Heard Around the Catholic Worker (#4, March 3, 2023)
ByCatholicWorker.org
Here’s a roundup of Catholic Worker news for March 3, 2023, including a new film about the Kingsbay Plowshares 7, new community newsletters, a profile of Dorothy Gauchat, and more.
Media of Interest
New Film: Breaking Bread and Laws: Radical Discipleship for Justice and Peace
Austrian filmmaker Cristina Yurena Zerr recently produced a 35-minute film about Martha Hennessy’a struggle for justice and nuclear abolition in relation to the Kingsbay Plowshares 7 action. The film was aired on Austrian television in November 2022 and is available for screening; interested parties can contact Cristina for more information:
What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ in the 21st century? This question frames the portrait of Martha Hennessy (USA), a woman of deep faith who constantly questions how she can help create a more just, liberated society. Due to her protest against nuclear weapons she was sentenced to prison in 2020. Her commitment has its roots in the Catholic Worker movement, co-founded in 1933 by Martha’s grandmother Dorothy Day, a leading peace activist being considered for beatification by the Vatican. Like her grandmother who protested against nuclear armament, Martha Hennessy was prosecuted by the state as a criminal and sent to prison for her activism. This film explores faith and resistance to structures of violence.
CW Newsletters & Other Media
Mark Colville Wants the Catholic Worker to be More Contextual
Through Hell to Hope: Migrants Trying to Reach the USA – The Houston Catholic Worker
On September 23, 2022, my husband, my daughter and I decided to undertake a journey for a better future, for a better quality of life. We are from Venezuela,
Simone Weil House
Simone Weil house has issued a newsletter:
Responding to the Mystery: Reflections from Wendell Berry, Pope Benedict, and Simone Weil — Simone Weil House
These three excerpts point from different angles at a proper human response to the mystery of being. We begin with Wendell Berry’s turning of the tables on the conceit of verifiable knowledge as a basis for action. In the second piece, responding to a similar backdrop, Pope Benedict emphasizes that
Read More
www.simoneweilhouse.org
Call for Volunteers
Haley House Seeks Summer Volunteers
We welcome 3-5 summer residents for the duration of the summer months, with some flexibility around start and end date. This is a volunteer role, where residents live upstairs and have food and housing in exchange for their service and contributions in the soup kitchen.
Loaves and Fishes (Duluth, MN) Seeks 2 Live-in Volunteers
Our ten-member community is hoping for two new live-in volunteers- one in each of our two guest houses.
New on CatholicWorker.org
How to CW
A few days ago, we put up a page called How to Start a Catholic Worker. Mike Doyle at Dorothy Day Tampa suggested writing a series on the topic, but I’m hoping we can round up some more advice from other Catholic Workers, too. This page will serve as a kind of hub for this information.
Mike’s inaugural article also inspired a new category: How to CW. I’m hoping this will become a hub for articles on everything from how to cook for thirty-five people when you were only expecting to feed ten (the “C” answer here is spaghetti, of course) to creating a cooperative as your community’s legal entity to drafting house rules. Again, your submissions are welcome.
Also:
Here’s what else I’ve been working on the past two weeks:
fixing the broken search tool…you should find it works now, better than ever. Also, the search results page now features a single column, which may be easier for some people to scan;
fixed the broken link to the 2019 Aims and Means page, which has also been properly typeset;
Rosalie and I continue to work on the book directory; expect a public rollout by April.
Also, check out this new content:
Dorothy Gauchat, Co-Founder of Our Lady of the Wayside
A short profile of Dorothy and Bill Gauchat, the Cleveland-based Catholic Workers who founded Our Lady of the Wayside for disabled children.
Introducing Dorothy Day Tampa
“It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.” – Postscript, The Long Loneliness At Dorothy Day Tampa, it all happened while we sat there […]
A Report on the Ash Wednesday Prayer Service of Repentance
Art Laffin (Dorothy Day CW, Washington, D.C.) reports on the Ash Wednesday liturgy held in front of the White House to call for the repentance of the United States.
New Events
ALC Mother’s Day Retreat
Greetings. This Spring The ALC (Atlantic Life Community) will be gathering at the Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor PA on May 12-14 (Mother’s Day) Weekend. Our Theme: Eschatology – The end […]
Fasting for Jessica Reznicek
This Lent, we’re fasting every Friday for the release of Jessica Reznicek, a Catholic Worker who was sentenced to eight years in prison for her direct action opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The mission of CatholicWorker.org is to document the Catholic Worker movement in all its diverse expressions around the world. The website includes a searchable archive of all of Dorothy Day's writings in THE CATHOLIC WORKER newspaper, a directory of all known Catholic Worker communities, information about the aims and means of the movement, and news from Catholic Worker communities around the world. See the About CW.org page for more information.
What if we had a roadmap that promised to help move people from the streets into housing? Would that inspire more of us to accompany and help unhoused people on that journey? Matt Harper interviews two longtime housing advocates to create such a roadmap for L.A.’s Skid Row. This article originally appeared in the August 2023 issue of The Catholic Agitator.
When offered the choice between a ‘Catholic Worker House Incorporated’ and a Catholic Worker that is homeless, penniless and its leaders in prison, Dorothy chose the latter.
Daniel Ellsberg released this letter announcing that he has terminal pancreatic cancer on March 2.
Ellsberg is best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in June 1972; however, in his letter he calls his work for nuclear disarmament his greatest cause. Ellsberg is also the father of Robert Ellsberg, editor at Orbis Books and managing editor of The Catholic Worker newspaper from 1976-1978.
This is the seventh in a continuing series of articles about how to start a Catholic Worker community, told through the lived experience of the Tampa Catholic Worker.
This fall, from St. Louis to London, Catholic Workers have walked with Jewish groups and pacifist organizers to protest the United States’ blocking of U.N. resolutions for a ceasefire, to protest Boeing’s supply of weapons to Israel, and to stand in solidarity with Jewish and Palestinian groups advocating for peace and justice.
