For nearly 93 years, the Catholic Worker Movement has stood steadfast in its values and commitment to “nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms,” according to the group’s website. As the war in Iran continues and Pope Leo calls for peace, Catholic Workers are asking for a more vocal Church in the face of this violence. The Good Newsroom spoke with Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of the Catholic Worker’s founder, Dorothy Day, and a continuing torchbearer of the values that underpin the movement.

Hennessy advocated for a call to action from parish priests, saying, “I think what’s important as Catholics as part of our Church is to be raising a voice reinforcing what Pope Leo was saying. Where’s the love, the peace, and the justice? … The Church has spoken out consistently about all of this, but what I hope our petition says is, where’s this voice coming from the pulpit?”

Following in the founder’s footsteps

Born in Brooklyn on Nov. 8, 1897, Dorothy Day left the University of Illinois in 1916 and was later arrested protesting with the suffragette movement.

Her conversion began around 1926, after the birth of her daughter, Tamar. Originally Episcopalian, she was baptized Catholic on Dec. 28, 1927, at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in the Tottenville section of Staten Island. The first Catholic Worker newspaper appeared in Union Square Park on May 1, 1933, calling for justice and dignity for the poor.

Day ministered from Manhattan and Staten Island until her death on Nov. 29, 1980, at Maryhouse in the East Village. She is buried in Staten Island’s Cemetery of the Resurrection. Day is now declared a Servant of God, with the Dorothy Day Guild leading her canonization cause.

Advocating for nonviolence

Speaking by phone, Hennessy discussed the conflict in Iran from personal experience there. “I had a trip to Iran years ago, and what an amazing culture … This business of new cultures trying to wipe out old cultures, I guess, has always been a human mystery,” Hennessy said.

To raise awareness of calls for nonviolence, Catholic Worker members have been holding vigils outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral every Sunday and in Union Square for many years, calling for peace in the Middle East. They continue this call as the conflict in Iran remains unresolved.

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Hennessy advocated for a group of priests formed under the name Priests Against Genocide. They share similar views that funding can heavily impact the factors that go into ongoing war.

She continued, “We’re defunding our society. The war economy is destroying us on all levels: spiritual and material … This money that is being spent on all this killing, meanwhile the president is saying we can’t pay for childcare, and we have to support our military. This is something that Dorothy [Day] pointed out over and over again in her lifetime. ‘War is a theft from the poor.'”

According to the Dorothy Day Guild’s website, the cause for Day’s sainthood is continuing with “Monsignor Maurizio Tagliaferri appointed as relator for Dorothy’s cause.” Documented accounts of miracles are still a key part of the process, and the Guild is always open to possible miracles attributed to Dorothy. The New York Catholic Worker continues to publish their long-running newsletter from the time of Dorothy Day, and a subscription to seven issues per year can be purchased for a penny per copy.