Dorothy Day a Saint?

If the New York Times poses a question, must we answer?  Michael Sean Winters characterizes the response to an article last week as buzz, and I can confirm that: friends across the religious spectrum sent it to me. Author Liam Stack suggests the question way down in the article, quoting Dorothy Day herself: “‘Don’t call me a saint,’ she said in one frequently cited quip. ‘I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.’”

The news “fit to print” is that the New York Archdiocese has sent to the Vatican boxes and boxes of materials related to Day’s long career as the founder of the Catholic Worker and as an activist for peace and other causes. (The Times found a terrific photo I have never seen of Day demonstrating for women’s suffrage, obviously before 1920.) Stack provides an overview of the canonization process and the controversy about it.

I have been saving two articles that go deeper into Day’s history and the question of sainthood. Both are deeply personal and nuanced.

Colleen Dulle in America is involved in the thick of things in New York City. She starts with personal details of Day’s life before the Catholic Worker, and then writes about the process of bringing Day’s canonization forward (in case you have a suitable candidate for future action!). What impresses me is the volunteer nature of this effort; Dulle and 103 others transcribed pages and pages of Day’s diaries, 10,000 pages in all. What Dulle quotes from what she found is an intimate glimpse into Day’s life at the Catholic Worker.

I am glad to know that Dulle then was asked to assume a more formal role in the canonization effort. She creates vibrant mini-portraits of those involved, from Martha Hennessey, Day’s granddaughter, to the leaders of the organization and the other young volunteers. Dulle also engages with Day on TV and in print, but rather than write a summary, she asks how Day would have responded to the crises of 2020-2021. Answer: non-violence. Her evaluation of the official event with Cardinal Dolan is paired with her own visit to the Catholic Worker house that night for vespers, and for tea and talk with long-time resident Jane Sammon. Dulle’s answer to the question of sainthood brings tears to my eyes – it’s a complicated yes.

The other article is by Patricia Lefevere in NCR. She begins with a wonderful image: “Dorothy Day was set on Earth with a rumble in her soul.” Day was eight and across the bay in 1906 for the San Francisco earthquake, which broke her family’s dishes and cracked their ceiling. Lefevere asks, “Was the earth ever solid beneath the worn soles of Dorothy Day’s mostly second-hand shoes?”

Lefevere deals with her contradictions: “some have seen her as the seminal Catholic figure across the 20th century. Her cause for sainthood has been initiated even in the wake of a lifetime that included allegiance to the Communist party, affairs, an abortion, divorce, an out-of-wedlock birth, two suicide attempts and a youth colored by excessive drinking, chain-smoking and a lurid vocabulary.” That “some” seeing her includes Pope Francis; you may remember his talk to the US Congress in 2015, in praise of Day’s social justice work.

Lefevere’s portrait of Day throughout her life is rich. Day claimed two conversions: the first to Catholicism and the second by Peter Maurin, who inspired the newspaper. Their work together (and hers after his death) was living and teaching voluntary poverty, in the Catholic Worker houses they established and in political action and lectures. It was hard living.

Lefevere’s answer to the question? “Day showed us a way toward holiness…In some sense, she lived the last four decades of her life in reparation for the excesses of the first four.” She calls Day “the most influential lay person in the history of American Catholicism” – I would say, “lay woman” just for emphasis. Today, there are 150 Catholic Worker houses and Day continues to inspire, especially the young.

Of course, those Catholic Workers are most passionate about my question. Brian Terrell in NCR takes on the hierarchy for ignoring Day’s radical politics, which is what I originally thought I’d write about. But I’d rather think about a complex woman acting out her own vision of church.

Peace activist Jim Forest worked with Day for many years; you may have read reflections on his life after his death this month. In a 2011 interview in U.S. Catholic, he was asked if anything about Day would shock her admirers. “One thing I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence is Dorothy would not be in favor of the ordination of women to the priesthood. She said if women are ordained, fewer men would attend the liturgy, and there are few enough already! It was very non-theological.” I love that response because it totally ignores any of the tortured arguments against ordination. Forest concludes that Day “would be still irritating to some people in the Catholic Worker movement when she got onto these kinds of topics.”

Indeed, controversy over ordination erupted in the Des Moines Catholic Worker in 2016. Patrick O’Neill in NCR covers all the angles. He quotes Hennessey, who says “she has been told of two comments from her grandmother: ‘Women are too busy to become priests. They’ve got too much work to do,’ and ‘Maybe it will happen eventually.’”

I’ll go with that. We have many relationships with and much support from Catholic Workers, and offer the same in return. Southeastern Pennsylvania Women’s Ordination Conference met at the Philadelphia Catholic Worker for many years; Karen Lenz was our editor and Magda Elias provided invaluable assistance for our witnesses and everything else. Nationally? The first in WOC’s series of radical Prayer Cards is Dorothy Day. You can download from the website. Dorothy Day is saint enough for us.