American activist, Dorothy Day, famously said “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily”.
41 years after her death, the Catholic church has opened the case for her possible canonization.
Her journey led this single mother from atheism, communism and anarchy to radical Catholicism. She called all believers to fight racism, war and poverty. Her Catholic Worker newspaper proclaimed the rights of workers and the poor, and espoused complete pacifism in response to nuclear war.
In her ‘houses of hospitality’, she sheltered and fed New York City’s homeless through the Great Depression. Making powerful enemies as she challenged Church and State, she was jailed and mistreated in her relentless campaigns for social justice.
Pope Francis, addressing Congress in 2015, reflected his hope for the U.S. to model itself after four historical Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.
To watch a PBS documentary on this extraordinary woman, click here. www.newpilgrimpath.ie.
