An American academic has proposed Catholic social activist Dorothy Day as the perfect patron of the upcoming Year of Mercy.
Dr Lance Richey has edited a recent edition of Day’s journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement.
He also organises an annual Dorothy Day conference.
“I do think that it’s a very providential time for Dorothy Day’s message,” Dr Richey said.
“Pope Francis is calling the universal Church to what Dorothy Day called the American church to be,” he said.
“I mean, everything about her was, ‘how are we called to be merciful to others?’ and ‘how every day of my life can I carry out these works of mercy?’”
Dr Richey said there is tendency for Day to be championed by people who ignore “her deep spirituality and her utter commitment and fidelity to the Church”.
This approach takes away from the whole picture of who Day really was – namely, a deeply faithful woman who “defined her life around the spiritual and corporal works of mercy”.
Dr Richey said that in his studies he learned that “for Dorothy Day you can’t divide Catholicism into ‘kinds.’”
“There aren’t ‘kinds of Catholics.’ You’re either Catholic or you’re not, and being Catholic entails social obligations and theological obligations,” he said.
Dr Richey said Day’s work and prayers “flowed from a very deep conversion to Christ and a deep love for the Church”.
Before becoming a Catholic, Day had an abortion, which she always greatly regretted and suffered greatly over.
The late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York once said he wished every woman who had suffered an abortion would come to know Dorothy Day.
She has been recognised as a “Servant of God” – meaning that the Vatican sees no objection in her cause for canonisation progressing.
In 2012, the US bishops endorsed her canonisation.
But Day herself is once reputed to have said: ““Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”
Sources