Dorothy Day\'s Catholic Conversion

¶ … 2012 annual meeting of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, Dorothy Day, already officially named a "servant of God," was unanimously recommended for canonization, the first step on the path to sainthood. Pope Benedict XVI, in one of his last public speeches said that this remarkable woman was a "…model of conversion." (Forest) Although never raised a Catholic, Dorothy Day would convert to Catholicism and become a major figure in the Catholic Worker Movement, a social movement that used Catholic teachings to address the needs of the poor. It would seem that the communist, anarchist, and socialist groups to which she once belonged lacked the spiritual aspect of service that she needed in her life; something she discovered in the Catholic Church. But as she came to the Church as an outsider, she was able to view the institutions of the Church with a more discriminating eye and was able to focus her attentions not on the institutions of the Church but on its message: to minister to the poor.

Dorothy Day's family was nominally Christian, but rarely attended church services and were not religious in their daily lives. As she stated herself, "mother and father never went to church, none of us children had ever been baptized, and to speak of the soul was to speak immodestly…" (Day Chapter 2) And although her father was known to be somewhat anti-catholic, as many were in the late 1800's, Dorothy never shared his dislike. But it was when her father lost his job and the family was forced to move to Chicago that Dorothy became exposed to the Catholic Church for the first time. While many viewed the Church as some monolithic institution filled with popes, bishops, rules, and regulations, Dorothy viewed it from the perspective of the poor. This was the first time her family was really poor and they were living in a crowded tenement with Catholic neighbors. It was these kind and decent people who would give Dorothy her first taste of the true mission of the Catholic Church.

Despite this when Dorothy was 12 she was baptized an Episcopalian, the religion of her mother, and began to attend services. But her continual education led her to a more socialistic view of the world, she was developing a sense of social conscience. She wanted to help people and communism, socialism, and other ideologies seemed more in line with her youthful energy. As a result, she left the Episcopalian Church and turned her back on organized religious institutions. This conflict between the institutionalized religions and her desire to engage in actually instituting real change in people's lives would remain for most of her life.

One of the problems Dorothy Day saw was the hypocrisy of a Christian world where large segments of the population suffered in poverty and misery. There seemed to be a disconnect between the teachings of Christ and the activities of the Churches and institutions that claim to be following those teachings. In effect, the religious institutions of the day seemed to be more concerned with worldly affairs and not so concerned with ministering to the poor and needy. This discrepancy was too much for the young Dorothy who commented "the ugliness of life in a world which professed itself to be Christian appalled me." (Day Chapter 4)

In response to the injustice she saw in the world, Dorothy spent many years involved with a number of groups and ideologies ranging from her job at a socialist newspaper named "The Call" to the labor movement and from an association with anarchists to the antiwar and suffragist movements. She even went to prison and shared a cell with the famous Lucy Burns who she described as "a red-headed school teacher from Brooklyn who was one of the leaders of the suffragists " (Day Chapter 7) But it was her suffering in prison, particularly the suffragists' attempt at a hunger strike that reignited her interest in God and religion. At first she believed that she was only turning to God because she was weak and hypocritical, and felt that she was being "tormented by God." (Day Chapter 7) But later, when she was pregnant and expecting a baby, she once again reflected on the spiritual aspect of her life and realized that even though she had spent years involved in a number of causes, none of them fulfilled her spiritually. It was when she saw some old writings of hers that stated "the greatest gift life can offer would be a faith in God and a hereafter…," that she converted to Catholicism. (Day Chapter 10)

But the conflict between the institution of the Church and its mission still plagued Dorothy. For instance, she commented on the charitable donations of a man who was the head of Bethlehem Steel Corporation and felt that the Catholic nuns had accepted "tainted money." (Day Chapter 11) Until she finally came to the realization that the Church itself had existed for centuries and therefore must have had some divine power to endure. Therefore, as she stated, "I would not blame the church for what I felt were the mistakes of churchmen." (Day Chapter 11) This would turn out to be a major turning point in her life as she would then go on to found the Catholic Worker Movement which attempted to bridge socialistic ideas with Catholic teachings.

But with Dorothy Days conversion to Catholicism came a rejection of her earlier associations with groups like the communists. While she still claimed to possess some communist ideas, the overwhelmingly violent nature of the communists was too much for Day. She would claim that even though communists care about the poor and oppressed, when the communist "incites brother to kill brother, one class to destroy other classes, then I cannot feel that his love is true." (Day. Chapter 12) It was the violence and hatred at the heart of communism that Day rejected while still holding on to its fundamental goal of social justice.