Catholic Worker
Overview
The Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, and centers around a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human being. There are over 185 Catholic Worker communities today which seek to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ. Their committment is strong to nonviolence, prayer, hospitality for the homeless, and feeding the hungry, and also to protest to injustice, war, racism, and violence. Their motivation comes from the teachings of Jesus, especially from the Sermon on the Mount. Of the 185 Catholic Worker communities, 168 are in the US, 6 in Canada, and 15 in 10 other countries. These communities are not dependent on each other and differ in their activities as well as in their connection to the Catholic Church and how they incorporate Catholic Worker philosophy and tradition.
Aims and Means
"The aim of the Catholic Worker movement is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ. Our sources are the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as handed down in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, with our inspiration coming from the lives of the saints,'men and women outstanding in holiness, living witnesses to Your unchanging love'(Eucharistic Prayer)"
This quote from The Catholic Worker newspaper (May, 2002) provides the basic purpose of the movement. The aim of the movement can be broken down into various areas of society in which we can better understand where the Catholic Worker's focus is. These areas include economics, labor, politics, morals, and the arms race.
The Founders: Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin
The Common Good
Central to the Vision and Mission of the Catholic Worker is St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrine of the Common Good, the idea that each person is part of a larger body. This concept can be compared to the organs of the body. Each is part of an overall system of the body with its own job necessary to keep a person alive. The Catholic Worker believes we are all ordered to the same good by God and we cannot attain this good by ourselves. With the common good the desired end, the Catholic Worker strives for personalism, a decentralized society, and a "green revolution." Personalism considers the freedom and dignity of each person something that should be a main concern of individuals. This would move people away from self-centeredness and toward the care of others. A decentralized society would be one that differs from the current big systems of government, industry, education, health care, and agriculture
