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Confessions of a Catholic Worker
Thomas More Press 132 pages
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1978
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February 16, 2023
A LIGHTHEARTED COMMENTARY ON THE CW HOUSE
Author Michael Garvey wrote in the Introduction to this 1978 book, “I was surprised when a friend told me that ‘joining the Catholic Worker movement is an old fashioned thing to do.’ .. he knows, as I do, many people in the movement who joined because of some radical experience or insight undergone in the late 1960, in the passionate confusion of what has become known as the antiwar movement…. Thank God, the Catholic Worker is not nearly as dogmatic as either the Baltimore Catechism of the Little Red Book. If it were, none of the people in this community would be there… The fact that it’s concerning with the suffering, oppressed, and poor, with nonviolence and pacifism naturally pleases the … left… but the philosophy itself stems from orthodox Catholicism… Maybe that’s how I would up at this Catholic Worker house. I’ve been here a little more than a year, and I have no idea how much longer I’ll stay… But I think I came here because of a belief…. For me… the Catholic Worker movement … is the best way to experience and express the presence of the Church… at work and play in the world.” (Pg. 12-13)
He observes, “This place could make me a Catholic chauvinist. All of the strengths and absurdities of our peculiar brand of hospitality would be impossible without the two thousand year tradition of a huge, varied, flabby family whose obstinate imagination will always be dissatisfied with the brevity of the Gospels.” (Pg. 15-16)
He explains, “Dorothy Day, if she’s not a saint, at least speaks with saintly wisdom when she responds to the notion of her own sanctity. She says: I don’t want to be dismissed that easily. Nobody I’ve met in the Catholic Worker movement does. Nobody should… Life in a Catholic Worker community seems to me no more difficult than life in the most ordinary family---that is, it’s immensely difficult.” (Pg. 31)
He states, “Overdoses of Catholic Worker rhetoric sometimes tempt us to believe that nearly everything that goes wrong with psyches, bodies and souls is the result of what Dorothy Day … calls ‘this filthy, rotten system.’ But it’s possible that the emphasis of that rhetoric distorts our perception of another dragon…” (Pg. 49)
He suggests, “If there is to be a new, Franciscan sort of movement in the Church---and the best elements in the Catholic Worker movement promise one---maybe it should be silent. What if St. Francis had been born in the late 1940? He’d probably be invited to speak on the panels of the Johnny Carson Show, the 700 Club…” (Pg. 73-74)
He notes, “We’ve chosen to be here, and that’s a history of the class, culture, economic system … into which we were born. At any moment, we know, we could leave West Fifth Street for a clean, air conditioned place where we would be welcomed and loved. They can’t. They as ‘disadvantaged,’ which is what we say when we mean weak, wretched, outcast, and despised…” (Pg. 96)
He reports, “Madison Street West can be distinguished from most other streets by the absence, even the impossibility, of comedy in that grotesque and variegated flow. Many of the faces grin or contort with laughter, but in the expression there’s always something mirthless and loony, something threatening. There’s no room for joy in this craziness. Because this is a part of Chicago’s skid row, and almost everyone you meet here is drunk… people from all over the continent gather together, not because they want to be together, but because West Madison Street is for them a place of refuge. Here they can, in relative safety and peace, consume enough white port to deaden a pain that no one has net named.” (Pg. 110)
He concludes, “To be murdered for the Faith, to die for a cause, any cause at all, at least promises a sort of remunerative historical glow… But if I started a public fast on the steps of Capitol Records offices, refusing to eat until the Beatles had regroups… I wouldn’t be dangerous. I’d be nuts, and treated accordingly. The problem is that this age has taught us to believe that nothing matters… We don’t scourge, crucify, or exile our prophets anymore. We ignore them, or give them our attention, and then laugh.”: (Pg. 130-132)
An interesting book (although those looking for a more detailed, ‘scholarly/historical’ study should look elsewhere).
Author Michael Garvey wrote in the Introduction to this 1978 book, “I was surprised when a friend told me that ‘joining the Catholic Worker movement is an old fashioned thing to do.’ .. he knows, as I do, many people in the movement who joined because of some radical experience or insight undergone in the late 1960, in the passionate confusion of what has become known as the antiwar movement…. Thank God, the Catholic Worker is not nearly as dogmatic as either the Baltimore Catechism of the Little Red Book. If it were, none of the people in this community would be there… The fact that it’s concerning with the suffering, oppressed, and poor, with nonviolence and pacifism naturally pleases the … left… but the philosophy itself stems from orthodox Catholicism… Maybe that’s how I would up at this Catholic Worker house. I’ve been here a little more than a year, and I have no idea how much longer I’ll stay… But I think I came here because of a belief…. For me… the Catholic Worker movement … is the best way to experience and express the presence of the Church… at work and play in the world.” (Pg. 12-13)
He observes, “This place could make me a Catholic chauvinist. All of the strengths and absurdities of our peculiar brand of hospitality would be impossible without the two thousand year tradition of a huge, varied, flabby family whose obstinate imagination will always be dissatisfied with the brevity of the Gospels.” (Pg. 15-16)
He explains, “Dorothy Day, if she’s not a saint, at least speaks with saintly wisdom when she responds to the notion of her own sanctity. She says: I don’t want to be dismissed that easily. Nobody I’ve met in the Catholic Worker movement does. Nobody should… Life in a Catholic Worker community seems to me no more difficult than life in the most ordinary family---that is, it’s immensely difficult.” (Pg. 31)
He states, “Overdoses of Catholic Worker rhetoric sometimes tempt us to believe that nearly everything that goes wrong with psyches, bodies and souls is the result of what Dorothy Day … calls ‘this filthy, rotten system.’ But it’s possible that the emphasis of that rhetoric distorts our perception of another dragon…” (Pg. 49)
He suggests, “If there is to be a new, Franciscan sort of movement in the Church---and the best elements in the Catholic Worker movement promise one---maybe it should be silent. What if St. Francis had been born in the late 1940? He’d probably be invited to speak on the panels of the Johnny Carson Show, the 700 Club…” (Pg. 73-74)
He notes, “We’ve chosen to be here, and that’s a history of the class, culture, economic system … into which we were born. At any moment, we know, we could leave West Fifth Street for a clean, air conditioned place where we would be welcomed and loved. They can’t. They as ‘disadvantaged,’ which is what we say when we mean weak, wretched, outcast, and despised…” (Pg. 96)
He reports, “Madison Street West can be distinguished from most other streets by the absence, even the impossibility, of comedy in that grotesque and variegated flow. Many of the faces grin or contort with laughter, but in the expression there’s always something mirthless and loony, something threatening. There’s no room for joy in this craziness. Because this is a part of Chicago’s skid row, and almost everyone you meet here is drunk… people from all over the continent gather together, not because they want to be together, but because West Madison Street is for them a place of refuge. Here they can, in relative safety and peace, consume enough white port to deaden a pain that no one has net named.” (Pg. 110)
He concludes, “To be murdered for the Faith, to die for a cause, any cause at all, at least promises a sort of remunerative historical glow… But if I started a public fast on the steps of Capitol Records offices, refusing to eat until the Beatles had regroups… I wouldn’t be dangerous. I’d be nuts, and treated accordingly. The problem is that this age has taught us to believe that nothing matters… We don’t scourge, crucify, or exile our prophets anymore. We ignore them, or give them our attention, and then laugh.”: (Pg. 130-132)
An interesting book (although those looking for a more detailed, ‘scholarly/historical’ study should look elsewhere).
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