In her book Loaves and Fishes, Dorothy Day tells the fascinating and inspiring story of the Catholic Worker movement. The Catholic Worker movement came out of Dorothy’s deep commitment to the poor. As a result of her radical form of Christian hospitality, her wonderful giving of everything she had for the outcast and the marginalized, she encountered many strange people. Indeed, to use the word, strange, seems to cast a negative light on the types of people who found themselves in Dorothy’s midst. This, however, is not what is intended by my use of the word. Instead, I use the word precisely because that is how the poor, the homeless, the others, are seen by the status quo. The word is perhaps more descriptive of those who came to “work” with Dorothy, because surely those who choose poverty are strange in the eyes of the world. This paper will discuss the lives of those people who came to the Catholic Worker, through the eyes of Dorothy Day. In chapters eleven through fifteen of Loaves and Fishes we are given a brief and invaluable glimpse into the world of the Catholic Worker movement and the reality “on the ground,” so to speak. In reading Dorothy’s reflections, it becomes evident that each person in their own special and unique way left a lasting impact on Dorothy and helped to shape that beautiful home of hospitality, the Catholic Worker movement.
In chapter eleven, “Spiritual Advisors,” Dorothy briefly shares how the Catholic Worker movement was received by the Roman Catholic churches in the area and the Church at large. Although there were surely some controversies about the radical nature of the Catholic Worker movement and especially their pacifism,1 Dorothy has fond memories of the clergy who sought relationship with her and the movement. She reflects, “Our connections with the particular members of the clergy have been very close and, I think, mutually rewarding” (124).
In this chapter Dorothy shares about her experience with Father Conrad Hauser, SJ., who intended to come for a day visit to Peter Maurin Farm and ended up staying for two months. As Dorothy remembers, “The morning he arrived was bright and sunny, and Father Hauser fell in love with the place” (124). Father Hauser had been a missionary in China and in Haiti, but had been kicked out of both places. He had read the Catholic Worker paper as a missionary and so felt compelled to stop in while on a visit to New York. It did not take long before Father Hauser had decided to stay with the Catholic Worker for Lent. Dorothy recalls, “After a lifetime of obedience, and without having asked permission of his superiors, he suddenly announced that he would remain at the farm and say Mass for us each day” (125). After hearing of his death a couple months later, she reflects, “It was almost as though when he came to us he knew that his time on earth was drawing to a close and so gave that last gift of himself as a missionary to our group- a precious gift indeed” (126).
Among all the priests that Dorothy encountered in the Catholic Worker movement, the one who particularly “stands out” is Father Pacifique Roy. Before coming to the Catholic Worker Father Roy had worked and lived among the poor in the South. Dorothy remembers how upon his first entrance into the back kitchen of the Catholic Worker house on Mott Street, Father Roy said that he “felt immediately at home” (128). The first morning he arrived he talked and talked and “work was put aside as people gathered around to listen to him” (128). Father Roy took a similar approach to addressing the pressing issues of the day in that “where ever he was, he set out at once to better conditions” (128).
For many years Father Roy was stationed in Baltimore, but would come visit the Catholic Worker on the weekends and run conferences and retreats. Eventually, in 1945, Father Roy got permission to live and work with the Catholic Worker movement at Maryfarm. When he arrived he immediately set out to work; he set up electricity and dug ditches so that water could be brought down to the barn. Father Roy was not only an excellent and diligent manual worker, he also considered saying the daily Mass the most important work of the day. So, he put much effort into making worship “as beautiful as possible”(130). After a trip to the South, Father Roy made some mistakes while saying Mass, which alarmed Dorothy and the others. One of the men from the Catholic Worker brought him to his sister’s home in Montreal and later Dorothy heard that Father Roy had ended up in a mental hospital after he was found in a small Quebec town living with a priest and serving as an altar boy. On a visit to see him in the hospital, Dorothy had a profound and powerful experience with him. He had lost much of his memory, but still remembered her. He showed her the bruises that he had gotten from another patient and told her how one of his nurses called him a dirty pig for wetting the bed. Dorothy remembers how he began to weep like a child and said, “Rejoice.” In response she began to cry as well.
As is well evident from the stories she shares, Dorothy’s experience with these priests had a profound impact on her life. Father Hauser had been an outcast during his other assignments, but among Dorothy and the Catholic Worker he had found a home. Father Roy came to serve and really seemed to sort of take over the Catholic Worker. He was extremely capable in matters of spirituality and certainly his manual labor was a big help to the community at Maryfarm. He had, however, most literally become one of the poor, the wandering, the sick, those for whom Christ had come and those for whom Father Roy had spent his whole life serving.
In chapter twelve Dorothy stops to reflect on all the people who have come to the Catholic Worker looking for something, but why do they come? They come “for a variety of reasons: some come to live their ideals; some come because they are just out of high school and college and are trying to find themselves; some come seeking excitement and adventure because they can no longer stand the monotony of their jobs”(136). Concerning why people leave, Dorothy says, “The reasons for leaving are as diverse as the reasons which prompt them to come”(136). When the question was posed to Stanley one of the Workers, he responded by saying, “They come with a shopping bag and go with trunks, not to speak of all the books lifted out of the library” (137). Or, from another worker, “They come with stars in their eyes and leave with curses on their lips”(137). Someone else explained that “people come because they need group therapy. Every malcontent Catholic sooner or later ends up at The Catholic Worker. There they seem themselves in everyone else, and cure themselves” (137). For all of these reasons and probably much more, people show up on the doorstep of the Catholic Worker to work with Dorothy and to live with the poor of New York City.
In these chapters Dorothy shares about all the people that she remembers walking through the doors of the Catholic Worker looking to work, or to visit, or for a place to stay and some food. The Catholic Worker had a range of people come, from academics and intellectuals to poor and hungry people looking for a place to sleep for a night, or for a year. Indeed, the Catholic Worker became more than just a radical newspaper, more than a home of hospitality, more than a mere movement among others. The Catholic Worker became a community of people coming together from all different backgrounds. To say it was a community is not to idealize the movement. To be sure, Dorothy speaks very openly and clearly of all the interpersonal struggles that people had to deal with in order to work and live together. However, it certainly was a community despite all the strengths and weaknesses of its members. Each person that found themselves at the Catholic Worker made some impact on the movement and evidently, after reading all the stories from Dorothy, these people had a profound effect on her. She developed very deep relationships with people precisely because they lived and worked daily with her to meet the basic needs of people. As with any movement people come and go, and it is clear that this was difficult for Dorothy, because she would lose contact with people and thereby lose relationships that were important to her. The personal relationships that Dorothy built with so many people are the direct corollary of a mission founded on the belief that direct and personal action is the most appropriate and faithful response to the ills of society.
