She once stated, “Writing is an act of community. It is a letter, it is comforting, consoling, helping, advising on our part, as well as asking it on yours. It is a part of our human association with each other. It is an expression of our love and concern for each other.”
Her work in the Catholic Worker Movement brought her recognition by the church.
In 1955, at the age of 58, Dorothy Day became an Oblate of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois. (click here)
One of the roles of the Abbey today is as a vocation retreat.
...Eugene O'Neill (click here) was a friend and possibly one of her lovers. Her autobiographies discuss night-long drinking episodes and friends dying of heroin overdoses; she lived in a common law marriage, had at least two pregnancies and one abortion, and somehow found God through the gift of giving birth to a daughter. She was, as the times dictated, a suffragette, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, steadfast pacifist throughout some of the century's most horrible wars, faithful servant of the Catholic Church, and always a voice for Christ-like love and acceptance. Dorothy Day is probably one of the few people in the world who would have been able to say that they had been prosecuted for pacifist activities in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, and even the Cold War. (She was jailed in New York City in 1956 for refusing to take part in a Civil Defense Drill.)
Although pacifism became her enduring legacy, it was her work for the poor, the displaced, and the socially unacceptable, which consumed almost her whole life. Whether in homes and meals for the dispossessed of our society or communal farms that might support the urban shelters, Dorothy's legacy continues today. There are Catholic Worker chapters in most major American cities (including Boise.) Dorothy never stopped protesting against war, she constantly fought a battle for just wages, including one with the Cardinal of New York City, she opposed with all her fervor racism and she knew from personal experience the inequities of our justice and political systems....
Her work in the Catholic Worker Movement brought her recognition by the church.
One of the roles of the Abbey today is as a vocation retreat.
...Eugene O'Neill (click here) was a friend and possibly one of her lovers. Her autobiographies discuss night-long drinking episodes and friends dying of heroin overdoses; she lived in a common law marriage, had at least two pregnancies and one abortion, and somehow found God through the gift of giving birth to a daughter. She was, as the times dictated, a suffragette, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, steadfast pacifist throughout some of the century's most horrible wars, faithful servant of the Catholic Church, and always a voice for Christ-like love and acceptance. Dorothy Day is probably one of the few people in the world who would have been able to say that they had been prosecuted for pacifist activities in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, and even the Cold War. (She was jailed in New York City in 1956 for refusing to take part in a Civil Defense Drill.)
Although pacifism became her enduring legacy, it was her work for the poor, the displaced, and the socially unacceptable, which consumed almost her whole life. Whether in homes and meals for the dispossessed of our society or communal farms that might support the urban shelters, Dorothy's legacy continues today. There are Catholic Worker chapters in most major American cities (including Boise.) Dorothy never stopped protesting against war, she constantly fought a battle for just wages, including one with the Cardinal of New York City, she opposed with all her fervor racism and she knew from personal experience the inequities of our justice and political systems....
