Catholic Worker movement is a Roman Catholic social movement founded in 1933 by the American journalist Dorothy Day and the French-born philosopher Peter Maurin . The movement has been influential in promoting a Catholic commitment to social justice, peace, and helping poor and working-class people.
Day met Maurin in 1932. Day was a radical journalist and social activist and a recent convert to Catholicism. Radicalism is a philosophy concerned with eliminating injustices in society. Maurin was a French immigrant to the United States . He was deeply committed to Catholic social teaching that emphasized the relevance of the Gospels and the tradition of certain saints to modern economic problems. Maurin also believed in what he called “the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism.” By “gentle personalism,” he meant that all people should be treated with kindness and love regardless of their wealth and social position. Maurin inspired Day to launch The Catholic Worker monthly newspaper, first published in May 1933. The highly successful paper publicized the ideals of the Catholic Church and saints. It soon led to the founding of the Catholic Worker movement and more than 40 “houses of hospitality” across the United States. Volunteers came to live and work in such houses, which provided food and shelter for thousands of poor and homeless people. The movement also stood for peace and the interests of laborers.
Maurin’s three-point program for the Catholic Worker included the houses of hospitality; round-table discussions to promote Catholic social teaching; and agronomic universities, rural farm communes that Maurin envisioned as models for a simpler, more just society. The movement also encouraged the daily practice of such traditional “works of mercy” as feeding the hungry and visiting those in prison. The works of mercy have their basis in the Bible . In addition, the Catholic Worker movement criticized war and the economic model of capitalism .
The movement declined during World War II (1939-1945), because of its pacifist (antiwar and antiviolence) stance. Many houses of hospitality closed. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the movement attracted a new generation of followers. These included the American political thinker Michael Harrington, whose writing helped shape a wave of U.S. legislation to aid the poor. Dorothy Day’s autobiography, The Long Loneliness (1952), and her other writings inspired many readers. Followers of the Catholic Worker movement became extremely active in civil-rights , antiwar, and antipoverty movements. Such efforts were aided by the Catholic Church’s growing commitment to addressing social issues.
Dorothy Day died in 1980, but the Catholic Worker movement continued to thrive and grow. Today, there are more than 200 houses of hospitality and farm communes, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia , Canada , and Europe . Anyone may seek help or volunteer at Catholic Worker houses or farms, regardless of their economic means or religion. The movement remains committed to Peter Maurin’s vision and retains a strong Catholic character. It also has attracted followers from Protestantism and other faiths. In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI held up Day as a model for all Christians, and there is a movement to have her declared a saint .
