I missed this earlier this week, as I was probably too busy from snow removal and recovering from it. In getting caught up with a few friend’s blogposts I noticed that Dymphna’s Well had a post on Dorothy Day this past Wednesday.
“Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.
An early radical, Day became a socialist, dropped out of college, married and had an abortion before converting to Catholicism as an adult. As this article by Andrew Hamilton says, Dorothy’s was ‘a gospel with teeth.’ She founded Catholic Worker Houses that helped (and still help) the poor–alcoholics, drug addicts and street people.
Her theology was all about pacifism, hospitality and human dignity. The poor who came to her were treated with dignity and non-violence–the first many had ever known. Even when involved in political passive resistance (think, Gandhi and Martin Luther King) the innate human dignity of one’s opponent was at the forefront.
*This* is Christianity. This is what Jesus wants us to do.”
Posted by Dymphna at 11:23 AM on December 1, 2010
(Via Dymphna’s Well.)
Catholic Worker Houses, as Dymphna says, still offer a lot of assistance to those on the fringes and margins of society, many of whom are there due to alcoholism and addictions.
Dorothy Day is not a canonized saint yet (although I tagged this post in that category), but her work is an excellent portrayal of applied Christianity.
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Thanks for reposting my post! Applied Christianity is so difficult to do for most of us.
No problem Dymphna!