Dorothy Day On Work
1946 SeptemberThe Church and WorkDiscusses in length the modern industrial problem of the machine and its relation to factory, land…
Hans Tunnesen
Summary: An obituary for Hans Tunnesen who live and worked at the Catholic Worker for thirty years. Sketches his life, portraying him as a wonderful bread-baker, lover of work, carpenter, and a man of faith. (DDLW #528). The Catholic Worker, February 1973, 2, 5.
On Pilgrimage (April 1963)
Summary: Complains about a litter-filled city park, wondering why the unemployed aren’t put to work to beautify it. Receives a gift of Spanish language lessons and enjoys a visit to her daughter’s family in Vermont. Eulogizes Joe Roach, a long-time resident at their farm–“Joe was another Lazarus.” (DDLW #801). The Catholic Worker, April 1963, 1, 6, 7.
Distributism Is Not Dead
Summary: Reaffirms the distributist economic vision of property and work against critics while acknowledging “It needs to be constantly rewritten, re-assessed, restated…” Comments on Chesterton and Dickens in relation to renewing distributism. (DDLW #244). The Catholic Worker, July-August 1956, 4.
The Long Loneliness
Summary: Eight excerpts from The Long Loneliness around the themes of community and work as envisioned by Peter Maurin: the meaning of liturgy in revolutionary times; Peter Maurin’s vision of community in farming communes; a community of families as a lay form of religious life; mutual aid and giving to increase love; Peter’s emphasis on work over wages and ownership; importance of a philosophy of work based on being made in the image and likeness of God; self-sufficiency in food; the difficulty of restoring community on the land. (DDLW #628). The Catholic Worker, February 1952, 3.
Reflections On Work – March 1947
Summary: Focuses on worker ownership and calls for workers to fight for the means of production, to shun working for the war effort, for priests to come out of their rectories to help the poor, and for all to start the struggle for reform of the social order and against charity growing cold. Repeats the need to be one with the poor and to resist the present social order. (DDLW #452). The Catholic Worker, March 1947, 2, 4.
Reflections on Work (December 1946)
Summary: Reports on the hard life and work of the coal miners of Western Pennsylvania and the strike demands of John L. Lewis. “We want to change man’s work; we want to make people question their work; is it on the way to heaven or hell?” Emphasizes the holiness of work and the sacramental quality of property. (DDLW #229). The Catholic Worker, December 1946, 1, 4.
The Church and Work
Summary: Discusses in length the modern industrial problem of the machine and its relation to factory, land and worker. Explains the C.W.’s attempt to gain the workers back to Christ, by explicating a philosophy of work that distinguishes between those machines that are the extended hand of man and those that make man the extended hand of the machine. Such a philosophy sees people as cooperating with their creator, and to labor is to pray. Criticizes American Catholics for not applying Papal teaching to the work area and shows a particular acrimony to a priest who tell workers to sanctify their surroundings instead of changing it. (DDLW #154). The Catholic Worker, September 1946, 1,3,7,8.
To The Workers
Summary: An impassioned appeal to American workers asking them not to participate in the production of goods which will be used to wage war. She reminds workers of their power and begs them to unite and again sacrifice to further international truth and justice, not mass killing and destruction. (DDLW #347). The Catholic Worker, October 1939, 1, 3.
C. W. States Stand on Strikes
Summary: Articulates their position on strikes while eschewing Communist class war tactics and violent means. Supports strikers because of their god-given dignity and the unity of the Mystical Body–“We are members one of another.” They aim to change the social order, accept sacrifice and failure, to build the Kingdom of Heaven. (DDLW #940). The Catholic Worker, Jul 1936, pp. 1, 2
‘MAN CANNOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE,’ AND NEITHER CAN A NORMAL WOMAN
“Man cannot live by bread alone, not even one dollar and eighty-two cents worth. Neither can a woman.” Dorothy Day’s humorous article about trying to live on $5 a week, the typical wage of young working women. (New York Call Monday, December 18, 1916, page 2.)