Catholic Worker
Encyclopedia
The Catholic
Worker is a newspaper
published seven times a year by the Catholic Worker Movement
community in New York City
. The newspaper was started by Dorothy Day
and Peter Maurin
to make people aware of church teaching on social justice
. Day said the word "Worker" in the paper's title referred to "those who worked with hand or brain, those who did physical, mental, or spiritual work. But we thought primarily of the poor, the dispossessed, the exploited." When Communism
was popular in the United States during the Great Depression
, Day and Maurin wanted to teach what they thought was a well kept secret: the very progressive teaching of the church, so that the poor, mostly Catholic, would turn to their own tradition for the solution.
It first appeared on May Day
, 1933 in an edition of 2,500 copies, to make people aware of the social justice teaching of the Catholic Church as an alternative to Communism during the depression. Its stated goal was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Circulation rapidly rose to 25,000 within a few months, and reached 150,000 by 1936.
Day was the editor of The Catholic Worker until her death in 1980. The price per issue has always been one cent
. The official annual subscription price in 2009 is 25 cents. Writers for the paper have ranged from young volunteers to such notable figures as Ammon Hennacy
, Thomas Merton
, Daniel Berrigan
, Karl Meyer, Robert Coles
, and Jacques Maritain
. Ade Bethune
and Fritz Eichenberg
have frequently contributed illustrations.
The Catholic Worker lost thousands of subscribers because of its strict pacifist stance and refusal to join in the call for U.S. involvement in World War II
.
Additional writers of "The Catholic Worker" have published copies in other areas of the country as well. For example, Mark and Louize Zwick are the founders and managers of Casa Juan Diego, a Catholic Worker house in Houston, TX that provides shelter and a medical services for immigrants. Their publication is bilingual so their residents can read the articles' messages as well.
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Worker is a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
published seven times a year by the Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
community in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The newspaper was started by Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...
and Peter Maurin
Peter Maurin
Peter Maurin was a Roman Catholic social activist who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 with Dorothy Day.Maurin expressed his ideas through short pieces of verse that became known as - Biography :...
to make people aware of church teaching on social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
. Day said the word "Worker" in the paper's title referred to "those who worked with hand or brain, those who did physical, mental, or spiritual work. But we thought primarily of the poor, the dispossessed, the exploited." When Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
was popular in the United States during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Day and Maurin wanted to teach what they thought was a well kept secret: the very progressive teaching of the church, so that the poor, mostly Catholic, would turn to their own tradition for the solution.
It first appeared on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, 1933 in an edition of 2,500 copies, to make people aware of the social justice teaching of the Catholic Church as an alternative to Communism during the depression. Its stated goal was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Circulation rapidly rose to 25,000 within a few months, and reached 150,000 by 1936.
Day was the editor of The Catholic Worker until her death in 1980. The price per issue has always been one cent
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
. The official annual subscription price in 2009 is 25 cents. Writers for the paper have ranged from young volunteers to such notable figures as Ammon Hennacy
Ammon Hennacy
Ammon Ashford Hennacy was an Irish American pacifist, Christian anarchist, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a Wobbly...
, Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
, Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan, SJ is an American Catholic priest, peace activist, and poet. Daniel and his brother Philip were for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for their involvement in antiwar protests during the Vietnam war....
, Karl Meyer, Robert Coles
Robert Coles
Martin Robert Coles is an American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University.-Life and career:...
, and Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
. Ade Bethune
Ade Bethune
Ade Bethune was a Catholic liturgical artist.She was associated with the Catholic Worker Movement, and designed an early masthead of its publication, the Catholic Worker, first used in 1935. She later re-designed this in 1985, replacing one of the men with a woman.Bethune was an advocate of...
and Fritz Eichenberg
Fritz Eichenberg
Fritz Eichenberg was a German-American illustrator who worked primarily in wood engraving. His best-known works were concerned with religion, social justice and nonviolence....
have frequently contributed illustrations.
The Catholic Worker lost thousands of subscribers because of its strict pacifist stance and refusal to join in the call for U.S. involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Additional writers of "The Catholic Worker" have published copies in other areas of the country as well. For example, Mark and Louize Zwick are the founders and managers of Casa Juan Diego, a Catholic Worker house in Houston, TX that provides shelter and a medical services for immigrants. Their publication is bilingual so their residents can read the articles' messages as well.
Further reading
Rota, Olivier. "From a social question with religious echoes to a religious question with social echoes. The ‘Jewish Question’ and the English Catholic Worker (1939–1948)," Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXV n° 3, May-June 2005, pp. 4-5.External links
- The Catholic Worker Movement
- May 1, 1933 Daily Bleed Calendar