Posted on 10/22/2014 2:44:59 PM PDT by ubipetrusest
The mental image of a thoroughly Communist Dorothy Day, who remained committed to Marxist notions of the overthrow of government, might be shocking.... [Yet] she maintained her Communist and anarchist views, promoted them, and brought them into the Church Christ founded....
Her goal... was to contribute to the eventual overthrow of the American government, and ... of the Catholic Church hierarchy..... I still remember trying to understand how [Day’s periodical, "The Catholic Worker"] could be both Communist and Catholic.... by the 1970s the FBI dossier on the Catholic Worker Movement was some 581 pages long.
The list of Communist revolutionaries, anarchists and anti-Americans closely associated with Dorothy Day would rival even the list of Obama supporters.... Day’s list even included the Communist Party’s candidates for President and Vice President. It reads like a "Who’s Who" of the extreme radical Left. She was a Community Organizer, just like Obama, and she never stopped her grass roots Communist organizing....
Day’s Catholic Worker Movement (CWM) may have been the originating source of the perversion of Catholic Social Justice in the minds and hearts of many professed Catholics, both lay and cleric.
It perverted Distributionism from anti-trust, anti-monopoly sentiments toward Communist Redistributionism.
It perverted Solidarity from committing oneself to the Common Good, to committing oneself to Opposing Capitalism.
It perverted the sense of holiness and grace to the arrogant belief that one can only gain holiness through self-imposed worker-poverty, gained only by renouncing the world and entering a CWM or CWM-like Commune, for life.
The CWM encouraged, supported and incorporated into itself Liberation Theology and Feminist Theology. Within the CWM the term Social Justice came to mean everything and anything that would or could be used to promote their anti-Capitalist Revolution, which is the one thing that the CWM was really all about.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicamericanthinker.com ...
Biorseth then reconsiders "whether Marxism and its utopian ideal is predominantly evil, or predominantly stupid." He discusses his realization "that anarchy is, in fact, the state of Marx’s Communism. It is a stateless, classless, government-less, law-less, hierarchy-less, private-property-less, authority-less collectivist socio-economic order, based on the commune and communal living. The difference between an anarchist and a would-be Communist is that the anarchist wants the state of Communism right now, and the would-be Communist wants to move through stages of Socialism to eventually arrive at Communism."
Sadly, Biorseth's claim that Day's movement has descended into militant feminism and other errors is true. CW houses have had public "Masses" celebrated by women "priests," and the CW is also "gay-friendly" in its newspaper articles and membership. "Ecumenical" for the CW includes houses that are Mennonite, Anglican, non-sectarian, interfaith, and even "queer." The last designation is for the CW Radish House, in Toronto, Canada, which states it "is committed to acts of resistance against oppression. We specifically engage with trans[gender] and queer communities and discern the ways in which all forms of oppression intersect and affect those who are most marginalized within our churches and our communities" (http://dorothydayworker.blogspot.com/2014/01/by-their-fruits-you-will-know-them.html).
What does the left need another saint for? They already have Obama.
I remind my Catholic friends not to hold their breath for miracles attributed to her any time soon.
Who needs miracles? Francis will just waive that requirement as he has in the past.
No he can’t do that... and actually Benedict the 16th advanced her cause.
The miracles... or lack thereof will speak for themselves.
In the sixties and seventies Catholic and Communist did seem to go hand in hand. I can’t speak to earlier years but this was my experience. We had a youth group at church and the Parish Priest saw that we needed something to be involved with so he asked and Young Catholic Worker to come around and talk to us.
The guy made a sad mistake asking me the first question. He asked me “What is wrong with your job and the way your boss treats you?” I actually liked my boss and as he was a Parishioner I refused to demean my job or my boss. The guy would not let up on me until it appeared to most he was badgering me. This was my first encounter with leftie bully tactics. Anyway during the break half of us got up and left.
I seemed that back in those days most of the young Catholic groups were hotbeds of Socialism. Later they morphed in Social Justice groups
1)Many "palaeoconservative" Catholics are big fans of Day, since they regard capitalism itself as modernist and left wing, and yearn for a return to pre-capitalist feudalism. Supposedly, capitalism made Communism possible. And to an extent, this is probably true.
2)I simply don't get the connection between the Left, especially the contemporary Left, and anarchism. If they are so anarchist, so opposed to authority, why are they constantly passing new laws and creating new offices? If they truly want to abolish the state and authority there is a very simple way to do it: declare all laws repealed and the government dis-established. But no left winger ever suggests this. Instead they just want more laws, more laws, more laws, and an ever more powerful and authoritarian and centralized state. I'm sorry, but I simply don't see any anarchy anywhere in any of this.
3)As I have said so many times before, these "poor" people the Left claims to adore must be very strange people. They're certainly not like me (a poor person) or any of the poor people I have ever known (which includes just about all my relatives). Exactly where does one find "poor people" who are egg-headed elitist nineteenth century materialist philosophers? If any of these lefties had moved in with any of my poor ancestors they'd have taught them about G-d and the Bible, not that all reality reduces to matter in motion and all human thought to brain chemistry.
4)So, Day was one of those rare lefties (like Mao and Pol Pot) who think country folks are better than city folks, huh? Better tell that to the urban elite left in this country or to the many rural conservatives who associate leftism and Communism with the inherent corruption of cities.
5)I'm going to say something that's really going to surprise whoever (if anyone) is reading this: the author's view of capitalism is far too utopian. Not all people are poor because they're too "proud" to work. Many are poor because for whatever reason they are not able to work and have to depend either on the extended family or (barring this) some level of government just to survive. This is the one big crack in capitalism, and pre-capitalist conservatives used to understand this.
Well . . . that's all I can think of for now.
Day is a pet cause of Dolan.
The late 60s and into the 70s a lot of things were done in the name of “the spirit of Vatican II.” The Baltimore Catechism was thrown out because it was no longer “relevant.” I remember thinking, why are they making us do collages featuring magazine pictures that represent ‘joy’ when I would really like to learn about the virtues? The leftist sure had a good time messing things up.
She's up for sainthood?
I’ve seen Day lauded here on FR.
Beats me why.
I was a seminarian in the early 70s. The “Spirit of Vatican II” permeated our formation and we were the worse off for it. I was a novice, and our Novice Master was big into Marriage Encounter, which was nice, except that this was his first stint as Novice Master and he decided to do a “Marriage Encounter”-flavored Novitiate. To this day, I wish I’d had a more traditional Novitiate year.
Oh, BTW: our Novice Master eventually left the priesthood and got married...sigh.
Between Vatican II and JPII/Reagan we were really kind of lost.
Day was a friend of Cardinal Spellman.
Hmm yes - I couldn’t believe that this person as part of a Church group was asking me to go against all the things I was taught to believe in like loyalty and not talking ill of others etc. To be honest we experienced a bit of a dog’s breakfast back in those days. For me though it meant that I had to seek out my faith rather than expect it to be delivered to me on a platter. I would in all honesty say that it would make for better Christians if everyone were to take that journey rather than trusting others with what we believe - after all we are not going to get away with blaming others when we come before the Lord.
That is the best way to think about it. Thank God for JPII. He helped me to want to be a better Christian.
The CCC is a legacy that really is going to, and has helped a lot of people articulate what they know to be true.
What’s crazy is that VII was supposed to help people better understand the Church and her teachings. It was supposed to give laity a more active role in misistry. Yet proper Catechism and everything else fell into complete disarray immediately after they instituted VII and the new Mass.
Theyll find someone whose fever broke after meeting her
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