The aims and means of The Catholic Worker bring into focus a society with human dignity at the center rather than profit-driven goals
The Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker have been a part of their beliefs and teachings since the mid-1930s. They are built on the teachings found in the Works of Mercy in the Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46), the “Common Good” principles found in St. Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine, and a belief that capitalist ideals take us further “from God’s justice.”
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The History of the Aims and Means
The first time we can see The Catholic Worker’s aims and means written out explicitly is in their May 1936 edition of The Catholic Worker. Dorothy Day addressed a message to the readers as a call to action to share the social doctrine found in the Papal encyclicals on social justice. This first call already had one of their most important guiding principles: a focus on voluntary poverty, where excess is instead used to help those in need rather than for the hoarding of wealth. This message connected this impoverished lifestyle to that of Jesus and his disciples at the time of the Gospels, where frugal means kept the teachings of Christ traveling, similar to how the frugal means of The Catholic Worker kept their paper in publication and their message spreading.
Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker, outlines these early beliefs simply
Prior to this message to readers, Peter Maurin had said these principles in one of his “Easy Essays” ts. His essay, “What The Catholic Worker Believes,” plainly shows a simplified version of these principles and may be one of the easiest ways to quickly understand The Catholic Worker.
In full, it states, “The Catholic Worker believes in the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism. The Catholic Worker believes in the personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother. The Catholic Worker believes in the daily practice of the Works of Mercy. The Catholic Worker believes in Houses of Hospitality for the immediate relief of those who are in need. The Catholic Worker believes in the establishment of farming communes where each one works according to his ability and gets according to his need. The Catholic Worker believes in 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.”
“Aims and Purposes” – 1939
The first time these thoughts were collected as a full-fledged tenet and guiding principle for The Catholic Worker was in the May 1939 edition of the paper, where they were referred to as their “Aims and Purposes.” This is when things got much more organized for those following in the steps of Dorothy Day. Here were the expanded-upon issues that were troubling the people of the time and means to solve them within the social doctrine of the Catholic faith. Equality as a defining factor has been at the top of these “aims and means” publications since this first official one and this inclusion as one of the greatest plights that divides Catholics cannot be understated.
“Our program for our own lives is simple: to clarify thought by constant study and discussion,” Day wrote.
Always at the center, communication is seen to solve problems through the simple way of community hearing and thinking through the problems together.
The Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker in Modern Day
Care for others is not the part of these teachings that changed over the years, but the way this message needs to be shared in clear and concise terms has. In 2019, the current form of “The Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker” published, and in it we can find the principles of the Catholic Worker in plain black and white. They break it down into the separate doctrines that they cite as the backbone of their teachings and break it down further into categories of injustice that they are fighting firsthand in economics, labor, politics, and morals.
These problems can be seen in “unjust distribution of wealth,” technological advancement in profit-driven goals rather than human work focusing on human needs, “laborers are trapped in work that does not contribute to human welfare,” business concerns have displaced agricultural jobs and forced the communes that the Catholic Worker has leaned on for food to change that shows “disregard for the laws of nature now threatens the very planet,” bureaucracy changing community to an impersonal machine meant to “control and regulate life,” and the lack of equality where “class, race and gender often determine personal worth and position within society, leading to structures that foster oppression.”
To combat these problems, Catholic Workers advocate for personalism to keep the human person at the forefront of decisions and attempt to quell selfishness. They advocate for a decentralized community focused on “family farms, rural and urban land trusts, worker ownership and management of small factories, homesteading projects, food, housing and other cooperatives–any effort in which money can once more become merely a medium of exchange, and human beings are no longer commodities.”
Pacifism became much more important to the doctrine during the Cold War in the 1950s and 60s and has continued to shape Catholic Worker decisions throughout their history. For many, it is what they immediately think of when they think of the teachings of Dorothy Day. Nonviolence remains a top priority and is deeply rooted in Gospel teaching with the Beatitude from Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
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The current form of “The Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker” ends with this message to remind readers that this path is not an easy one but an important one: “We must be prepared to accept seeming failure with these aims, for sacrifice and suffering are part of the Christian life. Success, as the world determines it, is not the final criterion for judgments. The most important thing is the love of Jesus Christ and how to live His truth.”
Learn more about The Evolution of the Aims and Means on The Catholic Worker website. The Dorothy Day Guild is always looking for more volunteers and verified miracles.