The Pope and Dorothy Day

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Pope Francis today mentioned Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, several times in his speech before a joint session of Congress.

KATHY BOYLAN
Boylan is with the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington, D.C. She said today: “What the pope said really didn’t communicate Dorothy Day’s radicalness and her prophetic witness against war making. She refused to pay federal income tax. She was the first to condemn the bombing of Hiroshima. She helped with the burning of draft cards. Now they want to rewrite the story, to make her less radical. She’d say: ‘our problems stem from our acceptance of this stinking, rotten system’ and ‘those unused buildings owned by the church are crimes calling out for vengeance.’

“The pope also remarked today when addressing the actions of Serra [who he canonized Wednesday] that we shouldn’t judge by the criteria of the past — as if no one in the past objected to killing and unjustly imprisoning people.”

Boylan wrote “An Open Letter to Pope Francis: Condemn the United States for Genocidal Warmaking,” which states: “Pope Francis, you have condemned ISIS for genocide against Christians, but given the fact that the U.S. military is for the most part Christian with one-third of the force Catholic, it is Christians who have participated in the genocidal killing in predominantly Muslim countries during the last 24 years.”

See this video of Dorothy Day.

Local media may wish to contact the local Catholic Worker House in your city or state, see this directory.