ending of abortion and promoting the gay agenda. Your theories are nonsense, Hymie.
Christians have always shared with the poor Skai. My mom was constantly collecting clothes to send to reservations , money for missions etc. but she did it quietly and without fanfare, as Jesus told us to do. My Grandmother gave her little mite, but it was all she had. People are capable of tremendous generosity when moved by the Holy Spirit. This whole DD>personality cult is just way over the top, and her adherents remind me of Che Guevera fanatics. The zen/Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, who you can google by simply typing in zen/buddhist monk!! I’m out of here on this one…too weird! To be honest, she’s always creeped me out. I guess I’m not as neutral as I’d hoped to be.
The context? The first sentence.
Hymie, you posted a link, to which I responded in detail. Now, you ignore that response and post a new snippet. You are simply talking past the issues you claim to rise.
As for your latest bait – I’ve never understood the intensity of the hatred toward Alinsky here. He fought the corrupt system of Chicago on behalf of folks that system oppressed and against heavy odds, had some success. Apparently many prefer to identify with the Daley Machine and its gangsters.
I’m happy to see that Dorothy Day might have appreciated him.
Brian S. writes, “I’ve never understood the intensity of the hatred toward Alinsky here.”
Brian S., After that unbelievably troubling comment, you are far more to be pitied than chastised. Do you grasp the intensity of hatred that Lucifer has for God? You are either a deliberate minion worker yourself or perhaps you are very confused and seriously being misled by false teachers. Brian, You should NOT be supporting anyone who dedicates their work to the devil. You are inviting darkness upon yourself. That is not good. Please don’t ignore these questions. Please let us know who is teaching you to coddle, enable or support individuals who dedicate their work to Lucifer?
Brian do you pray the rosary? Brian do you reject Satan and all of his empty promises? Saul Alinsky did not reject Satan, he dedicated his work to the father of lies so why do you support such evil? Your response will truly clarify which master you are serving.
Oh, please, Catherine … I didn’t endorse Alinsky’s profane dedication. Stop spewing accusations and slanders.
Alinsky was an atheist and a provocatour. That endorsement was a deliberate provocation but about as theologically substantial as the fact that there is a “Hell, Michigan”; a “Hell’s Half Acre” in Wyoming; a National Monument named “Devil’s Tower”; or a popular Charlie Daniels song about the Devil, a fiddle, and a crossroads.
Brian S., Ok this isn’t the site for intelligent Catholic discussion. I bet all they know is that he dedicated a book to Satan. For myself, I didn’t like his tactics and I didn’t like his book. Many of the people who hold him up for disdain rival him in their practices.
Saul Alinsky was a Marxist and Communist who taught ‘community organizing’ according to his atheism.
“True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties…. ” – Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
Alinsky’s opening page DEDICATION: “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history… the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer. ”
Alinsky’s PROLOGUE: “The Revolutionary force today has two targets, moral as well as material. ….”
” A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage — the political paradise of COMMUNISM. ” p.10
Obama and Hillary Clinton are Chicago students of Alinsky’s methods.
“IF” Dorothy Day admired or promoted the teachings of Saul Alinksy, she is no Saint.
Esteemed spiritual advisor Saul Alinsky dedicates his book Rules for Radicals (original title: Rules for Revolution):
“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”
“Is it Soviet Russia who is the threat to the world? Is it indeed? Then may we quote from Scott Nearing’s THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR?
“‘What nation today has a navy bigger than all other navies combined? The U. S. A. What nation today is steadily adding to the only known stockpile of atom bombs? The U. S. A. What nation today is tops in the development of buzz bombs, jet planes, bacterial poisons and death rays? The U. S. A. What nation today is spending the largest sums on military preparations? The U. S. A. What nation today is permitting representatives of the armed forces to take over the direction of domestic and foreign policy? The U. S. A. What nation today is arming its neighbors (in Latin America), intervening in the internal affairs of Europe and Asia, threatening the world peace and security and rapidly surrounding itself with a black curtain of anxiety, suspicion and hatred? The U. S. A.’
“…We are against Universal Military Training because it is preparation for sin, For the sin that is war. That it is better that the United States be liquidated than that she survive by war.
“What would we advocate? Wholesale disloyalty to Americanism. Wholesale refusal to fight. Wholesale withdrawal of labor (a general strike) from all industries that further the war effort….” Dorothy Day “We Are Un-American: We are Catholic” CW 1948
Now imagine the United States, then or now, without a military, without weapons, without defense. Think of that for a moment, and if it takes you longer, then Dorothy is the girl for you.
Correction: CW article title should read, “We Are Un-American, We Are Catholics”
Like many other Saints, Day was a pacifist and one unwilling to rationalize the anti-Catholic actions of her own country. Apparently you are comfortable being Catholic while supporting the destruction of cities. Day could not be. Unlike you, she put faith before country.
But she was more than willing to rationalize Fidel, Che, Ho, Mao, Angela Davis, the Soviet Union, Communism, etc., ad nauseum. By the way, she wasn’t declared a Saint.
Behold thy mother, the Murderess Angela Davis. O.K. by Dorothy.
“Underneath a picture of Angela Davis which appeared in the “Daily World” [the Communist daily] a few weeks ago, there was a caption, ‘All generations shall call her blessed.’ To continue to quote scripture, she has been ‘counted worthy to suffer dishonor’ for justice sake. Angela Davis is a Communist, in this case and it is a name for vilification nowadays, though the early Christians, working for the common good became communists in a very literal sense….
“…since Christ is our brother, Angela Davis is our sister, and we love and esteem her as such. We cannot and must not prejudge her case any more than we can the case against Fathers Phil and Dan Berrigan.
“Angela Davis is a beautiful young woman, a graduate of Brandeis University, and at a time when jobs even in the academic field were scarce, risked her livelihood by openly stating her faith in the kind of social order which she thought would bring justice and a better life for her black brothers and sisters….
“Angela Davis is already judged because she admits she is a communist. She was also a teacher of philosophy at a California university and losing her job because she was a communist.
“And yet today Catholics can boast that the Vatican has started an Institute of Marxist Studies. It makes me want, though it is rather late to do so, to enroll in the Marxist school here in New York. Of course we should all study Marxism, instead of thinking always of the dangers of such knowledge of a philosophy and economic theory which has dominated today the thinking of much of the world.” by Dorothy Day – The Catholic Worker 1971
For Miss Day’s entire screed: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/daytext.cfm?TextID=933
To clarify, Angela Davis was an accessory to murder. Driven by love for Soledad Brother George Jackson, she plotted (manipulated Jackson’s emotional 17-year-old brother) to free the murderer, and supplied the guns, one of which, a shotgun, literally blew the head off of the presiding judge. Part of her defense was that the now dead 17-year-old had stolen her guns. No greater love, eh Dorothy.
Angela Davis was found not guilty.
So was O.J. To avoid arrest, Davis fled, used aliases, and changed her appearance. Her trial was a classic case of jury selection manipulation. After acquittal one juror gave the revolutionary clenched fist solute to the public. The murder weapons were returned to her except for the shotgun, which being sawed-off, was illegal. Trial aside, Davis called for the violent overthrow of the US and capitalism, claimed that all minorities in jail are political prisoners of a racist America and should be released, was a Communist Party member and a Lenin Prize recipient. I could of course go on.
The point here isn’t Davis. It’s Dorothy Day, that she would give her support to such a person (and others like her). Miss Day herself saw the US and free market capitalism, not Communism, as the focus of evil in the world. If it looks like a Duck, swims like a Duck, and quacks like a Duck…
Miss Day visits Communist Cuba and sees in the excommunicated Fidel Castro her mentor Peter Maurin.
“This was not all of his [Fidel’s] talk. And will it be shocking to our readers to learn that as I heard him speak three other times, the sound of his voice, his manner of oratory, his constant repetitions, reminded me of Peter Maurin? whose ideas, whose way of expressing himself, whose example of poverty and work, whose great message, if taken up by teachers throughout the church might have achieved in its time, the green revolution he was always speaking of.
“But ours is the Way of the Cross, and not the least of the suffering is the recognition that so much of it is unnecessary, that it is the scribes and pharisees, the priests and the levites of the present day who are shouting “Lord, Lord” and denying Him, in His poor, denying Him in their acceptance of the armies of the State, denying Him in not working for that kind of society where it is easier for men to be good.
Fidel called for self-criticism, and he went on in his speech, more of which we will print in future articles, to criticize the young bureaucrat who pulls down a fat salary, and all those who pull down a salary of more than they need, while the campesino continues to work for a large and hungry family.”
by Dorothy Day – The Catholic Worker, Oct 1962
For the full Kowtowing: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/daytext.cfm?TextID=795
PS: Would love to hear Abp Gomez’s take on Castro.
Hymie, you are simply mis-interpreting these texts and the proof of that is simple – Holy Church proclaimed Day to be a “Servant of God”. That is a great title, not given lightly or to heretics.
Consider the pride you would feel if a family member had been given this honor. You would not only be insulted if that family member was accused of standing against Church teaching, you would insist on respect for the proclamation of the Church, and scoff that the accusation could even be seriously considered. Yet as members of the visible Body of Christ, you, me, and Dorothy Day share an eternal and Divine mystical connection obviously more complete of even the natural connections of family members.
Simply put, Holy Church read Day’s writings and did not find Day’s opinions and observations damning. You should respect that and look harder for the reasons why that is so.
Huh, what? “Servant of God” is a multiphase process , of which the gathering of testimony and writings, and examination by a diocesan tribunal is merely the first. It’s the bare beginnings not the end, and Holy Church has neither read nor found.
Day was named a Servant of God in 2000, you could look it up. But get real, the Church doesn’t open canonization files on anyone who asks, and they don’t do it without reading and finding. It simply would not have been done if the “case” you make was true..
Let this article encourage you to examine your conclusions further.
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/the-dorothy-day-few-of-us-know
I do not know if the Reign of Archbishop Gomez is a disappointment to Christ who sees and knows his heart, but I do know it’s been a disappointment to me.
Archbishop Gomez and some other US Bishops have been promoting the “dignity of the human person” above the worship of God – which must be first / foremost. Their first duty is to teach the Faith to all Catholics in which they have failed miserably.
See “Blindness about Obama” 08-23 by ChurchMilitantTV.
https://www.churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2013-08-23
I take issue with women who were mothers first and then abandoned or neglected the role of motherhood to pursue social causes in the name of the Church. I believe we are to fulfill the duties of our God given station in life, not seek our own glory in other causes no matter how good the cause may be.
That’s exactly what Margaret Sanger did, too. Interesting point, Anne.
Only her cause was Marxist revolution which is never good. Not to worry. Assuming her Cause ever leaves the fever swamps of the USCCB and the New York diocese for higher ground and fresh air, it won’t pass the smell test.