Monday, November 29, 2010
Remembering Servant of God Dorothy Day after 30 years
In March of 2000,
John Cardinal O’Connor announced the approval of the Holy See for the Archdiocese of New York to open the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Dorothy Day. With this approval, Dorothy Day was given the title of Servant of God. Edward Cardinal Egan is continuing the efforts for her canonization.
The next step toward sainthood is beatification. Beatification allows a person to be honored by a particular
group or region. In order to beatify a candidate, it must be shown that the person is responsible for a
posthumous miracle. To be considered a saint, there must be proof of a second posthumous miracle.
Prayer for the Intercession of Servant of God Dorothy Day
God our Creator,
your servant Dorothy Day exemplified the
Catholic faith by her conversion,
life of prayer and voluntary poverty,
works of mercy, and
witness to the justice and peace
of the Gospel.
May her life inspire people
to turn to Christ as their Savior and guide,
to see his face in the world’s poor and
to raise their voices for the justice
of God’s kingdom.
We pray that you grant the favors we ask
through her intercession so that her goodness
and holiness my be more widely recognized
and one day the Church may
proclaim her Saint.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Prayer Petitions
Submit the petition for which you desires prayers through the intercession of Dorothy Day to our website DorothyDayGuild.org (Coming Soon!) Please be sure to include your name, address, and telephone number.
The Guild for Dorothy Day
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Avenue 12th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Dorothy Day:I am pleased to hear that you were announced by the Vatican that you were Elevated to status of "Servant of God", and you are declared a Saint someday. I hope people will read about your life and see that you are an example with your inspiration towards your faith. Also thanks to be part of Staten Island's own history too! remembering you 30 years ago today, may you rest in peace!
Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an Christian anarchist,and did not hesitate to use the term. In the 1930s, Day worked closely with fellow activist Peter Maurin to establish the Catholic Worker movement, a nonviolent, pacifist movement that continues to combine direct aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent direct action on their behalf.
Day's cause for canonization is open in the Catholic Church.
By the 1960s, Day was embraced by a significant number of Catholics, while at the same time, she earned the praise of counterculture leaders such as Abbie Hoffman, who characterized her as the first hippie,[9] a description of which Day approved.
Yet, although Day had written passionately about women’s rights, free love and birth control in the 1910s, she opposed the sexual revolution of the 1960s, saying she had seen the ill-effects of a similar sexual revolution in the 1920s. Day had a progressive attitude toward social and economic rights, alloyed with a very orthodox and traditional sense of Catholic morality and piety.
Her devotion to her church was neither conventional nor unquestioning, however. She alienated many U.S. Catholics (including some clerical leaders) with her condemnation of Falangist leader Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War; and, possibly in response to her criticism of Cardinal Francis Spellman, she came under pressure by the Archdiocese of New York in 1951 to change the name of her newspaper, "ostensibly because the word Catholic implies an official church connection when such was not the case". The newspaper's name was not changed.
In 1971, Day was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.' Day was accorded many other honors in her last decade, including the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame, in 1972.
She died on November 29, 1980, in New York City.
Day was buried in Cemetery of the Resurrection on Staten Island, just a few blocks from the location of the beachside cottage where she first became interested in Catholicism. She was proposed for sainthood by the Claretian Missionaries in 1983. Pope John Paul II granted the Archdiocese of New York permission to open Day's "cause" for sainthood in March 2000, thereby officially making her a "Servant of God" in the eyes of the Catholic Church
Legacy:
Her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, was published in 1952. Day's account of the Catholic Worker movement, Loaves and Fishes, was published in 1963. A popular movie called Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story was produced in 1996. Day was portrayed by Moira Kelly and Peter Maurin was portrayed by Martin Sheen, actors later known for their roles on The West Wing television series in the United States. Fool for Christ: The Story of Dorothy Day, a one woman play performed by Sarah Melici, premiered in 1998. A DVD of the play has been produced and Melici continues to do live performances in the United States and Canada.
The first full-length documentary about Day, Dorothy Day: Don't Call Me a Saint, by filmmaker Claudia Larson, premiered on November 29, 2005 at Marquette University, where Day's papers are housed. The documentary was also shown at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and is now available on DVD. Day's diaries, The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day, edited by Robert Ellsberg, were published by the Marquette University Press in 2008. A companion volume, All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day, also edited by Ellsberg, was published by the Marquette University Press in 2010.
Day has been the recipient of numerous posthumous honors and awards. Among them: in 1992, she received the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey,and in 2001, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
Memorialization
Day's accomplishments have been memorialized in many ways. Dormitories at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Loyola College in Maryland are named in her honor. A named professorship at St. John's University School of Law is currently held by labor law scholar David L. Gregory.
At Marquette University, a floor bearing Day's name has been reserved for those drawn to social justice issues. Broadway Housing Communities, a supportive housing project in New York City, opened the Dorothy Day Apartment Building in 2003. Several Catholic Worker communities are named after Day.
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