Pope Francis gives support to the autobiography of Dorothy Day

 

Italian edition of Dorothy Day's autobiography, "I found God through His poor" with a preface by Pope Francis (LEV) 

POPE

• POPE FRANCIS
• BOOK
• LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA

Pope Francis remembers Dorothy Day, finding God in love for poor

Pope Francis writes the preface to the Italian edition of Dorothy Day's autobiography, entitled, “I found God through His poor. From atheism to faith: my inner journey" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana-LEV). Dorothy Day (1897-1980), founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, journalist, writer, pacifist and activist, is remembered for her commitment to the poor and social justice.

By Vatican News

In his preface to the Italian translation of Dorothy Day's autobiography, Pope Francis recalls how she arrived at Christian faith from "the grace that flows from charity, the beauty that flows from witness, and love that is expressed concretely" through service, more than any human efforts or strategies. He recalled how Pope Benedict XVI said that the Church grows through attraction, not by proselytism, and we see this in Dorothy Day's conversion, life and witness.

Declared a Servant of God in 2000, American Dorothy Day (1897-1980) dedicated her life to social justice and human rights, especially the poor, exploited workers, marginalized by society. The Pope paid tribute to her life witness writing that we can all learn from her restlessness, her understanding of the Church, and how she served others.

Always searching

Describing the restlessness of Dorothy Day, the Pope writes about her path from abandoning religious practice to discovering it once again, as she was always searching and open to the spiritual quest that led her to rediscover faith in God, seeing it as the fulness of life and they way to happiness. Dorothy came to see God as not only our consolation, but the fulfillment of our desire for meaning and joy.

The Pope writes how "the Lord longs for restless hearts, not bourgeois souls who are satisfied with what exists."  He explains how God gives us "the fire of divine love that brings to fruition what is beautiful, true and right dwelling in the heart of every person." Dorothy Day's path shows us "an adventure that is good for the heart," the Pope writes, in responding to and accepting God's love for us. 

The Church, leading us to God

The Pope then looked at the beautiful words Dorothy Day had for the Catholic Church, despite the failings and weakness of its members. "As her adherence to the truths of faith grew, so did her consideration of the divine nature of the Catholic Church," the Pope writes. But she recognized the weaknesses of Church members with an "honest and enlightened attitude" that could still see clearly the big picture of "the vocation and identity of the Church: a divine, not human reality which leads us to God and with which God can reach us."

Service expressing God's love

Dorothy Day's concrete outreach to assist others as an activist and a journalist "became a sort of 'highway' with which God touched her heart," the Pope writes. And she shows how the struggle for justice offers a way to realize God's dream of a reconciled humanity. The Pope adds that even today believers and non-believers can be "allies in promoting the dignity of every person when they love and serve the most abandoned persons."

Pope Francis: The Church must accompany workers

 

File photo of Pope Francis with a group of workers in St. Peter's Square on 2 April 2014 

POPE

• POPE FRANCIS
• MESSAGE
• WORK
• MEETING

Pope: Church must accompany workers in midst of job insecurity

Pope Francis sends a message to a meeting of the Christian Workers’ Movement in the Spanish city of Segovia and urges the Church to accompany people struggling on the margins of the economy.

By Devin Watkins

Members of the Christian Workers’ Movement of the Spanish Catholic Action (HOAC) have gathered in the Spanish city of Segovia for their 14th General Assembly, held on 12-15 August.

Pope Francis sent his encouragements on Sunday in a message to participants in the HOAC meeting, which bears the theme “Building Bridges, Tearing Down Walls: The Church in the World of Work Weaving Bonds of Fraternity”.

Work founded in human dignity

In his message, the Pope expressed his appreciation for the organization’s dedication to helping the Church accompany Catholics in the workforce.

Recalling his words in Evangelii Gaudium, he noted that work is “an essential component of life and human dignity”.

“Work is not simply a productive activity, but a means by which we cooperate with God in the work of creation and realize ourselves as human beings,” he said.

The Pope added that human labor helps us to be “co-creators and to participate in building a more just and fraternal world.”

Church’s solidarity amid joblessness

Pope Francis went on to reflect on the Church’s mission to walk with people in all aspects of their lives, including participation in the workforce.

He said the Church especially needs to accompany people who are on the peripheries of the world of work.

“Our commitment cannot be limited to isolated speeches or actions,” he said, “but must be a constant witness of solidarity and support to people in situations of labor and social vulnerability.”

The Church’s mission with workers, he added, includes being close to people who have lost their jobs or suffer from a lack of employment opportunities.

Christians cannot remain enclosed in the walls of our church buildings, he urged, inviting everyone to reach out actively to those in need and to seek “just and lasting solutions” to job insecurity.

Weaving bonds of fraternity

The Pope lamented the fact that unemployment continues to affect many families, saying the Church bears the responsibility of standing in solidarity with “people who face despair and exclusion due to joblessness.”

He concluded his message by encouraging the members of Catholic Action to “weave bonds of fraternity, bear the light of the Gospel, and build a more just society.

“I urge you to continue to be God's people in the midst of working life, and to continue to weave stories of love and solidarity,” concluded Pope Francis. “The Church needs you.”

HOAC 14th General Assembly

Over 800 people from 41 dioceses across Spain are attending the General Assembly in Segovia.

Participants, who including archbishops, bishops and members of the movement, are meeting to discuss and make decisions regarding the challenges, priorities and proposals of HOAC for the next six years.

The movement seeks to reflect a Christian view of reality while confronting the challenges facing the Church in a world burdened by social malaise, inequality, and injustice that particularly affect the workforce.

Newest Staten Island Ferry named for the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

 

Staten Island Ferry

Named For Dorothy Day

Makes Maiden Voyage

By Steven Schwankert

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (OSV News) — A floating monument to Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, made its maiden voyage to Manhattan April 28, sailing forth from Day’s adopted home of Staten Island that afternoon.

Day had deep roots on Staten Island, one of New York’s five boroughs. She was received into the Catholic Church there and lived part of her life there. As an adult, she was baptized at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Tottenville in 1927.

Retired New York Auxiliary Bishop John J. O’Hara, Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Byrne and Msgr. Kevin O’Sullivan of Catholic Charities represented the Archdiocese of New York.

“Our saint. Our Dorothy Day, whom the Lord called over the years, and then in an encounter on the South Shore on the beach with a Sister of Charity, he began drawing her closer and closer and closer. As he formed those prophets of old, so too did he form this great woman,” said Bishop O’Hara in remarks at the ferry’s launch.

The bishop was referring to Sister Aloysia Mary Mulhern, whom Day had approached in 1926 to ask where she could have her newborn daughter, Tamar, baptized. The conversation led to Sister Mulhern instructing Day in the Catholic faith and her baptism Dec. 28, 1927.

Day is a candidate for sainthood and was given the title “Servant of God” when her cause was officially opened in 2000.

“She is not to be admired; she is to be imitated. And as we set sail today on this vessel which bears her name, this ‘Servant of God,’ whom we pray will one day be St. Dorothy Day — I think she’s St. Dorothy Day already,” said Bishop O’Hara, to applause from the approximately 200 guests in attendance.

“Dorothy Day is just the third Staten Island Ferry boat ever to be named after a specific woman. It is only fitting and appropriate to have this new Ferry enshrined (with) the name Dorothy Day,” said New York State Assemblyman Charles D. Fall, in a statement. “Just as she did with her activism, the Ferry continues to bring all walks of life, ethnicity, and faith together as we sail forward. We are proud as a community to have this Ferry today commissioned after the legendary 20th-century Catholic peace icon.”

Robert Ellsberg, who attended the inaugural cruise and had worked with Day as a teenager at The Catholic Worker newspaper, said, “In 1997, which was the centenary of her birth, I wrote to Cardinal (John J.) O’Connor (of New York) and said I hoped he would use the occasion to promote her cause for canonization, which he did.”

Ellsberg later served as the newspaper’s managing editor for two years. Raised in the Episcopal Church, he became a Catholic before editing a number of collections of Day’s writings.

“She was a woman who really took seriously the beatitudes. She not only lived them but stretched them to apply to the issues of her time,” Ellsberg told The Good Newsroom, the digital news outlet of the Archdiocese of New York.

“She was the model of a saint who didn’t just try to care for the poor, care for those who are wounded or sick, but tried to change the social system that creates so many poor people. She did that all as a layperson, as a woman in the church, created a lay movement without asking permission, but just read the Gospels and set out to live that in the most radical way,” added Ellsberg, who is publisher of Orbis Books.

The Dorothy Day is an Ollis-class ferry, costing $85 million and with a maximum capacity of 4,500 passengers, New York City’s Department of Transportation said in a statement. The vessel was commissioned in November 2022. The Staten Island Ferry provides free transportation for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles between St. George on Staten Island’s northern tip, and Lower Manhattan.

Guests and other passengers marveled at the cleanliness of the brand new ferry. The 25-minute voyage cruised past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on calm New York Harbor waters, a cloudy sky the only low point of the occasion.

Day lived part of her life on Staten Island, one of New York’s five boroughs. Besides it being where she was received into the Catholic Church, it also was where she began a cooperative farm in Pleasant Plains in 1950, operating it for the people in need and Catholic Worker members until 1964, when it was sold. She died in 1980 at age 83 and is buried in Resurrection Cemetery, also in Pleasant Plains.

It was in Manhattan where Day met Peter Maurin and started The Catholic Worker newspaper in the depths of the Great Depression and Mary House, the first Catholic Worker hospitality house, of which there are more than 250 worldwide today.

Steven Schwankert is the digital editor of The Good Newsroom, the online news outlet of the Archdiocese of New York.