Pretty cool!I wonder what she’d be thinking today?

Dorothy Day certainly lived a life of heroic virtue and is a wonderful example of leaving all to serve Christ. It would be interesting to have a saint who aborted her child and was divorced before her conversion. She may bring healing to many women who struggle with the consequences of these same actions and show how they can rise above their mistakes to heroically serve God.

She’d probably be thinking, “I never imagined that the government would try to take away religious freedom in the name of newfound ‘rights.’”

Praying for a “St Dorothy Day”....a positive response from our bishops

Really?
- I thought she was a Communist.

From the beginning bohemian life she chronicled in her 1924 Novel, Eleventh Virgin, to her later conversion to Catholicism and then her lifelong service to the poor, Dorothy Day is clearly a Saint of our time.

This will be seriously politicized, for several reasons, including Day’s championing of distributism and her having an abortion:  from WikiPedia———“Initially Day lived a bohemian life; her short marriage to Barkley Tobey occurred “on the rebound” after an “unhappy love affair with a tough ex-newspaperman named Lionel Moise” and an abortion,[14] which she later described in her semi-autobiographical novel, The Eleventh Virgin (1924)—a book she later regretted writing.[17][18] The sale of the movie rights to the novel enabled her to settle down, using the proceeds to buy a beach cottage on Staten Island, New York. She lived there with Forster Batterham, a biologist with whom she shared a deep interest in social activism. It was a time of idyllic peace for her, as she shared the company of good friends and enjoyed the beauty of nature, which Batterham helped her to appreciate.” But I do not see in her-writings or on her face- the Joy of a saint.  guy mcclung

She is perhaps saying, it is a shame that the Catholic worker has become a tireless worker to deny the lives of the most defenseless their very lives.

Very informative article.  Now I see where Mark Shea is coming from (reference G.K. Chesterton)

While Dorothy Day’s early lifestyle may have been somewhat bohemian,her life afterwards of sacrifice and service to the poor served as a model to all.In spite of her abortion,she converted to Catholicism and lived a life of penitance serving the Lord.She is an example to women today who regret their abortions, knowing that God is all merciful and loving and forgives all with a contrite heart.We should all follow her example and offer our lives and suffering to Christ for the good of others and the Church.May Dorothy Day’s canonization be on the fast track and be approved so that she can edify God and His people.

I can’t help but think that today’s politicized Catholics would be blasting her as a socialist, communist red if she were alive today.

Really?  I understand from Dorothy Day’s bio that she continued to live with her common-law husband, even after conversion.  Her cause for sainthood holds many “red flags” for me (no pun intended).  St. Augustine completely turned his back on his previous life of reckless choices - I’m not sure Dorothy Day can say the same.  Unfortunately, the bishops, by opening her “cause” have already canonized her for American Catholics.  Such is the state of the Catholic Church in America.

The big problem here is that supporters of Dorothy Day are not considering the whole picture, but are basing their assessment on a myopic vision of her life and works. No one doubts that she helped the poor. But the fact remains that she continued to believe implicitly in the truth and soundness of Marxist-Leninist doctrines and found in Marxist political theory a very convenient rationalization for her own instinctive desire to bring down the economic and political structures of Western society. Not even conversion to the Catholic Church managed to rid her of this rigid thought process.
In my book, “The Catholic Worker Movement (1933-80): a Critical Analysis”, (published by Authorhouse, 2010) I have provided proof, drawn from archival evidence, that even after her conversion to Catholicism, Miss Day became a member of several Socialist organizations and was actively involved in political groups whose founders and leaders where predominantly Communist Party members. 

The book contains documentary evidence to prove that Miss Day supported the policies of hostile foreign powers operating from Moscow, Havana, Peking and Hanoi against her own country, the USA. She also wrote favourably about such Socialist dictators as Lenin, Castro, Mao and Ho Chi Minh, even though they had all violently persecuted the Church in their respective countries. Why should we confer sainthood on someone who praised the enemies of the Church?

Her long-term friend and correspondent was Anna Louise Strong, an American journalist who was exposed by the Venona Project as a spy for Stalin and, later, Mao. In fact, she was so radical and anti-American that the FBI placed her on the federal government’s Security Index.

The evidence is irrefutable that Dorothy Day was a radical revolutionary who strove throughout her life to bring Socialism into the Catholic Church under the guise of “Christian Communism”. Please read the above-mentioned book which is obtainable from Amazon and let the facts speak for themselves. This would avoid the embarrassment, not to mention the scandal, of canonizing a Catholic Communizer. For even more information, visit the blog “Dorothy Day Another Way.”

I see the theme of “Distributism” as a dangerous concept.
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Distributism was supposed to imply that ownership of property should not be held by the govt or the rich, but spread out among the people. 
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While allowing individuals of all levels of the economy to own property is a good and natural outcome of a free market economy that defends personal property, that is not how “workers” movements understand it.
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Workers movements are focused on redistributing - aka stealing from one group and giving to another.  While this is obviously morally wrong it is also unnecessary as free exchange and labor allows people to trade labor for money and money for property.  Other than those people immorally obsessed with owning all property or those holding sentimental connections to property, any person holding property will be willing to sell it at the right price.
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So back to Dorothy.  I do not know what her true intentions were, but for some of the people around her and those who cling to her legacy, there IS certainly a connection to communism.
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@Alice - While someones personal relationships are their own business normally, for a saint it is important that they not continue on with immoral behavior (IMO).  However I have read a few articles by Dorthy Day that seem to place a very high value on purity.  So maybe this info is not correct.

Rob, my experiences and my research support your comments. I met Dorothy Day in the mid-1960s and early 1970s at the Catholic Worker Farm in Tivoli. Among themselves the young people there called Dorothy “the Great White Mother.” She was present for Fr. John Hugo’s retreat, but was often away. When I heard of and witnessed the laxness and toleration of sexual relationships without benefit of marriage, I thought Dorothy must be unaware of them, especially since the Farm had a chapel, where I saw her receive Communion. But Dorothy’s now published diaries and letters reveal that she knew abut the immorality. Her coworkers beseeched her to do something; she wrote that she was going to sell Tivoli—which she usually described as a place of great beauty(her room looked out on the Hudson River)—but didn’t do so for another nine years!
In addition, Dorothy appeared blind to the sexual appetites and other faults of those she admired, such as Ammon Hennacy, “the One-Man Revolution” who became a Catholic “for Dorothy” and who lived at the Manhattan CW house for several years, where he had the opportunity to meet nubile young women. When he was 68,he began a romance with 28-year-old CW Mary Lathrop. While Dorothy opposed this match, she observed frequently that “Ammon likes pretty girls,” and she encouraged the woman who became his second wife to meet him. Joan Thomas, 41 years younger than Ammon, married him outside the Church in 1965 (Joan Thomas, “The Years of Grief and Laughter,” Hennacy Press, 1974).
Ammon was very anticlerical, and when Mary traveled to Salt Lake City to be with him, she objected to such remarks, being a “most devout convert,” according to Dorothy’s recital in “Loaves and Fishes” (1983 reprint, p. 116). Would a devout convert live in such a compromising and scandalous situation, despite the counsels of both Mormon and Catholic clergy to end the situation? Dorothy gives a sanitized version of this incident publicly, while privately expressing her awareness of Ammon’s many faults. For example, Dorothy writes that Ammon would be a “father” to Mary until they were married. But Ammon told Joan Thomas that he didn’t want to be a father, and when Dorothy asked him if he was sleeping with a woman he visited overnight, his reply was, “No, but I wish I was.” (p.58; for more information, go to the blog “Dorothy Day Another Way,” which also has the Complete Supplementary Notes to Dr. Carol Byrne’s book “The Catholic Worker: A Critical Analysis.”) Dorothy’s earlier promiscuity seems to have warped her perceptions in this vital area. She so rightly said, “Don’t call me a saint.”

There have been comments made about Dorothy Day indicating that she did not condemn those who lived in sin.It has also been mentioned that she favored Socialistic ways. However, did not our Lord eat and socialize with sinners such as tax collectors and prostitutes.Did he not condemn the women caught in adultery.Our Lord was very loving and merciful something I am sure Dorothy Day imitated.Our Lord said he had come for the sinner as they needed Him more to heal their souls.Christ also told the rich man who wanted to follow Him, to sell all he had and give it to the poor.Dorothy Day’s work for the poor examplified Christ’s teaching.When one is considered for Sainthood the Church looks not only for a life of good works but also a life of Heroic Virtue. It seems that Dorothy Day’s life definitely displayed that.Her cause for Sainthood should prove to be an interesting one.

@Angela
“she did not condemn those who lived in sin”
- I think the issue is not one of condemnation, but one of allowing/approving people to continue to live in sin. If she had said “Go now and sin no more” vs. ignoring the sinful behavior and letting it continue in her home, then that would have been different.
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“she favored Socialistic ways” 
- She told people “give to the poor, feed the hungry, comfort the suffering” this is correct and virtuous.  She did these things herself.
- What is wrong to say is “take from other and give their’s to the poor”, this is socialism.  The Church has repeatedly condemned socialism.  I do not know if she supported socialism, but if she did that is a problem
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Morality is as much about the How you do works as it is the end result.  If you feed the poor by stealing money from others you have committed evil in the name of good, which is never a good thing.  The fact that you have fed poor people does not excuse your sin of stealing and it does not weigh in your favor.  Why? Because evil done in the name of good, condones evil and corrupts good.
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I do not know the details of Dorothy Day and I hope that the doubts can be honestly disproved.  But, in my mind, the Absolute Worst Thing the church can do is to hold up as an example someone who condoned evil behavior.

As custodian of Dorothy Day’s papers for the past 50 years, the Marquette University Archives seeks to preserve all significant documentation of her actions and beliefs. Inquiries and visits are welcomed.

It should be noted that Dorothy Day corresponded with thousands of people. A few were Communists. But the vast majority were not—Mother Teresa, for example.

@Phil Runkel
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I doubt the voracity of your statement.
In my book a few is 3-4.
Also it is nice that Mother Theresa was in the list but I might guess this is no more indicative of her correspondents than communist.
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The real question is not whether she was an inspiration, as her dedication to Matthew 25 shows, but whether she is an example to be held up.
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With all the confusion in the church about liberation theology and socialism, this would appear to be an important time to be clear about the messages surrounding the means by which the INDIVIDUAL should respond to Matthew 25.

I am still learning about the lifetime of Ms. Dorothy Day but am struck at the negative feedback on this woman because the Catholic Bishops decided to consider a catholic woman for sainthood.  The reasons are fairly clear as she was a woman almost ahead of her time early on in life as she was extremely independent, met and communicated with many different people from all sorts of avenues during early 20th century.  She had an abortion.  Well, she had a Conversion.  This changed her thoroughly and she came to be what the Bishops deem through the power of the Holy Spirit at work during that gathering in Baltimore that she be studied for possible Canonization.
Nothing seems so wild her to me especially considering so many people can relate to the journey of her life as we too in the modern world are having to navigate ever more powerful and seculaized governments, in the united states alone we have committed over 50 million abortions on the unborn in just a few decades while in peru nearly a million women after giving birth in state run hospitals came out only to find they had all been sterilized, ceaseless wars that regular people often can’t make sense of, starving children, crime…I live in Chicago and we have an epidemic of murders by youth on youth with fatalities equaling the wars in iraq and afghanistan over the same time period.  Yes we still have it all. 
It seems fairly obvious that Saul who become Paul set the precedent already for a great sinner, one of the greatest persecutors of early christians.  Why did the Holy Spirit speak to him?  Why was he of all people chosen for such an extreme and complete conversion?  And to think he became our greatest new testament contibutor, his writings beings priceless to our Sacred Text.  Dorothy Day…don’t think it is as crazy as some posters here are making it seem when considered from this catholic light rather than the shade of ego.  Thinking of Dorothy as “lowering the bar” for your own possibilities for Sainthood is shortsighted and un-useful.  Why not spend some time in prayer and try to understand why the Holy Spirit may be moving through the Church’s Bishops decision to consider her more carefully for Sainthood.  Such wasted spiritual energy as determing for yourselves whether the life lead by a woman sure isn’t moving you along on a path that is serving your spiritual needs or serving in good faith the mission of the Church.

Timothy Canezaro, you seem convinced that Dorothy Day “had a Conversion. This changed her thoroughly.” Well, it’s legitimate to examine how complete her conversion was. Didn’t St.Paul break all ties with the persecutors of Christ afer his conversion? Did he talk about the sincerity of the Pharisees, pointing out that they were more faithful in their actions than Christians?  Dorothy often made the claim that frevent Communists are better than “lukewarm” Christians.
Phil and Rob, Dorothy Day’s Communist correspondents and friends were people she was much more intimate with and interacted with more frequently than Mother Teresa. For example, there was Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who became the Chair of the US Communist Party. Day’s own writings reveal that Day heard her speak in 1918; in the 1950s, Day shared a speakers’ platform with Gurley Flynn, as well as visiting her at home. Day remained Gurley Flynn’s faithful friend after the latter died. As Dr. Carol Byrne recounts in “The Catholic Worker Movement: A Critical Analysis” (2010), “Day’s letter praising Flynn was read publicly at the [NY] memorial service. Flynn had already had a State funeral in Moscow’s Red Square with Khrushchev present”(p.6). Day preserved a lifelong friendship with Mike Gold, an editor of the Communist USA “Daily Worker.” She had dated him pre-conversion, and her “Catholic Worker” articles document their visits, exchange of letters, his wife’s volunteering at a Catholic Worker (CW) house, and how Day repeatedly praised or recommended his “proletariat” novel “Jews Without Money” to her readers. She also kept up a correspondence with Anna Louise Strong, another Communist propagandist, who died in China. Day eulogized her in the June 1970 “CW”: “The greatest tribute I can pay to my friend Anna Louise Strong, the American journalist who died recently in Peking, is to say that I will study further the rise of the People’s Communes which she wrote of in the letters which she sent out these past ten years.” Day’s praise of active Communists contrasts with her failure to support ex-Communists such as Louis Budenz and Bella Dodd, who returned to Catholicism and opposed the Communist cause. This information can also be verified with citations on “Dorothy Day Another Way” blog, as well as Dr. Byrne’s comprehensive book.

Those of us who adhere to, believe in, and trust the Magisterium need not worry.  Holy Mother Church will get this right.  And, with the process, the Devil’s Advocate, the pletors of archived documents and materials, and the required miracles [or is it one now?], this may not be resolved in our life times [as least for some of us].

@timothy canezaro
“but am struck at the negative feedback on this woman because the Catholic Bishops decided to consider a catholic woman for sainthood.  The reasons are fairly clear as she was a woman almost ahead of her time early on in life as she was extremely independent, met and communicated with many different people from all sorts of avenues during early 20th century.”
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I’m sorry this unsubstantiated muck is not even coherent. Is your view that people are against her because she is a Catholic Woman and was ahead of her time?  And what do you offer as “ahead of her time”?  “She talked with people and was independent”?
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“Dorothy Day…don’t think it is as crazy as some posters here are making it seem when considered from this catholic light rather than the shade of ego.” - Huh?
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As adults I think we can question whether her life is that of a saint and discuss the specific risks and benefits of making her so.  In case you have missed it we have many independent woman saints who gave selflessly of themselves to help the poor.  The question is whether Dorothy is a good example of that or a political activist with a bent toward Communism.  Remember that Karl Marx claimed to care for the workers, as did Mao and Stalin.
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@minbee66 - I hope the bishops are not so blind to history as to dismiss the terror and murder of 6 decades of communist rule in the USSR and China (I personally spent 3 decades praying for the people behind the iron curtain and for the conversion of Russia as most Catholics did).  I pray the bishops are careful in this process.

While many have written positive comments about Dorothy Day on this page,there are also a few who seem to have a less favorable opinion regarding her life. Everyone must remember that for those who believe no explanation is necessary;for those who do not, no explanation is possible.

@Angela Del Greco
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I find your comment offensive.
You apply a quote about faith in God to a discussion about a person.
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Blind faith in Dorothy Day or the Catholic Workers movement is not equivalent to faith in God.
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Furthermore I see only one person expressing facts about Dorothy Day and they appear to be a person with a concern about her.  Others, like me, have only expressed questions and hope that the bishops do not inadvertently promote communism and liberation theology.

@minbee66 - I was using Mother Teresa as an example of a celebrated non-Communist who greatly admired Dorothy Day. Day’s closest friends post-conversion were not Flynn and Gold but the likes of Nina Polcyn Moore and Eileen Egan.

@Angela, Your phrase “for those who believe no explanation is necessary; for those who do not, no explanation is possible” was written by Franz Werfel, in concluding “The Song of Bernadette.” Why is this phrase applicable to Dorothy Day? A more apt one would be, “for those who believe, no investigation is required; for those who do not, no evidence of sanctity can be supplied.” The “popular view” you seem to favor is at odds with Day’s own statements. The anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, is almost here. The day after the bombing, Day gave an address to the Liberal-Socialist Alliance in New York City, declaring: “There is now all this patriotic indignation about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese expansionism in Asia. Yet not a word about American and European expansionism in the same area…. I share my deepest sympathy with the parents, wives and friends of the American military forces that perished at Pearl Harbor. But I count these young men as victims, tragic victims, of a blindly mistaken American foreign policy…. We must make a start. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy…. Even as I speak to you I may be guilty of what some men call treason. But we must reject war…. You young men should refuse take up arms. young women tear down the patriotic posters. And all of you—young and old—put away your flags.” Here are some samples of Day’s “Catholic Worker” writing AFTER her conversion to Catholicism: “And now I had become a Catholic and Smokey and I were fellow-workers in a Catholic endeavor to build up a decentralist, libertarian, or in other words, an anarchist-pacifist social order” (October 1970). “No one who ever read ‘Three Who Made a Revolution’ by Bertram Wolff, could fail to be interested in the historic struggle which is now going to in the Communist Party throughout the world, and certainly from any point of view, it was a privilege to be invited to attend [the 16th Annual Communist Party USA Convention] as an observer”(March 1957). “In 1954 I had written an article for the Catholic Worker entitled ‘Ho Chi Minh and Theophane Venard, the hero and the saint.’ . . . If we had had the privilege of giving hospitality to a Ho Chi Minh, with what respect and interest we would have served him, as a man of vision, as a patriot, a rebel against foreign invaders” (January 1970). “Fortunately, the Papal States were wrested from the Church in the last century, but there is still the problem of investment of papal funds. It is always a cheering thought to me that if we have good will and are still unable to find remedies for the economic abuses of our time, in our family, our parish, and the mighty church as a whole, God will take matters in hand and do the job for us. When I saw the Garibaldi mountains in British Columbia . . . I said a prayer for his soul and blessed him for being the instrument of so mighty a work of God. May God use us!” (July-August 1969). These are cited on the blog “Dorothy Day Another Way.” For supporting material in book form, Dr.Carol Byrne’s invaluable “The Catholic Worker Movement(1933-1980): A Critical Analysis,” can be gotten from amazon.com.
@Rob, I also prayed for the conversion of Russia, and I wish we were still praying the “St. Michael” prayer after Mass. The “Dorothy Day Another Way” blog “is dedicated to the memory of the millions of people murdered by the Communist regimes Day so greatly admired”; its author was a visitor at the CW Tivoli farm.

@phil runkel, The close friends you mention predictably shared Day’s radical views. Eileen Egan was the first lay employee of Catholic Relief Services; in this capacity, she met Mother Teresa and introduced her to Day.  Egan was one of the founders of Pax, which developed into Pax Christi USA, and was also an associate editor of the Catholic Worker. Egan claimed that “Dorothy was teaching a little-known doctrine of the [Catholic] Church, global pacifism” (“Voices From the Catholic Worker,” R. R. Troester, ed., 1993, p. 521). Egan wrote “Dorothy Day and the Permanent Revolution”(Pax Christi, 1983) which erroneously states that Day broke off from her “revolutionary” friends post-conversion (p. 1), but does reveal Day’s “interest in Kropotkin’s anarchism” and her preference for the term “anarchist” (although Peter Maurin preferred “personalist”) “because she wanted . . . a flaming word that would prod people awake” (p. 14). Egan’s title is based on Day’s appropriation of the Marxist-Leninist-Trotsky term “permanent revolution,” which most readers would be unaware was not Day’s own. According to Egan, Day’s loving “revolution of the heart” was not connected with “the taking of power, with the myth that a change in power relationships would remedy the ills that afflict this or that segment of society” (p. 22). Nina Polcyn Moore was a student in Milwaukee when she met Day in the 1930s; she helped found the Milwaukee CW house, later owned and ran a bookstore in Chicago, and often traveled with Day.

Phil and Guy…Angela has spoken for us and truth when spoken well and from the heart needs not affirmation, proof or debate to convince those on this strain of conversation that seek to tear down who others are and assert their ego incessantly upon those that would build up and actually pray and practice our faith and trust always in our Way.  Bless you all however during this Advent Season and on the heels of another tragedy beyond explanation. May all our Prayers go out and help. Peace to all

Timothy Canezaro,
The Church seeks the input of the faithful when considering someone for sainthood. The issue is not that Day was a woman and had an abortion. The issue is how complete her conversion was, and how confusing an example she would provide for the faithful. Her writing is a mishmash of piety, confused thinking,  and propaganda. She seemed to view even abortion in terms of the class war.  Why do you find it offensive that what Day said and wrote should be investigated? You speak of the tragedy in Connecticut, which of course calls forth our prayers and compassion. One Advent(December 1972), Day commented on the young: “Now that I have five great grandchildren and another on the way, I stress the young. . . . I do not undervalue my wisdom. . . .  there was a man in our house of hospitality arrested for indecent exposure. The parish neighbor who told me this called it ‘insulting a child,’ and I had thought she said ‘assaulting’ and nearly fainted with fear and trembling. With no one else to turn to, I went to the pastor, the rigid and cranky one, and asked him to go to the jail, visiting the prisoner being one of the seven corporal works of mercy. . . . he did as I requested and interceded for this man off the road and got him a lighter sentence of sixty days. When this happened once again some years later, another priest, a saintly well-spoken one, was appealed to. He is reported to have responded, ‘Too bad they don’t give him a life sentence!’ . . . . I later learned from a famous psychiatrist, that these men (and what child has not seen them) who expose themselves, seldom are dangerous, and are often cured (“On Pilgrimage, “CW”).