The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day
Writes Nobel Peace Prize nominee, John Dear, SJ:
"On May 1, the Catholic Worker [movement] celebrates its 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Marquette University Press will publish Dorothy Day’s diaries, The Duty of Delight.
Meanwhile, a beautiful new DVD documentary, Don’t Call Me a Saint, has been released, offering rare interviews and footage of the heroic woman whose reach has indeed embraced the world.
Produced by Claudia Larson, Don’t Call Me a Saint chronicles Dorothy’s life [1897-1980] — her childhood in Chicago, her college years and the years as a Communist, and the years she wrote for The Call and The Masses. The movie takes in her marriage and divorce and the back-alley abortion, and her imprisonment for demonstrating with suffragettes outside the White House.
It tells of her later love for Forster Batterham and of her contemplative life on a Staten Island beach and of the joyful birth of her daughter Tamar . . .
On May 1, 1933, Dorothy launched The Catholic Worker newspaper. Circulation jumped by year’s end to some 100,000 subscribers. Next to come were a soup kitchen, a farming commune, and a house for the homeless. She instituted Friday evening lectures, where topics never discussed in church circles were finally aired . . .
Her lonely stand against war, I think, is utterly astonishing, especially given that few people then, and scarcely any Catholics — and not one priest or bishop — dared oppose war. But Dorothy said no — from the Spanish Civil War to World War II, from Korea to Vietnam . . .
"By our accepting the cross [she said] . . . we unleash forces that help to overcome the evil in the world."
Read more here. Watch the trailer here.
She was never a Communist. She was an Anarchist. Theres a world of difference. (Both Communists and Anarchists are Socialists however)