Following the Saints

For John, BLUF:  People shouldn't assume that everyone who is for the downtrodden is a Democrat.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

I am a day late and a dollar short here, Dorothy Day having passed on 32 years ago this last 29th of November.  The New Yorker had the hint for me, but I just got around to it.  The magazine brought up the action for the Canonization of Dorothy Day.  My late Mother would be thrilled.

The article is a bit snarky about Dorothy Day compared to the Saints of old, but I don't see it.  Remember the line from future Leo Joseph Cardinal Suenens when a young seminarian disclosed he was against the Church.  The response was "My son, we are all against the Church."

Someone once asked me how I could be a Republican and read The Catholic Worker, the paper founded by Dorothy Day and fellow activist Peter Maurin as part of the Catholic Worker movement.  I think it is straight forward.  I am concerned about the issues The New Yorker article raises as life issues, including "hunger, homelessness, racism, immigration, capital punishment, war and more."  If Writer Virginia Cannon looks at the life and works of Dorothy Day it would seem to follow the insights expressed by Pope Leo XIII in the Encyclical Rerum Novarum.  Dorothy Day and I might not be taking exactly the same path, but we are both trying to follow the same insights.  (Here is the full text) of the Encyclical.  Incidentally, Dorothy Day tended to be a limited government kind of person.  I like that.

Interestingly enough, the Economist who influenced Pope Leo XIII, Giuseppe Toniolo, is also being considered for Sainthood.  Here is a short article in National Catholic Reporter, by Mr John L Allen, Jr.

ROME — Giuseppe Toniolo, a renowned late 19th and early 20th century lay Italian economist and political theorist, was beatified on Sunday in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the final step before a formal declaration of sainthood.  Among other claims to fame, Toniolo is now the first economist ever beatified by the Catholic church.

To sum up, I would say that as a Republican I align with Dorothy Day on a lot of issues, and on some I don't.  That may put me in opposition to some in my party, but that is fine with me.  Politics should be about debating the issues and finding effective solutions, within the context of one's principles.

Regards  —  Cliff