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Clarification

Summary: Responds to criticism of their refusal to participate in air raid drills. Says they are rejecting the authority of the State to compel men to war. Says “Self-suffering, non-resistance to evil, is an alternative offered by the pacifist to the government, . . .” Keywords: civil disobedience, pacifism. (DDLW #728: The Catholic Worker, October 1957, page 2.)

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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.

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Our Country Passes from Undeclared War to Declared War; We Continue Our Christian Pacifist Stand

Summary: A month after Pearl Harbor she reaffirms the gospel basis of pacifism. Says she will not be carping in her criticism of our country but refuses to participate in war. Recommends constant prayer, the works of mercy, and mutual forbearance in disagreements. (DDLW #868) The Catholic Worker, January 1942, 1,4.

 

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Our Stand

Summary: Reasserts their pacifist stand and opposes the use of force in the labor movement, in class struggle, and struggles between countries. Quotes Catholic theologians and Popes. Repeats that God’s Word is Love and that using only non-violent means is indeed “the Folly of the Cross.” Doubts that the conditions for a “just war” can be met in these times. (DDLW #360). The Catholic Worker, June 1940, 1, 4.