Social Justice Saints.
Love is a teacher.- Elder Zosima
Maybe it is just me, although my experience tells me it is not, but many Catholics attracted to tradition and prayer as contemplation, seem to regard social justice issues as “liberal” and unorthodox. Unless the various apostolates are undertaken by traditional religious, such as the Hawthorne Domnicans who care for the cancerous poor, or the Little Sisters of the Poor, who care for the elderly poor. Although it should come as no surprise that many of those vocations were conceived in social activist settings. Young women (and men) who worked amongst the poor, oftentimes side by side with liberal nuns and priests.
I noted with delight that New Oxford Review has posted a favorable piece on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. It is a review by Thomas Storck of the new book: “The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins” - by Mark and Louise Zwick, founders of casa Juan Diego, the Catholic Worker house in Houston, Texas.
The Zwick’s “detail the various persons whose lives and thought influenced the founders of the Catholic Worker. Included are: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Catherine of Siena; several notable Catholic intellectuals: Dom Virgil Michel, Jacques and Raissa Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier; and two Russian Orthodox writers: the famous novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nicholas Berdyaev. Other influences include medieval Irish and Benedictine monasticism and, of course, the social encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII and Pius XI. The Zwicks devote a chapter to each of these chief influences, quoting from both Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin’s own writings, as well as from secondary sources about the Catholic Worker movement.” - NOR
It is clear there is no taint of heresy, no embrace of communism, much less abandonment of Catholic teaching or spirituality in the fundamental principles of the Catholic Worker Movement. Even “Dorothy Day’s pacifism was not so much an ideological position as a radical and personal embrace of the Gospel. That is, the words of Jesus Christ about love of enemy and accepting the injustices that others may impose on one made such an impression on Dorothy Day’s heart that she was moved to a total rejection of war.” - NOR
Blessed are the peacemakers. - Matthew 5
For some reason many devout people equate sanctity exclusively with mysticism, or contemplative style prayer, forgetting the fact that some of the greatest saints in the history of the Church were extremely active individuals. And of course, their activity was animated by deep spirituality and prayer, as seen most recently in the example of Blessed Mother Teresa. In the past, saints such as Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Genoa, John of God, and countless others, acted radically, lived amongst the poor and the outcasts, sharing their lives and ministering to them. The saints have always been counter-cultural, and oftentimes viewed with suspicion by fellow Christians and Church authorities.
I wonder how many Catholics have heard of people such as Jean Vanier, the founder of l’Arche, a ministry by people who live, family style, with the mentally handicapped. Vanier began his work in France, steeped in Catholicism, although today the movement is more inter-denominational. a fact which can be a source of consternation for traditional Catholics who feel every movement of charity, social justice and peace, must be under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. If it is not, or if there are dissidents involved in this or that apostolate, the more traditional usually pull back - they want nothing to do with the charity.
Which may beg the question, ‘how secure in our Catholic faith are we, if we refuse to volunteer, or contribute something to works of social justice simply because they are not Catholic or traditional enough?’ I would think those of us serious about living the Gospel, and secure in our Catholic faith, could easily blend in with a group of radical nuns who have a charity providing clothes and household items for the poor. Or work at a homeless shelter in a dissident parish. Works of charity do not demand that everyone involved believes the same thing, worships in the same way, or embrace the same politics - so long as nothing is being propagated in opposition to faith and morals.
Bear with one another.- Colossians
There is a group of religious, the Little Sisters and Little Brothers of Jesus, who follow the vocation of Bl. Charles de Foucauld. These religious live amongst the poor, often in dangerous areas of the world. Their apostolate is contemplative with Eucharistic Adoration at its core. They work at menial jobs, just like their neighbors. Their life is a radical witness to the Gospel amongst unbelievers.
I point to their example to better explain what I mean when I say traditional Catholics can surely work amongst dissident Catholics or non-Catholics, sharing their apostolates of charity, while offering a silent, loving witness to traditional Catholicism, in imitation of the Eucharistic Jesus. Silently striving through our sacrifices, prayers, and united good works, to heal divisions amongst believers.
A Missionary of Charity once told me, “It is not charity if we attach conditions.”
January 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
And there was the incomparable Irish immigrant Mother Mary Walsh (1850-1922) of New York: a life wholly given to the sick poor of New York’s lower East Side. The heroic “Mother Mary of New York” is often overlooked.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Readers may also be interested in learning about the Little Brothers of the Poor. They are laymen, not religious. Their life is one of service to the elderly poor, especially in urban settings. Read about them here: http://www.petits-freres.org/
January 11th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Catherine Doherty fascinates me..i love Jean Vanier & i must read more Dorothy Day. Oh Edel Quinn & Alfie Lamb..Leionaries of Mary are wonderful too..
January 11th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
A thought-provoking post, Terry.
I have long been fascinated by the Little Sisters and Little Brothers of Jesus. I read an article about some of these Sisters who travel with a carnival and work alongside everyone else; sewing costumes, etc. This is an occupation that some would tend to look down on. These Sisters challenge us to see others through the eyes of Christ.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
EWTN had a show on the other night about L’Arche and Jean Vanier. It was from the early 1980’s. I cried like a baby watching it. So beautiful. I have no charism in this area whatsoever but wish I did.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
This view is one that also share, Terry. In fact I believe a radical - meaning of the root - approach is to take care of one’s poor neighbor personally, and to bind their wounds with one’s own hands. It is not enough to express care via donations to charitable organizations but one must get one’s own hands dirty for the love of God and one’s neighbor.
IF every Catholic were to live the Gospel radically, in Truth and in Spirit and offer the oblation of one’s self for neighbor and God as Jesus offered Himself for us there would be no poverty. We would all be poor. In this poverty we would have the bonds of Charity and know that we would not could not hunger or thirst because of the care of our proximate neighbor nor could they suffer these because of our immediate care.
This evangelical poverty is the essential reality of our absolute dependence upon God and upon one another for the goods upon which we live. The wealthy in resources have the absolute obligation to provide for neighbor not only materially but of our their intellectual or aesthetic gifts as well. Talents and fruit bearing trees.
It is essential to cease thinking that these aims may only be accomplished through a religious order or lay institute but in actuality the laity must use the Family and the Household as the Foundation from which Charity springs.
Did the Samaritan of the Gospel belong to a lay institute? What religious order did the Syrophoenecian Woman belong to when she gave the Holy One to drink of the well?
Matthew 25 speaks of the criteria by which we will be assessed at the final judgment. Please note these are the commission or omission of feeding the hungry, housing strangers, clothing nakeds, visiting prisoners, giving relief to the thirsty. This is done on a personal level, let us then console the Face of Jesus in His disguise as Veronica did the Lord in His Passion.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Leorufus - yours is the best advice I have ever read. Thank you!
January 12th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Very well stated. It seems to me that those impassioned Catholics who aggressively pursued a radical social reform have been unfairly stigmatized as leftist supporting communist or counter cultural ideologies. Should this surprise you? NO! Look whose footsteps they walk in. Jesus wasn’t crucified for going with the flow of society.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
With regard to people’s weariness about woman religious that take up social justice. I think that, although this is a wonderful apostolate, some took it too far. They sacrifieced their prayer life and some of the fundamentals of religious life in order to take this up. Although there are many,many orders who did not do this, who kept a balanced life, but I think too many people associate social justice with liberal theology.
January 12th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
While you bring up awesome points, and you speak truly, we all must use caution. Many of the socially-oriented groups indeed do great works, and I, for one, applaud them for that.
Unfortunately, as Lily points out, there has to be a balance. Many of these social-justice groups are doing things in the name of Jesus, and while some of those things are good, they are also speaking out in disobedience, are enabling people in their sin (such as support for the homosexual lifestyle, as in gay marriage, etc.), and in other things. It is because they have forgotten their foundation of prayer, and in losing their prayerful and sacramental connection to God, they have become tools of Satan.
This is not true of every social justice organization, but it has happened so widely, and whole communities have made politics their idol, that it makes us all NEED to pause.
YES, we ALL need to be willng to get our hands dirty. Although not all of us are called to do this; because we all have different charisms. However, all of the charisms do require actual USE of them, so we all must get our hands dirty in some way. Sometimes that is through financial sacrifice, because maybe we are the only ones able to provide that particular sacrifice. Maybe we don’t have money, but we have time so we can go down and regularly serve the homeless. Maybe we have a neighbor in need of assistance…then we must assist that neighbor.
So we must all assess our lives and where we are being called to serve, and in what way. We can’t leave it all to religious communities, nor can we endorse communities that are living the “social gospel” devoid of the Gospel itself.
Terry, you have written on this before, in a way criticizing the more conservative (I hate that term, it’s political, not theological) parishes in that they don’t do enough on the social justice end. Agreed. Balance is needed there, too. And I know that people ARE willing to do something.
Is it too much to ask that we are able to balance both theology and action in the SAME parish? Apparently so.
* sigh *
January 13th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Julie - I agree with you. I have believed for a long time the heart of the trouble with “social justice” parishes, orders, etc is the apparent divorce of personal sanctity from social justice. Personal sanctity comes FIRST, then the soul is moved by God’s grace to charity in acts of social justice. Acts of charity merit the soul NOTHING outside of the state of grace. We can help our neighbor, but if we are rotting in mortal sin interiorly, we only wreak our havoc on the Body of Christ.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
One of the most beautiful examples of the “balance” is the French community of the Oblates of the Eucharist. For nearly one hundred years they have combined adoration of the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament with compassionate palliative care of the suffering and dying. Their foundress used to talk about going “from the Body of Christ to the Body Christ.” They remain faithful to their original inspiration.
As for the observation that such works belong to the laity: yes, indeed! But if one studies the genesis and growth of such works one discovers that in nearly every case the work begins as the personal commitment of a lay person intent on living the normal Christian life. Little by little other lay folk associate themselves with the originator. After some time, the group chooses to adopt a form of consecrated life.