The Catholic Worker Movement traces its beginnings to May 1, 1933, when Dorothy Day and three others distributed an eight-page tabloid newspaper in the midst of a crowded, festive Union Square in New York City. She would later describe the scene as “a hot undulant sea of hats and sun-baked heads, over which floated a disordered array of banners, placards and pennants.”
The newspaper was The Catholic Worker, founded “for those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight,” an editorial inside the paper explained. “It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic Church has a social program — to let them know that there are men of God who are working not only for their spiritual, but for their material welfare.”
As distribution of the paper swelled in the following years, Day and other “Catholic Workers” attempted to live out the ideals they wrote about, founding “houses of hospitality” for the poor and “farming communes” for the unemployed. A movement was born.
Learn more about the history of the Catholic Worker in the articles below.
Biography of Peter Maurin
What is the Catholic Worker?
May Day, 1933
A Catholic Worker Primer (Chuck Trapkus)
A Brief Introduction to the Catholic Worker Movement
