1940s

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    Day After Day – April 1943

    Summary: Mediates on the Catholic Worker’s mission to all the poor–including those who are deemed unworthy of assistance by some who blame the poor for their condition. Concludes the story of her Southern travels with observations on Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Updates readers on the status of the women’s Bayard Street shelter and the history behind Ade Bethune’s illustrated Stations of the Cross. (The Catholic Worker, April 1943 DDLW #388).

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    Day After Day – March 1943

    Summary: Describes her tour of the South in prose which evokes the rigors of travelling by bus in wartime and her reactions to the people she meets in Florida and Alabama. Praises the work of priests and religious in Alabama. Describes the hard work and poor housing for Negroes, Southern land ownership patterns, and race relations. (The Catholic Worker, March 1943, 1, 4. DDLW #387).

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    Day After Day

    Summary: Discusses the two major subjects of her speaking engagements, Peter Maurin, whom she describes as founder and mind of the C.W., and personalism, which she describes as communitarian, and the philosophy of both P. Maurin and the C.W.. Describes some of the difficulties in living the CW vocation and running farming communes. Recommends reading the Desert Fathers and Aldous Huxley’s Grey Eminence to understand personalism and communitarianism. (DDLW #148). The Catholic Worker, February 1943, 1,4.

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    If Conscription Comes For Women

    Summary: Asserts she would not register for the draft because it is the first step toward war and answers common objections to her stance. Cites the Holy Father, Thoreau, and E. I. Watkin, founder of the PAX movement in England. Keywords: pacifism, conscientious objection, taxes. (The Catholic Worker, January 1943, 1, 4. DDLW #222).

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    Day After Day – January 1943

    Summary: A general summary of the Catholic Worker after 10 years–list of houses and farms (open and closed), marriages, births, deaths; whereabouts of workers; her travels. Notes they making an attempt at applying a personalist, communitarian philosophy, and quotes Eric Gill’s notion of “a cell of good living.” Keywords: philosophy of the Catholic Worker, conscientious objection. (The Catholic Worker, January 1943, 4, 6. DDLW #221).

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    Day After Day – November 1942

    Summary: Recounts her travels throughout the Midwest, reviews CW accomplishments and establishments, updates on various Catholic Worker activities, and those serviing in the armed forces. Notes the creation of two conscientious objector camps and the formation of the Association of Catholic Conscientious Objectors. A lengthy description of people and activities centered on the farm at Avon, Ohio. (The Catholic Worker, November 1942, 1, 4, 5. DDLW #386).

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    Day After Day – September 1942

    Summary: A St. Joseph Day bequest provides an opportunity to explain why The Catholic Worker has never incorporated and the nature of its organizational philosophy favoring smallness. As he had promised, Tony Pereiro brings spindles, similar to those used by Gandhi, as souvenirs from his trip to India which are viewed as “revolutionary implements,” symbols of another way of life. eywords: industrialism, philosophy of the Catholic Worker (The Catholic Worker, September 1942, 1, 4. DDLW #385).

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    Day After Day (July/August 1942)

    Summary: Updates about Odell Waller’s execution, the plight of Japanese-Americans in detention camps, the release of Panchelly, Woodworth, and Brown from Trenton Penetentiary, and the doings of various Catholic Workers such as Ossie Bondy, Peter Maurin, and Ade Bethune. Recounts her brushes with the FBI inquiring about conscientious objectors and the Office of Censorship, and shares her concern that the military has occupied land belonging to Catholic institutions. Gives the schedule of retreats, a description of Mott Street in oppresive Summer heat and various infestations, and an expression of gratitude to Nina Polcyn (Milwaukee) and Justine L’Esperance (Detroit) for their help. (DDLW #384). The Catholic Worker, July/August 1942, 1, 4.

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    Day After Day – May 1942

    Summary: Reviews her lecture-tour and visit to Catholic Worker groups begun on March 29th through Montreal; Baltimore, where she revisited acquaintances at St. Peter Claver’s; Cincinnati; a lecture at a girls’ school in nearby Kentucky and a visit to a state mental hospital; St. Louis where she renewed old friendships and was reminded of America’s racial problems; Oklahoma City and a visit to a federal reformatory and St. Patrick’s Guest House where she visited conscientious objectors. Muses how this journey is part of the work although she prefers settling down. (The Catholic Worker, May 1942, 1, 4, 7. DDLW #382).

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    Go To The Poor 

    Summary: Inspired by the beauty and inner-city location of Los Angeles’ St. Bibiana Cathedral, this editorial focuses on the poor. “The closer we are to the poor, the closer to Christ’s love.” Because May, 1942 marked The Catholic Worker’s tenth year, reminds readers that we are called to love all men, friend and foe alike, because all are brothers: “love is shown by works of mercy, not by war.” (DDLW #383) The Catholic Worker, May 1942, 4.

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    Day After Day – April 1942

    Summary: Begins with an appeal for two worthy causes–the Bishop’s relief fund for war victims and the New York Catholic Charities. Ponders the role of citizens during wartime and our penchant for choosing men of action, like General MacArthur, as heroes rather than figures like Pope Pius XII. Envisions speaking about rayer in Wartime, the rural life movement, feeding the poor and hungry, and the use of decentralism and other means for producing social change on an upcoming West Coast trip. Denies that her strict pacifism has split the Catholic Worker movement and points out that they face more reader-resistance for their policy against denying aid to the “undeserving” poor. (The Catholic Worker, April 1942, 1, 4. DDLW #381).

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    Why Do the Members of Christ Tear One Another?

    Summary: Protesting against a journalist’s assertion that they are sentimentalists in their pacifism and afraid of suffering, she challenges her critics to spend time in the city slums where Catholic Workers regularly battle the realities of disease, poverty, filth, cold, foul smells, etc. Quoting Dostoevsky, she assures her readers that Catholic Workers were not sanctimonious but approached their work with true humility and love. Notes with irony that pacifism, while not popular with society as a whole, was the philosophy which society wished to impose on the poor and disenfranchised victims of America’s class war. Rejects the suggestion that they should remain silent. (DDLW #390). The Catholic Worker, February 1942, 1, 4, 7.