Comments on: N.Y. Times plays politics with Dorothy Day

By: Mary DeTurris Poust

Mary DeTurris Poust — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:58:01 +0000

In reply to Calvin.

Calvin,
Thank you for your comment, and God bless you in your endeavor to open a Dorothy Day House for inmates coming home with mental illness.
Peace,
Mary

By: Calvin

Calvin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:06:50 +0000

Ah…Dorothy Day + it has been 20 years since I was in prison when someone handed me The Long Loneliness, Dorothy’s autobiography. Reading her story was a complete & total transformation for my life. I am looking to open the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality for inmates coming home with mental illness. I live and breathe the theology of Dorothy Day since I too have walked through the muck & ugliness of life. 2/28/13

By: Beth

Beth — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:43:04 +0000

In reply to Anonymous. I'm curious as to why you label Bonhoeffer a progressive. Like Day, he's rather hard to pin down in one 'camp' or the other. His thoughts on marriage (found in his Letters and Papers From Prison) are downright 'old-fashioned', if you'll pardon another label.

By: Dr. Patrick Foley

Dr. Patrick Foley — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:12:02 +0000

I am a Catholic historian with numerous publications, teaching at universities and colleges, knighthood from the King of Spain and a papal medallion from Blessed Pope John Paul II. I cite this only to identify my background. The difficulty with so many secularist viewpoints today is they call issues conservative or liberal rather than truthful or erroneous, a point made back about 1873 by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman. Having lost the vision of truth, these viewpoints fall back on politically correct relativism.
Cardinal Dolan is brilliant in his assessments, but brilliancy is something many publications today from the media do not recognize.

By: Billy

Billy — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:32:45 +0000

Can’t get over the icon. So beautiful!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:04:08 +0000

Let's not play football with Dorothy Day! As a Catholic school student in the raucous period between 1960 and 1973, Dorothy Day's "getting it" transcended the irrelevance of the Catholic Church to the social injustices that marred the Western world and she was an inspiration to me, my closest friends, and to the young Christian Brothers who taught us at the time.

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) whose life story inspired me to see the best side of progressive Christianity. It Dorothy Day who inspired me to be socially conscious and to put my Catholic faith into good works as a volunteer mentor at St St Brigid's School on Avenue B in NYC and in a number of other ways.

Yes, she was a true leader by example.

By: Julianne Wiley

Julianne Wiley — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 03:41:38 +0000

Fred: My fave quote from Dorothy Day: "The Church must never abandon the poor--- to Holy Mother the State."

She NEVER lost sight of the fact that a swelling State makes for a shrinking Church, and vice cersa. She never, ever, ever sided with the State against the Church.

But for me, the best thing is: she brought me back to the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicis.

I think hundreds, maybe thousands could say the same. And tens of thousands will join their voices and hearts with real warmth to petition: Dorothy, Servant of God, pray for us.

By: DrDoctorDr

DrDoctorDr — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 04:23:28 +0000

@ Fred (again): "No real saint would speak sit in public judgment of an archbishop the way she bragged that she did."

SAINT Catherine of Siena had a few things to say to the pope...

By: TerryC

TerryC — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:11:34 +0000

Fred,
Day was a very odd socialist. She was against Social Security and afraid of what excessive government intrusion into charitable work would do. She was smart enough to know that if you take the government's dime then the government will want to run the show. And their decisions woudl not be good for the poor.
I would say that while an active socialist early in life she was in truth an anarchist, who did not trust government at all.
Her vision of social justice is more in line with the Church's understanding of social justice than just about any modern "justice & peace" Catholic who expects the government to solve the problem of poverty (through taxing the rich).
As for her sitting in public judgment of an archbishop, if you're speaking of her criticism of Cardinal Francis Spellman, I'd say Cardinal Spellman had many faults worth criticizing. Let's just say that St. Catherine of Siena was also well known for letting her criticism of high ranking Church members. Indeed some members of the American Catholic Church's hierarchy in the lest few decades deserve more than tepid public condemnation for what they've done or failed to do.

By: Bethanie Ryan

Bethanie Ryan — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:01:39 +0000

I agree with some of the earlier commenters, this is a great response to the NYT. If you haven’t noticed, everything is about left vs. right anymore and people outside the church (and sadly, some inside) want to split the church the same way society is divided. And to assign political motives to Cardinal Dolan is just absurd! The Church isn’t a democracy, no one needs to play politics. We are using our energies share the Gospel.