ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes her sheltered childhood and her voluminous reading. After being baptized in the Episcopalian Church and loving the services she disavows organized religion as her sense of social justice develops. (DDLW #203).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Recounts her loneliness and poverty at college as well as her conscious turn away from religion. Describes reading Upton Sinclair, Ignazio Silone, Kropotkin, Tolstoi, and Dostoevsky–the latter two allowing her to cling to faith in God. Her yearning grows to struggle with the masses. “Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves but to do away with slavery?” (DDLW #204).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An account of the deep friendship with Rayna Prohme whose joyousness and love for truth deeply impressed her. Although Rayna died a Communist, she is counted among those who belong “to the invisible unity of the Church.” (DDLW #205).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: (DOC #206) Recounts the misery of New York in 1916, her loneliness, and life in tenements among the ethnic poor. Describes her first newspaper job with The Call, the competing social ideologies, and sporadic strikes and protests.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes her life as an advocacy journalist depicting the misery of the poor and working class. Engages in picketing, organizing, and anti-conscription activities. An account of being jailed with suffragettes and their hunger strike. Theme of being “tormented by God” and impulses toward faith recurs. (DDLW #207).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Tells of the Catholic Worker houses and projects in Los Angelus and San Francisco. Notes the many priests and bishops involved with labor issues and the need for a philosophy of work. (The Catholic Worker, December 1937, 1, 2. DDLW #327).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Reflects on the plight of the men on the breadline and the “natural cheerfulness of the moment.” Asks readers to help their work of feeding those who represent Christ. (DDLW #328). The Catholic Worker, December 1937, 1, 4.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Facing the desperation of the Great Depression with hope is difficult. Reminds us of the common laboring life of Christ and the Holy Family. Religion links us in a brotherhood through Christ and is a battle “unto the pulling down of fortifications.” (DDLW #188). The Catholic Worker, December 1937, 3.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes a visit to Tom Mooney who was jailed in 1915 for labor organizing and who spends his days caring for infirm inmates in San Quentin prison. Mooney sees Christ as “a great Leader of the workers who set an example of laying down His life for the poor and dispossessed of this world.” (The Catholic Worker, November 1937, 1. DDLW #326).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An interview with the Governor of Michigan and his role in settling strikes and labor disputes in a non-violent way. Highlights his views on law and order, but rejection of force and violence. Notes his membership in the Third Order of Franciscans. (DDLW #885: The Catholic Worker, October 1937, pp. 1,3).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Supports strikes but not using violence by strikers or company guards. Quotes Norman Thomas on our violent history. Keywords: non-violence, labor (DDLW #906). The Catholic Worker, October 1937, pp. 1,2
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Tales of children at the Easton farm, sleeping under a leaking roof, and recent donations. Tells of their prayers to St. Joseph for money to acquire a nearby farm and to build a chapel. (The Catholic Worker, September 1937, 1, 2. DDLW #325).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: In the midst of house renovation the bread line continues. Says those who oppose helping the destitute have an “atheistic attitude.” Appeals for money and describes their “Little Italy” neighborhood. (The Catholic Worker, August 1937, 1, 2. DDLW #324).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Blames the press and factory owners for inciting police violence against strikers. Relates the suffering of those beaten to Christ’s in the garden of Gethsemane. Says we are all guilty for not protesting. Includes some news from the Easton farm. (DDLW #323). The Catholic Worker, July 1937, 1, 4, 7.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes parish life in a South Side Chicago slum, the beautiful liturgy in a St. Louis, Missouri, convent. Speaks to workers, white and colored, and lauds the teaching and hospital work of a 75 year old priest, Fr. John Lyons. (The Catholic Worker, June 1937, 4, 6, 7. DDLW #322).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes the agrarian life at the Easton, Pennsylvania, farm–plans for the barns, a newborn lamb, and the promise of goats. Tells of stopping in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on her way West. (The Catholic Worker, May 1937, 4, 7. DDLW #321).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Exhorts organizers of an anti-Communist rally to stop inciting hate and violence with inflammatory propaganda. Rather, “Forget the negative idea of”fighting Communism,” and concentrate on that of building up the Mystical Body of Christ.” Addressed to the Head of International Catholic Truth Society (The Catholic Worker, May 1937, 1, 2. DDLW #320).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes those who deny Christ in His poor as “atheists indeed.” Blames well-off “professing Christians” for repelling those with no religion. Quotes from a pamphlet given to the men in the breadline about Christ being their brother and His poverty. (The Catholic Worker, April 1937, 4. DDLW #319).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Urges John Brophey, the C.I.O. trade unions director, to use the technique of sit-down strikes, a nonviolent form of coercion, a means used by Gandhi and an example of pure means advocated by Maritain. “The use of force is unchristian.” (The Catholic Worker, April 1937, 1, 3. DDLW #318).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Supports the sit-down strike as a nonviolent tactic in labor organizing. Describes in detail a visit to strikers against General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Notes Communists take advantage of strikes to promote their philosophy of life and calls for Catholics to become “apostles of labor” to reach the masses. (The Catholic Worker, March 1937, 1, 4. DDLW #317).
