Dorothy Day was a secular bohemian before becoming a radical Catholic convert. She was also a suffragist who joined Alice Paul's Silent Sentinels in 1917, protesting for women's right to vote, and was arrested. She co-founded and edited The Catholic Worker. As a social activist, she espoused distributism, a Catholic economic theory she considered halfway between capitalism and socialism.
Dorothy DayUnknown photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsDorothy Day was not a 'perfect' person, she sinned, and she made many mistakes, she led a pretty inverted life, but she always felt that she should do something to help the poor and the unfortunate. She wanted to feed the hungry and give refuge to the homeless and she wanted to help the sick.
Dorothy Day used the newspaper the "Catholic Worker" to stake the difficult terrain of neutral pacifism which she had to sustain during all the wars of her life. In addition to the paper, Day opened "The House of Hospitality" in the slums of New York. Her goal was to do those jobs that sounded good in theory: shelter for the homeless and food for the hungry.
Dorothy Day inspires me because she did not start out as a person with good scruples, or a person who was holy or religious. She was a person who made mistakes but who really lived life. I feel that she was capable of doing great things - maybe I'll be able one day to do the same.
Page created on 12/4/2018 4:04:39 PM
Last edited 10/17/2021 4:08:23 PM
