The New York Times veers close to self-parody in publishing “Was Dorothy Day Too Left-Wing to Be a Catholic Saint?”
The very deck beneath the headline undercuts it: “The Archdiocese of New York has asked the Vatican to consider the social activist for sainthood. But church leaders are not entirely comfortable with her politics.”
Actually, Day has always made Catholics on the right and left uncomfortable. The key is making sure that readers know why this is true.
What Liam Stack has to report is pretty straightforward.
Martha Hennessy was upset with what Cardinal Timothy Dolan preached during a Mass in Day’s honor:
“He has reduced her to ‘she lived a life of sexual promiscuity and she dabbled in communism,’” she said. “What worse enemy could we have, saying those things about her?” Ms. Hennessy is active in the [canonization] movement and did a reading at the Mass. “We have got to focus on her policies, we have got to focus on her practices.”
Stack’s report does not link to the cardinal’s homily, which is available on YouTube and embedded in this post (the homily begins at one hour and 15 minutes).
Viewers will note that there is no indication in Cardinal Dolan’s remarks that he is anything other than an admirer. He calls Day “one of our greats,” and mentions that he asked Pope Francis to declare her venerable: one major step toward becoming a saint.
While Dolan’s brief homily did not dwell on Day’s political life, he referred to the significant detail of her being on assignment by a Catholic magazine to report on a Hunger March in 1932 in the nation’s capital. Dolan added a detail omitted by the Times: after observing this march, Day prayed in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and took another step toward integrating her politics and her emerging faith.
Dolan also described how Day later met Peter Maurin, and how their collaboration led to what became the Catholic Worker movement.
Hennessy’s understanding of how the church honors its saints is not reinforced well by her remarks about Mother Teresa of Calcutta:
“Mother Teresa, she got marginalized by becoming a patron saint against abortion when her whole life was about caring for the dying when nobody else would care for them. How did that get translated into anti-abortion?”
At this point, it is important to note Day’s opposition to abortion played a crucial role in her journey deeper into Catholicism. Her support for the church’s moral teachings on sexuality were based on her own experiences, since she was, as a young woman, pressured into having an abortion.
Why leave that highly relevant information out of this Times piece?
But let’s return to Mother Teresa. Compare Hennessy’s framing of this Catholic saint’s life with what the Vatican’s biographical page says about her:
Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.
That Vatican biographical page says nothing about Mother Teresa’s opposition to abortion. However, the saint made such remarks on that topic with some frequency — including a very famous encounter will Bill and Hillary Clinton.
FIRST IMAGE: Catholic icon from the Dorothy Day page at the Monasteries of the Heart website.