Catholic Worker Movement
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The Catholic Worker Movement is a Catholic organization founded by the "Servant of God" Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ."^[1] One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on the margin of society. To this end there are over 185 local Catholic Worker communities providing social services. Each house has a different mission, going about the work of social justice in their own ways, suited to their local region. Catholic Worker houses are not official organs of the Roman Catholic Church. The group also campaigns for nonviolence and is active in opposing war, as well as the unequal distribution of wealth globally. Dorothy Day also founded The Catholic Worker newspaper which is still published, and sold at 1 cent per copy. The group began as a means to combine Dorothy Day's history in American social activism and pacifism with the tenets of Catholicism, five years after she converted in 1927.^[2]

"Our rule is the works of mercy," said Dorothy Day. "It is the way of sacrifice, worship, a sense of reverence."

Beliefs of the Catholic Worker

According to co-founder Peter Maurin, the following are the beliefs of the Catholic Worker:^[3]

1. gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism.
2. personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother.
3. daily practice of the Works of Mercy.
4. Houses of Hospitality for the immediate relief of those who are in need.
5. establishment of Farming Communes where each one works according to his ability and gets according to his need.
6. creating a new society within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new, which is not a new philosophy but a very old philosophy, a philosophy so old that it looks like new!

See also

• Ammon Hennacy
• Ade Bethune
• Catholic Radical Alliance
• Fritz Eichenberg
• Ciaron O'Reilly
• Friendship House
• Catholic social teaching
• Christian anarchism
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Saint Patrick's Day Four
• Utah Phillips
• James Loney
• Carmen Trotta

Similar Christian movements

• Servants to Asia's Urban Poor
• Madonna House Apostolate
• "New Monasticism" related communities.
• Anabaptism in particular the emerging peace church movement
• The Mormon Worker

References

External links

• Catholic Worker directory, archives and info
• Open Directory list of Houses