Dorothy’s cause for sainthood was officially endorsed, with overwhelming support, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2012. The process is now in the phase naming Dorothy venerable.

In 1933, Peter Maurin—a French peasant-philosopher—persuaded Dorothy Day to publish a newspaper, The Catholic Worker, to spread the radical implications of the Gospel. Rather than offering abstract theories about social justice, the paper focused on what was possible. Its articles imagined a society shaped by solidarity, community, and human dignity instead of selfishness and greed.

But writing was not enough. Day and Maurin were determined to live what they proclaimed. They opened houses of hospitality, practicing the works of mercy by feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless. Even this did not exhaust Dorothy’s vision. Charity alone was insufficient; she believed Christians must also challenge the social structures that create poverty. Guided by the Sermon on the Mount and the conviction that whatever we do for the poor we do for Christ, she held together compassion and confrontation.

When Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, he named Dorothy Day as one of the “four great Americans” in his address to Congress. Today, 187 Catholic Worker communities continue her legacy, committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality to those who are homeless, exiled, hungry, or forgotten. They also persist in protesting injustice, war, racism, and violence in all its forms.

Dorothy Day is not often named a patron of catechists, yet her life embodies authentic catechesis. She proclaimed the Good News with her words and incarnated it through her actions. Through 721 articles in The Catholic Worker between 1933 and her death in 1980—along with numerous other writings—she taught the Church’s social vision. More importantly, she lived it, modeling discipleship through her passionate commitment to justice for the oppressed.

Reflections to Hold, Pray, and Live

• Is there one social justice teaching of the church which is especially important to you?
• How might we catechize our learners about our call to respond with the two feet of service: charity and social justice/advocacy?

Author:

Sister Janet Schaeffler, OP
Member, NCCL Board of Directors

Her book, SAINTS & MENTORS for Catechists: 41 Models of Faith to Support and Guide You, can be purchased from Twenty-Third Publications
[GET YOUR COPY HERE]

Learn more about Janet and her publications at https://www.janetschaeffler.com/

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Blog Thumbnail Portrait Photo from Jubilee Magazine, 1955