KENOTIC , REVOLUTIONARY DESCENT: The Spiritual Politics of Daniel Izuzquiza, s.j.

1. REVOLUTIONARY DESCENT: SEEING THE WORLD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE POOR ...... 5 2. KENOTIC REVOLUTION: THE POLITICS OF DOROTHY DAY...... 14 3. AN INTEGRATED PROPOSAL ...... 23 CONCLUSION. THE BODY OF CHRIST AS RADICAL ECCLESIOLOGY...... 27 APPENDIX. , KENOSIS AND REVOLUTION ...... 29 NOTES...... 31 QUESTIONNAIRE ...... 32 Daniel Izuzquiza, s.j., (b. 1968). While finishing his studies in Theology in the USA, he made contact with the Worker, and visited four of their communities, living several months in one of them.

IINTERNET: www.fespinal.com - Translated by Gerarda Walsh - Cover illustration: Roger Torres - Printed on ecological paper and recycled cardboard - CRISTIANISME I JUSTÍCIA Edition - R. de Llúria, 13 - 08010 Barcelona - tel: 93 317 23 38 - fax: 93 317 10 94 - info@fes- pinal.com - Printed by: Edicions Rondas, S.L. - ISSN: 0214-6509 - ISBN: 84-9730-231-1 - Legal deposit: B-43.995-2009. December 2009. The Lluís Espinal Foundation would like to inform you that its information comes from our historical archive belonging to our records. These go under the name of BDGACIJ and are registered with the code 2061280639. In order to access them, rectify them, delete or challenge them, please contact us at the street Roger de Llúria, 13, Barcelona. Dorothy Day is perhaps the most important figure in twentieth century North American Catholicism, even though she is little known in our cir- cles. Her life alongside the poor and her commitment to active non-vio- lence won her as much criticism as it did praise. Ever faithful to the Church and scornful of capitalism, not every American Catholic under- stood or shared her views. A layperson, a mother, a grandmother, a wor- ker, a revolutionary and a deeply religious woman, Dorothy offers us a new way of life for these difficult times at the start of the twenty-first cen- tury.

She felt comfortable in a socialist, anarchist and pacifist environment, where she earned her reputation for her daily commitment to the poor, as well as the prophetic talent she possessed, right up to the end of her life. She passed away in 1980, and was officially declared a “servant of God”, while her road to canonization is ongoing. She was a founder of a Catholic anarchist movement in 1933, and remained a charismatic leader of that group for almost fifty years. Many were surprised that the Catholic Worker Movement managed to continue its work so well after her death. The extraordinary thing about Dorothy Day was not in what she wrote or in what she believed, but rather in the fact that there was no difference whatsoever in what she believed, what she said, what she wrote, and her way of life.

However, Dorothy Day did not acquire this socio-political commitment through her Christian faith in an easy or peaceful way. Instead it was her religious experience that she discovered progressively, and only ma- naged to make it part of her life after years of internal and external struggles. Dorothy was born into a hardworking family that cared little for religion. The anti-clerical tendencies of her father took precedence over the weaker Anglican religiosity of her mother, and it was only in her early adolescence that Dorothy had any contact with the Church. During her youth, she moved in more progressive, bohemian and secu-

3 lar circles. Her worries, her friendships, and the environment in which she lived led her far away from anything related with the Church. One issue that we do need to clarify then is how Dorothy Day came to de- velop a Christian faith and a commitment to the Church.

This booklet therefore aims to look at the figure of Dorothy Day, exa- mining the radical and alternative position she adopted, as well as offer- ing some suggestions that, based on her life and work, may help to throw light on our own situation, and encourage our own commitment to such issues. We will firstly do this by focussing on the early stages of her life, or in other words, the way she defined her relationship with the world and with her own spirituality. It is only by examining these roots (from the Latin word, radices), that we will be able to understand the radical aspect of her life and her public standpoint. Secondly, we will be looking at the close link that existed between this daily spirituality she lived out, and her political vision. This booklet will therefore be looking at how Dorothy Day’s idea of revolutionary descent (in the spiritual sense) and kenotic revolution (in the political sense) offer a valid and radical alternative way of confronting the discourse and dominant prac- tices of globalised capitalism in the world. Before that however, and in order to help the reader, we will present a brief portrait of Dorothy Day, containing the main events in her life.

4 1. REVOLUTIONARY DESCENT: SEEING THE WORLD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE POOR

The key element of Dorothy Day’s revolutionary non-violence lay in what we could call her radical descent into the world of . Bearing in mind that Dorothy was at the same time a social reformer, a political activist and a spiritual leader, we will now have a closer look at her jour- ney into poverty, and how it was linked to her socio-political ideas. We have divided the analysis into four sections, beginning with the synthe- sis of different elements that made up her life. We will then be looking at how this synthesis unfolded in her way of looking life and history, in her way of experiencing reality, and in her discovery of Jesus Christ in the midst of the city. In other words, her faith-and-justice synthesis dis- played itself in three specific practices of descent with revolutionary consequences: she opened her eyes (and other persons’ as well) to the struggle for justice; she became part of the life of the poor; she embo- died this message in her public life, in prison and on the street.

1.1. From conflict to synthesis be examining this issue in more detail now, through her own autobiographical The life of Dorothy Day could be seen writings, to see how these elements as a consequence of the profound evolved over the years. synthesis of elements that she en- countered in her life, and ultimately While she was still studying at embodied. There was a fusion of faith secondary school, at the age of only and justice, tradition and revolution, fifteen, she wrote that “I wanted, though 1 religion and politics. In the early stages I did not know it then, a synthesis” . of her life, these aspects seemed to be Some months later, when she joined the totally opposed, and that is why we will Socialist Party in the University of

5 Biographical details of Dorothy Day

8th November 1897 She is born in Brooklyn, New York 1907 Her family moves from San Francisco (where the earthquake hit in 1906) to Chicago 1914-16 While at the University of Illinois in Urbana, she joins the local branch of the Socialist Party 1916 She moves to New York (East Side). She works in various left-wing newspapers, staying in contact with the anarcho-syndicalist movement IWW, and the pacifist group League Against Conscription. 1917 She is arrested in Washington DC, following a women’s suffragist demonstration 1918 She works as a nurse in New York 1922-3 She lives in Chicago (where she is detained in the office of the IWW) and New Orleans 1924 She publishes The Eleventh (autobiographical novel) 1925-29 She returns to New York (Staten Island). Common-law marriage with Forster Batterham 1927 Her daughter Tamar Teresa is born on 3rd March 1927 She is received into the on December 28th 1930-31 She moves to and Florida December 1932 Washington DC. Demonstration against hunger. She returns to New York, and meets Peter Maurin 1933 First edition of the newspaper Catholic Worker (May 1st) Winter 1933 First house of hospitality for beggars, unemployed, homeless people and drug addicts. She will live among these people until her death. 1935 First farming on Staten Island, NY 1936 Thirty-three houses of hospitality in the USA 1936 Spanish Civil War. The pacifist editorial stance of the CW causes them to lose two-thirds of their reader- ship and subscribers 1938 She publishes From Union Square to Rome 1939 She publishes House of Hospitality 1945 Fifteen houses of hospitality close as a result of their pacifist stance during the Second World War 1942-46 She becomes a Benedictine in the Portsmouth monastery, Rhode Island 1943-44 “Sabbatical year” or spiritual retreat 1944 Tamar’s wedding (19th April) 1948 She publishes On Pilgrimage (a collection of articles from the CW) 1949 Peter Maurin dies, May 15th 1952 She publishes The Long Loneliness (her main autobiographical work) 1955 11th July, Martha is born, her seventh grandchild 1955 She becomes a Benedictine Oblate in the monastery of St. Procopius (Lisle, IL) 1955 She is arrested following an act of civil disobedience against the plans for nuclear defence. The protests and arrests would recur over the years that followed, up until 1961 1957 A visit of solidarity to “Koinonia”, a Christian inter-racial farming community. Although shot at, she is unharmed 1959-60 She becomes a of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity (Carlos de Foucauld) 1960 She publishes Thérese (a biography of St. Thérese of Lisieux) 1962 She takes part in the setting up of American PAX (later known as ) 1963 She publishes Loaves and Fishes (the history of the Catholic Worker movement) 1963 She joins the “Mothers for Peace” group that visits John XXIII after the encyclical Pacem in Terris 1965 She takes part in the setting up of the Catholic Peace Fellowship 1965 During Vatican Council II, she joins the days of fasting and prayer organised by Lanza del Vasto in order to demand a condemnation of nuclear war 1967 She takes part in the International Congress of the 1972 She publishes On Pilgrimage: The Sixties (a collection of articles from the CW) 1973 She is imprisoned for the last time during the protests of the United Farm Workers of César Chávez in California 1976 She takes part in the International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia 1980 She dies November 29th. At that time, the newspaper has a circulation of 95,000; there are 70 houses of hospitality and four farming .

6 Illinois and read some of the great Communists, and this was a scene that Russian novelists like Dostoyevski and I consider to be the key episode in her Tolstoy, she began to realise that “there struggle to overcome this inner conflict was a real conflict going on in me” (The she described, which brought her closer Long Loneliness, 42), a conflict to experiencing this new form of between religion and the new perspec- synthesis. tives on reality that she was encounter- This passage is found at the end of ing. “I felt that my faith had nothing to the second part of The Long Loneliness do with that of Christians around me” and describes the time she embarked on (LL, 43). a profound personal quest, which took Towards the end of the second part place when she was thirty-five years of her autobiography entitled “A Time old. Dorothy speaks of a mix of of Searching”, she discovers that “it was emotions of happiness, pride, bitterness, the great mass of the poor, the workers, self-absorption and sinfulness. She asks who were the Catholics in this country, herself “where was the Catholic and this fact in itself drew me to the leadership in the gathering of men and Church” (LL, 107), and this also helped women together” (LL, 165). In this her to bring this conflict to a new, particular frame of mind, she went into though still fragile, form of synthesis. In a church and offered up “a special 1926, she wrote that “I had become prayer, a prayer which came with tears convinced that I would become a and anguish that some way would open Catholic; yet I felt that I was betraying up for me to use what talents I possessed the class to which I belonged, the for my fellow workers, for the poor” workers, the poor of the world, with (LL, 166). Forty years later, she recalls: whom Christ spent his life” (LL, 144). “Today is our anniversary. In 1932 I This struggle did not of course end with prayed at the Washington Shrine to the her full and formal incorporation into Blessed Mother to open up a way to the Church. With the scandals that she work for the revolution! When I got witnessed going on in the Church, she back to New York Peter Maurin was found it difficult to reconcile her view waiting for me”2. Peter would also that the Church was the Church of the search for “a new synthesis” (LL, 170) poor. “There was plenty of charity, but and this would ultimately come about too little justice” (LL, 150). She would through the Catholic Worker. put her deepest thoughts on paper: Considering the narrative dynamic of “How I longed to make a synthesis The Long Loneliness, the practical reconciling body and soul, this world consequences that emerged from this and the next (...). No wonder there was prayer, and the personal testimony of such a strong conflict going on in my Dorothy Day, it is clear that this episode mind and heart” (LL, 151). In the middle marked a turning point in her search for of all this, she travelled to Washington some kind of synthesis and resolution. DC through her work as a journalist, to So how did Dorothy Day articulate cover the Hunger March, led by this new found synthesis? Given that

7 she was not a theologian or much of an that: “It seems to me that I have always intellectual, what she did was to simply had a sense of an immanent spiritual use the popular ideas of her time; world” (AIG, 62). however, she made these ideas her own, When she was sixteen years old and and used them in a creative way, still living in Chicago, she went through exploring, exploiting and embodying a period of formation that we could call the consequences that were implicit to “social mysticism”. In a beautifully such beliefs. She was able to turn written narrative, she recounts the way traditional doctrines around, by in which her “reading began to be adopting them in a deeply personal way socially conscious” (LL, 36), how she as was her talent, as well as radicalising learnt from Carl Sandberg “to look on them through her daily proximity to the the people as he did, with love and hope poor. This is why it can be said that the of great accomplishment” (LL, 37). This synthesis of her life had an implicit awakening was almost like learning to theological aspect, in what decades later walk again, with her journey taking a would be coined as the faith-justice pair. new direction: “When I read by I began taking long walks towards the West Side rather than 1.2. Opening her eyes to the going to the park or lake” (LL, 37). A painful side of life new significance was given to her sense Since the days of her youth, Dorothy of smell: “I collected odors in my Day was a woman that paid attention to memory, the one beauty in those drab life, in all its different shades and streets” (LL, 37). It was as though she details. The Long Loneliness allows us heard different voices and music for the to follow her trajectory in this regard, first time that “played too on the strings and see how her spirituality emerged of my heart” (LL, 38). Through this new from her very personality, her character, way of reading, seeing, walking, her style, her virtues and limitations. smelling and listening, she finally began The religious conversion of Dorothy (as to realise that: “I had received a call, a with anyone), was formed from her vocation, a direction to my life” (LL, humanity, and of course transformed 38). This direction was that of a radical through grace. When she was only descent into the life of the poor, a life in fifteen years old, she wrote to a college which years later, she would find her friend: “How I love the park in winter! Christian vocation. So solitary and awful in the truest One of the first things she noticed meaning of the word. God is there. Of upon her arrival to New York in 1917 course, He is everywhere, but under the was that “silence in the midst of city trees and looking over the wide expanse noises oppressed me” and that “the of lake He communicates Himself to me poverty of New York was appallingly and fills me with a deep quiet peace” different from that of Chicago. The very (LL, 33). It is not surprising that years odors were different. (...) It is a smell later in 1962, she came to the conclusion like no other in the world and one never

8 can become accustomed to it” (LL 51). tendency to notice and value the details Some years later, when Dorothy Day of daily life3. For this reason, we can say took part in the suffragette demons- that one of the main characteristics of trations in Washington, she recalled the spirituality of Dorothy Day is that how “there was a religious flavour which the father of political theology, about the silent proceedings” (LL, 73), Metz, called a “mysticism of open even though the participants were for eyes”, or that which in Ignatian tradition the most part non-believers. It was clear is called to “seek and find God in all that since her youth Dorothy Day had, things”, or in other words, to be through her awareness of the insignifi- contemplative in action. cant details of life, developed a sensiti- vity that was maintained and became even sharper throughout her life. 1.3. Experiencing reality among Another event that strengthened her the poor ability for reflection occurred in 1925. In 1942, during the Second World War, She was 28 years old and pregnant, she Dorothy Day was harshly criticised for had gone to live in Staten Island and as the pacifist stance of the Catholic she herself admits, it was as though she Worker. Many people accused them of was learning to breathe in a different being cowards and afraid of the way: “If breath is life, then I was suffering and deprivation that war beginning to be full of it because of him entailed. Her response offers some clues [Forster, her partner]” (LL, 135). She as to how this radical descent that we sometimes referred to this moment as have already mentioned impacted her “the beach experience,” and described it daily life: years later in her personal diary: “I was “But let those who talk of softness, ‘born again by the word of the Spirit’, of sentimentality, come to live with us contemplating the beauty of the sea and in cold, unheated houses in the slums. the shore, wind and waves, the tides. Let them come to live with the criminal, The mighty and the minute, the storms the unbalanced, the drunken, the and peace, wave and wavelets of degraded, the pervert. (It is not decent receding tides, sea gulls, and seaweed poor, it is not the decent sinner who was and shells, all gave testimony of a the recipient of Christ’s love.) Let them Creator, a Father almighty, made known live with rats, with vermin, bedbugs, to us trough His Son” (AIG, 62). roaches, lice (I could describe the Throughout her life and works, there are several kinds of body lice). Let their several examples that illustrate the flesh be mortified by cold, by dirt, by depth of her personal, social and vermin; let their eyes be mortified by the spiritual openness to the life of God sight of bodily excretions, diseased present in the world. Her choice to live limbs, eyes, noses, mouths...”.4 among the poor gave her a particular In the same article, she goes on to perspective on reality, which describe the living conditions of the strengthened and radicalised her natural poor, and their daily life in the Catholic 9 Worker. In this context, Dorothy offers which usually accompany the first few a powerful contemporary version of that days of fast, but I had offered my fast in which the Christian spiritual tradition part for the victims of famine all over called the application of the senses: the world, and it seemed to me that I had “Let their noses be mortified by the very special pains. They were certainly smells of sewage, decay and rotten of a kind I have never had before, and flesh. Yes, and the smell of the sweat, they seemed to me to pierce the very blood and tears spoken of so blithely by marrow of my bones when I lay down Mr. Churchill, and so widely and every night”.7 bravely quoted by comfortable people. It is therefore easy to understand Let their ears be mortified by harsh what we are referring to when we talk and screaming voices, by the constant about the embodied spirituality of coming and going of people living Dorothy Day. Her focus on the physical herded together with no privacy. (There bodies of the poor moves away from is no privacy in tenements just as there any spiritual, disembodied or medita- is none in concentration camps.) tive interpretation. In this way, the Let their taste be mortified by the doctrine of the Body of Christ and the constant eating of insufficient food Catholic tradition of the spiritual senses cooked in huge quantities for hundreds take on a new meaning and are given a of people, the coarser foods, the cheaper radical aspect because of her choice to foods, so that there will be enough to go live among the poor. The physical body around; and the smell of such cooking and the senses do not just offer us an is often foul...”.5 isolated personal experience of socio- As for the sense of hearing, in 1957 political reality, but instead open us up she wrote about her experience in to this reality. It is only in this context prison: “Shouts, jeers, defiance of that Dorothy’s personal encounter with guards and each other, expressed in Christ takes place, through His histo- these ways, reverberated through the rical body among the poor. cells and corridors at night while, rosary Reflecting on the consequences of in hand, I tried to pray. Noise – perhaps the execution of the anarcho-syndi- that is the greatest torture in jail. It stuns calists Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927, the ear, the mind”.6 One last example, Dorothy Day recalls that the entire this time regarding the sense of taste, we population of poor and working-class find in the public fasting which took people mourned their deaths, and that place during the final session of the she then discovered “that very sense of in Rome, 1965, solidarity which made me gradually while the Council Fathers were discuss- understand the doctrine of the mystical ing and ultimately reached the point of Body of Christ in that we are the condemning nuclear war. Dorothy members one of another” (LL, 138). writes: That doctrine, which was very prevalent “As for me, I did not suffer at all at the time, is the second theological from the hunger or headache or nausea idea that allowed Dorothy Day to reach 10 her point of synthesis. She herself states structure common to hierarchies of in the introduction to The Long power, Dorothy combined a devout Loneliness, that she found in the Church spiritual experience with a radical “a body with which to love and move, socio-political aim. love and praise. I found faith. I became a member of the Mystical Body of Christ” (LL, 8). 1.4. Living among prisoners and In this way, the Body of Christ offer- homeless people ed a concrete solution for the deepest In 1976, Dorothy Day made a brief desires of Dorothy, which was her appearance before the International yearning for communion and solidarity. Eucharistic Congress of Philadelphia, In her own words: which was to be her last public “I always felt the common unity of appearance. There, she recalled her our humanity” (LL, 29); of course the spiritual life with these words: “My problem is how to achieve and how to conversion began many years ago, at a live out this unity in everyday life. time when the material world around “Community: that was the social me began to speak in my heart of the answer to the long loneliness” (LL, love of God (...). It was also the physical 229). For Dorothy Day, the expression aspect of the Church which attracted ‘the long loneliness’ meant ‘spiritual me. Bread and wine, water (all water is hunger’ which could only be fully made holy since Christ was baptized in satisfied by seeing God. In the final the Jordan), incense, the sound of waves paragraphs of The Long Loneliness, and wind, all Nature cried out to me”.8 Dorothy says: “Heaven is a banquet and In these words, we can see how a life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, condensed version of her spiritual where there is companionship. We have vision became a physical and material all known the long loneliness and we reality. She often referred to this reality have learned that the only solution is as the “sacrament of life” (for example, love and that love comes with LL, 194), in an expression which would community” (LL, 293). From this point be made popular years later by the onwards, Dorothy would live out the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff. implications of the socio-political This sacramental vision of the world aspect of her beliefs. For example, the is strengthened in the mystery of the Catholic Worker was never understood Incarnation, which Dorothy understood as an organisation, but was instead as being not simply a historical event in viewed as a body of people, an organism the past, but rather an on-going process. (LL, 183), a notion that was clearly “My entire conviction at this time [of inspired by the image of the Body of conversion] was that the Word is made Christ. Through this configuration, Flesh today – the Incarnation is now. which was closer to the anarchist There is no true brotherhood of man tradition of a horizontal structure of unless we see Christ as our ” leadership rather than the vertical (AIG, 63). Thus, she is able to conclude:

11 “When we meditate on Our Lord’s life with gates open and corridor free, we we are meditating on our own. God is to were sisters. We saw in ourselves our be found in what appears to be the little own capacity for sin, violence, hatred” and the unimportant. Don’t look back (AIG, 171-2). The dramatic force of 1900 years. Look around us today” these texts and experiences reflects the (AIG, 68). In the rest of this section, we effects that the doctrine of the are going to look at two examples of Incarnation had on her life: in the same how Dorothy Day lived out this way that Jesus Christ took on our human spirituality of the Incarnation. form in flesh, Dorothy Day took on the In the first place, let us consider her shared physical identity of the pri- discovery of the Incarnation in the soners. context of prison. Her first stay in prison The second example shows the in 1917 had a profound effect on her radical nature of Day’s belief in the life. She experienced a dual process of Incarnation of Christ, and in His personal conversion: on the one hand, “I fraternity with the poor. This example lost all feeling of my own identity,” but actually just concerns one particular at the same time she felt strongly moment in her life, but it is an incident identified with the other prisoners: “I that should be seen in the context of her was that mother whose child had been whole life, which represented a radical raped and slain” (LL, 78). She lost her surrender to the cause of the poor, former identity, and went on to recover (otherwise, this would simply seem to it again, but this time it was renewed, be a superficial or trivial anecdote). I am through her sense of identification with referring to her encounter with a leper, the other prisoners. In some way, during a scene which is a familiar one in her time in prison, she began to take on Christian history (from the accounts of a new identity. Five years later, she was Jesus of Nazareth to those of St. Francis imprisoned again, this time in Chicago, of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola or St. and in relation to this experience, she Francis Xavier, many Christians have described how she shared as never received grace through their com- before, “the life of the poorest of the munion, service and physical contact poor, the guilty, the dispossessed” (LL, with lepers as well as other margi- 94). Arrested in 1956 during a non- nalized groups who have been stigma- violent protest, she writes: “I felt a sense tised by society). of such closeness to God. Such a sense Dorothy writes: “I had ‘kissed a of His love, such love for His leper’ not once but twice, consciously, creatures…” (AIG, 109). This process of and I cannot say I am much the better incarnation that Dorothy experienced in for it”.9 The first time, her encounter was prison is also discussed in the following with a woman who had cancer of the text, written years later. “On our face and was begging in the street; as detention floor there were six women Dorothy passed, she tried to kiss her waiting for trial for homicide. (…). But hand. “The only thing I could do was there, mingling with them, all the day kiss her dirty old face with the gaping

12 hole in it where an eye and a nose had trative decision, as is often the case been. It sounds like something but it was within the parameters of social interven- not” (LF, 79). tion, became instead an expression of The second occasion took place fraternity and communion, an opportu- following one of those familiar scenes nity for a personal encounter in which of conflict in the context of exclusion. both women revealed their human side. For reasons we will not look into here, In summary, the spirituality of Doro- Dorothy was in a situation where she thy Day (her experience of Jesus, the had to refuse a bed to a “drunken Body of Christ, the spiritual senses, and prostitute with a huge toothless rouged her living out of the Incarnation) mouth, a nightmare of a mouth” (LF, evolved into a journey of descent to- 80). Yet on doing so, she kissed her and wards the most marginalised sectors of embraced her. What could have come society, a radical journey with revolutio- across as a cold bureaucratic or adminis- nary consequences.

13 2. KENOTIC REVOLUTION: THE POLITICS OF DOROTHY DAY

We are now entering into the second part of this booklet, in which we are going to analyse the political implications of Dorothy Day’s spiritua- lity. The first part showed how her life and spirituality made a journey of descent, which we have described as a radical movement with revolu- tionary consequences. This descent, which allowed her to share the life of the poor, turns reality upside-down, has clear socio-political conse- quences and provides the basis for a real revolution from the lower echelons of society. This section will begin by developing a theological framework that will help us to understand more about the novelty of this upside-down revolution. Here we ask for a little patience from those rea- ders who are a little less used to overtly Christian and theological lan- guage.

2.1. Theological framework Incarnation as the liberating revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. We This general framework consists of a will show how this perspective has three-fold articulation of various basic important socio-political implications. doctrines of Christian faith and their implications in relation to socio-politi- The first stage could therefore be cal life. The three elements are Incar- called the “politics of the Incarnation”. nation, Eschatology and Creation. Note As Christians, we find the main source the order we have placed them, since it of our political actions in the contem- bears significant importance for our plation of Jesus, the Incarnation of God, proposal. Theological and moral dis- the person that was born in Bethlehem, course usually follows a chronological lived in Nazareth and Galilee, and order (Creation, Incarnation, Eschatolo- finally died on Mount Golgotha. Em- gy) but here we will give priority to the bodied in Jesus, we find a totally

14 different political focus: adopting a finds its roots in the specific experience humble approach, this is a figure that of the community of believers. chooses a life among the poor, bases that In summary, we are faced with a life on service, and follows a journey of three-fold strategy: firstly, the positive radical descent. The life of Jesus alternative of daily incarnation; then, announces the arrival of the Kingdom of the permanent eschatological criticism; God, which has already arrived and is and finally, a realistic concern for present among the people. He announ- society in its entirety based on the ces that the wishes of the poor will universality of creation. ultimately be fulfilled, “today”, with As a result, when we consider the His arrival (Lk 4: 21). Yet His presence socio-political implications of this is one of such humility that it would vision, we realise the importance of the almost go unnoticed: it is present like Incarnation. The Church is called on to the mustard seed. When we talk about embody the real presence of Christ in politics, we tend to think about power, the world and through this, the Christian finance, structures, laws, pressure community offers a real alternative to groups or political influences. Never- the dominant system. As Christians, our theless, as Christians we should never first word has always been “yes”, be- forget that the politics of Jesus and the cause we have experienced the miracle politics of the Incarnation offer an of Christ, and we are invited to entirely different focus. demonstrate this reality in the public On a second point, we are aware of arena. In actual fact, it is not a matter of the tension that exists between the the Church “having” a social system of present and the future Kingdom of God. ethics, but rather of it being a social We are called to acknowledge, embody ethical system in itself. The Church and reinforce the reality of God’s itself is a system of social ethics, in that Kingdom on Earth, but at the same time as a community of believers, and as an we are aware of the fact that we are not institution, it represents the incarnation of this world (Jn 15: 19). “Do not be of a way of truth, charity, justice, conformed to this world”, St. Paul re- service, and also a radical journey of minds the Romans (Rom 12: 2). Further- descent, which is revealed in the person more, in saying “yes” to embodying this and work of Jesus Christ. This “politics alternative example of humility in the of the Incarnation” is the first and most face of an unjust system, we are being important step, precisely because in our invited to say “no” to any form of think- current theological context, this message ing that goes against the Kingdom. And is often forgotten or misinterpreted. thirdly, from this perspective, we can be Once we have highlighted the need much more open and able to make for a “politics of the Incarnation”, we suggestions for the general organisation can then move ahead and put forward a of society. Universality encourages proposed way of life that maintains a creation. Our concern for the common creative tension with the other two good is not an abstract one, but instead areas, which we can call the “politics of

15 eschatology” and the “politics of Crea- Peter Maurin used the slogan “cult, tion”. In the socio-political arena, these culture, cultivation” in order to sum up two contrasting notions are linked to the his vision. At other times, he would refer terms denouncing and announcing. to it when talking about the houses of Ignacio Ellacuría referred to this same hospitality, “agronomic universities” or issue with the words utopia and farming communes, and roundtable prophecy: “The prophecy of denuncia- discussions. For this reason, I believe tion, on the horizon of the Kingdom of that the three-fold political vision which God, marks out the ways that lead to was developed in the previous section utopia. Prophecy’s ‘No’, prophecy’s (Incarnation, Eschatology, Creation), negation pointing beyond in itself offers a broader framework which generates utopia’s ‘Yes’by virtue of the allows us to interpret the politics of Do- promise that is the Kingdom of God rothy Day and of the Catholic Worker in already present among human beings”.10 a flexible way, which is more in tune What this text demonstrates is the with reality. I will be working within need for a Christian model which this framework from now on in order to combines the “not yet” aspect of escha- demonstrate its instructive qualities. tological prophecy with the more posi- tive vision of utopia’s “already”, en- 2.2.1. The politics of the Incarnation countered and realised (at least in part) The first and most obvious example of in our history. The following section the politics of the Incarnation apparent will illustrate how Dorothy Day and the in the Catholic Worker can be found in Catholic Worker lived out this three- their houses of hospitality. These offer a fold theological model (Incarnation, social space for the poor, the homeless, Eschatology and Creation) in her daily the unemployed, those who feel ex- political approach. cluded, undocumented migrants and marginalised sectors of society, and are 2.2. The politics of Dorothy Day a space in which they can recover their and the Catholic Worker dignity as human beings. In these houses, a new form of reality emerges, It is not easy to outline in brief the which embodies an alternative vision of political vision of the Catholic Worker. reality in a Christian vein, and in this There have been various attempts to sense, they are not simply dedicated to categorise it, (as Christian or the rehabilitation of homeless people, , , economic vo- but rather the rehabilitation and luntarism, communitarian , transformation of society. The houses revolutionary non-violence, , represent a two-fold project, that of decentralisation, political localism...), offering hospitality, and that of building and yet there has never been one single a community - two distinct aims which political sector or term which adequa- need to co-exist in a creative manner. In tely reflects the complexity and origina- this way, they are offering an alternative lity of this way of viewing public action. to the more official model that domi- 16 nates State-run social services, with its communes. If the houses of hospitality bureaucratic mentality and formal and saw themselves as a direct and imme- individualistic strategy of “rehabilita- diate response to the injustices of tion”. In the houses of hospitality, there modern society, then the farming com- is no such thing as workers and “users”, munes were like a long-term program or Bourgeoisie and proletariat. Instead, offering a radical alternative to the everyone shares the same roof and is in dehumanising system of industrialisa- a sense “de-classed” by means of this tion, capitalism and consumerism. The radical descent that establishes a com- “green revolution” of Peter Maurin pro- munity. posed a decentralised economy, a notion The houses of hospitality set up by that was perhaps a little idealistic, but the Catholic Worker movement, in con- which was based on the medieval model trast with other social services ins- of social integration. Nevertheless, it is titutions, are not focused on efficiency. certain that even in the first generation They practice the corporal works of of the Catholic Worker, the failure of the mercy in such a rigorous way that they movement to “go back to the land” was not only reject conventional politics, (in observed by all commentators. both a religious and secular format), but However, on further reflection, we they also emerge with an anti-triumpha- are led to the discovery of two in- list message in the cultural arena. This teresting points. One of these is the fact vision of politics seems closer to the that the farming estates held a powerful same emphasis of Jesus in the Incarna- appeal for younger generations who tion, because from His birth in Beth- were not satisfied with urban life or the lehem up to His death on the cross, He ecological crisis. Even some of the was neither excessively accomplished houses of hospitality in the city deve- nor triumphalist. In fact, analysts agree loped a type of “mixed system”, built on that the influence of the Catholic the basis of fostering relations with a Worker was never down to its numbers, rural commune that was already in its organisational capacity or its visibi- existence, or by creating a little market lity, but was simply down to its moral garden themselves, which would faci- and spiritual integrity. We should litate both human and humane in- perhaps take other political aspects into teraction with Nature. In a time of account, but from a Christian point of “sustainable development” and green view, it is clear that the Incarnation parties, this element of their work also highlights the need for silent, humble has clear political implications. and lowly service. And neither should The farming experience has a se- we forget that such attitudes, when lived cond aspect that I feel to be more pro- out in the public arena, inevitably carry found and perhaps even more important a political influence. than the first. I am referring to what The second example of how the Ca- could be described as the “politics of tholic Worker represented the politics of failure.” In my opinion, there is no point the Incarnation can be found in farming in trying to argue that the farming

17 communes were, or are, an implicit Christian Eschatology functions as a success. Personally, I would admit the permanent corrective in the face of all failure of this initiative. Having said human achievements, since they are that, from a Christian point of view, always only partial or provisional in na- what I am refusing to accept is that ture. If the perspective of the Incar- politics should always as a matter of nation tends to say “yes” by providing course be aiming for success or victory. a concrete alternative, then the eschato- As Dorothy Day wrote, “the Christian logical vision says “no” to any work that point of view was to keep in mind the goes “against God’s Kingdom”. Within failure of the Cross” (LL, 216). On the Catholic Worker and in the socio- another occasion, she reflected on the political sphere, this eschatological effects of the Catholic Worker with the vision develops in a special way through following words: “How little we have active non-violence and through the attempted, let alone accomplished. The practice of civil disobedience. More spe- consolation is this – and this is our faith cifically, three strategies can be men- too: By our sufferings and our failures, tioned here: conscientious objection to by our acceptance of the Cross, by our war and military service, objection to struggle to grow in faith, hope, and taxes, and finally, going to prison. Since charity, we unleash forces that help to the general pacifist element of Dorothy overcome the evil in the world.” (LF, Day is most well known, we will focus 204). I am convinced that any project of on the other two aspects here. Christian politics needs to accept a cer- Dorothy herself wrote: “I have been tain amount of this politics of failure, behind bars in police stations, houses of unless it wants to succumb to an detention, jails, and prison farms (what- imperialist or capitalist theology based soever they are called) eleven times”.11 on continuous and deceitful success. From the age of twenty until she was seventy-seven years old, the experience 2.2.2. The politics of Eschatology of prison was always present in her life. Nevertheless, it is not easy to determine Various studies have come together to exactly how many specific occasions highlight the central role played by Es- we are talking about, given that sources chatology (that is, the doctrine regard- differ or do not offer precise details. ing the end of the times and the aim of Different studies seem to agree on the history), in the religious conversion of fact that there were seven detentions in Dorothy Day, above all with the em- prison during her life: twice before the phasis on the fact that this is not simply founding of the Catholic Worker (in a form of eschatology that has already 1917 and in 1922) and following this, been “realised” but rather something five more occasions (during the protests that continues to be realised and verified against the Civil Defense Act between (veri-fy: make real) in daily life: 1955 and 1959, and finally in 1973, Eschatology is the force that feeds and when she joined the struggle of undo- promotes the growth of the alternative cumented migrant workers in Califor- style of life of the Catholic Workers. 18 nia, led by César Chávez). These inci- distributist and pacifist elements of the dents demonstrate that Dorothy was not personalist view of the Catholic Worker, ‘obsessed by the idea’ of civil disobe- in a specific and public way. Conscious dience as though it were a permanent that “war is the health of the State” (LL, necessity, but they also show that she 243-273) and that a significant percent- was not afraid of going to prison when age of taxes were dedicated to military it was necessary either, in keeping with expenses, the Catholic Worker practiced and remaining faithful to her non- tax resistance. On most occasions, this violent commitment. conscientious objection actually only In the first part of this booklet, we applied to federal taxes, given that local have already looked at the effects that and autonomous taxes were considered imprisonment had on Dorothy Day’s as being more focussed on providing life and on her way of viewing the social services. In this sense, perhaps world. The fact of going to prison was the greatest homage paid to Dorothy not an end in itself of course, although Day following her death, was the it shows that Christians should be able decision taken by Raymond to overcome utilitarianism and go Hunthausen of Seattle, to encourage the beyond the obsession with efficiency. citizens to refuse to pay 50 per cent of The experience of prison could be their taxes in protest against the compared to that which we would call a spending on nuclear weapons in 1981, metaphor in relation to language: it an action that caused great commotion. represents a dramatic break from the There is still another issue that I ordinary, quiet life, in such a way that a would like to highlight regarding the new perspective on life is opened up. Catholic Worker’s stance on tax For Dorothy Day, imprisonment was a resistance, because it clearly shows the space in which the incarnated solidarity relationship that existed between of God was dramatically revealed Dorothy’s political activities and her through pain and suffering. We could daily life of voluntary poverty. Nor- actually say that the lifestyle advocated mally, tax resistance is expressed by the Catholic Worker is a kind of through a public statement in which the incarnated metaphor. Once more we undersigned declares their refusal to pay come across the dilemma between the their taxes. However, the Catholic Incarnation and Eschatology; between Worker was able to do this using a much the yes and the no response to the world, simpler and more radical method: by which also offers a specific way of remaining under the poverty line, choosing a life of poverty, in both a Workers are not obliged to pay taxes. In spiritual and political way. other words, they avoid paying taxes by The second element of the active choosing a certain lifestyle that cate- non-violence lived out by Dorothy Day gorises them as being “officially poor”. and the Catholic Worker is that of fiscal This tactic (less controversial than the objection or refusing to pay taxes. This former, but just as public), allows them is a practice that combines the anarchist, to establish a clearer connection

19 between military expenses and social sality of the common good. This is the inequality. It also offers a constructive narrow path, the humble and tiring path solution which is neither superficial nor of the Gospel. It is the way of radical simply symbolic, but is instead a form simplicity, which we can call the ke- of protest which bases its political notic revolution. From this perspective, action in a life shared with the poor, a we can now look at how Dorothy Day choice which verifies (veri-fies: “makes and the Catholic Worker focussed their real”) the daily practice of non- socio-political vision. Although it violence. In other words, it creates a would be useful to study in detail the unifying link between the politics of the concepts of economic decentralisation Incarnation (voluntary poverty) and the and political localism which are politics of Eschatology (tax resistance). fundamental aspects of the Catholic Worker’s stance, I will only be exa- 2.2.3. The politics of Creation mining two aspects more closely in this section: the labour issue and the so- Having reached this point, it is possible called “clarification of thought”. that some modern and progressive It has often been pointed out that groups will be under the impression that Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day had a Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker particular way of seeing the world of have ignored the structural vision of the work and the issue of labourers, be- whole, and that they are instead cause her position was much closer to stepping back from the political sphere, trade unionism than the French peasant or that they are not actually becoming was. A well-known expression that involved in the search for the common Peter Maurin used to say in relation to good, by only working out partial or this was, “Strikes do not strike me”, fragmented solutions. In my opinion which highlighted a clear distinction however, the definition of ‘political are- between his position and that of the la- na’or the ‘common good’does not need bour movement. Nevertheless, from the to go hand in hand with a Constantinian very beginning, the Catholic Worker did framework, in other words, it does not all it could to help workers in their necessarily mean that the role of the struggle to achieve better conditions and Church is to organise society as a whole. higher pay (see LL 207-227). Particu- As I see it, there clearly is a place for larly in the early years, in the context of the “politics of Creation”, which in- the Great Depression of 1929, the cludes all members of society. How- Catholic Worker was actively involved ever, this politics of Creation, in good in labour issues. It supported the Natio- Christian theology, is subordinate to the nal Recovery Act of 1933 within the Incarnation and eschatology. From a New Deal, it gave its backing to the Christian perspective, the only way to legal reform of 1935 regarding child promote and live out our lives is in labour, and joined with the syndicates taking the path of humility and poverty. on several issues, among those the The uniqueness of the Incarnation was famous sea-workers strike of 1936-37. in its message promoting the univer- 20 At that time, Dorothy Day wrote an Dorothy’s writings as if they reflected a editorial revealing her position in change in her thinking. Instead they relation to strikes: “Let us be honest and show an understanding of these issues confess that it is the social order which that was both complex and radical. It is we wish to change. The workers are complex because it takes on board many never going to be satisfied, no matter different issues at the same time; and it how much pay they get, no matter what is radical because it does not conform to their hours are. And it is to reconstruct one clear superficial solution. the social order that we are throwing A second element that illustrates the ourselves in with the workers, whether way in which the Catholic Worker lives in factories or shipyards or on the sea”.12 and understands the “politics of crea- In other words, the Catholic Worker tion” or the universality of the socio- understood that the struggle regarding political elements can be found in its wages was not enough. Dorothy knew intellectual dimension. As Dorothy Day that the “unions still fight for better was a journalist, she viewed the Worker wages and hours, though I have come as a newspaper above all; for his part, more and more to feel that that in itself Peter Maurin was an intellectual, and is not the answer” (LF, 83), given that this led him to create roundtable debates this approach uses the same logic as the for the clarification of thought, which capitalist system. As an alternative, Do- was also a fundamental part of the rothy Day proposed a civilisation that Worker from the outset. It therefore would be based on voluntary poverty. seems clear that the Catholic Worker did A common criticism was that this not just maintain a charitable, sectarian stance mistakenly forgets the issues of or naive stance, but instead always structural injustice found in modern actively sought to improve the whole of societies (for example, how wealth is society. created and distributed), and therefore, The Catholic Worker newspaper is tolerates the very existence of an unjust an unlikely example of how the editorial system. In fact, this was the very same stance and the internal structure of the criticism used initially by Dorothy Day paper coincide in a very coherent way. against the Church, in which she saw In this way, the movement of the “plenty of charity but too little justice” Catholic Worker and the newspaper (LL, 150). Years later, in 1972, she wrote mutually strengthened each other. The as part of another editorial: “Breadlines circulation of the newspaper reached a are not enough, hospices are not maximum level of 190,000 copies in enough. I know we will always have May 1938, an impressive number for a men on the road. But we need commu- radical and minority paper. The round- nities of work, land for the landless, true table discussions for the clarification of farming communes, and thought also intended to move beyond credit unions”.13 the minority groups of militants and I do not believe it would be fair to thus expand their constructive proposal interpret the different emphases in in the face of a new society.

21 In the same sense, we should take publication. In the political arena, the into account the fact that the Catholic experience of in Worker is not necessarily a permanent the Catholic Worker was documented vocation. Instead, many of its members in his book , which only remained in contact with this had a great influence on the federal hospitality and pacifist movement for a programme “War on Poverty” in the few days, weeks, months or years. Yet sixties, with Kennedy and Johnson. what is important is that the majority of More recently, we can recall the role of these members remained profoundly Robert Ellsberg as editor-in-chief of the changed by their experience, and that publication Orbis (which played a experience often influenced their future fundamental role in the introduction of decisions. So, the Catholic Worker be- to the English came a sort of training camp for living language), where he arrived after living out the Gospel. Dorothy Day herself five years in a Catholic Worker house described it in the following way: in New York. “What is it all about – the Catholic Wor- In summary then, it seems clear that ker movement?’ It is, in a way, a school, Dorothy Day did understand the com- a work camp, to which large-hearted, plexity of social reality and the need for socially conscious young people come offering an equally complex solution. to find their vocations”.14 The “wildfire She was convinced that Christians effect” of a minority movement, which should always maintain a close relation- offers an alternative lifestyle to those ship with and among the poor, creating who have been excluded from society, alternative solutions from within their cannot be underestimated as a trans- social perspective. She also knew that forming element of that same society. the followers of Jesus Christ, a figure In particular, the influence of the that was crucified for His love of God Catholic Worker can be seen in many and of the poor, are called to reinforce of the Catholic progressive movements this opposition against the forces of evil. in the social, political, and intellectual Finally, she knew that Christians have a context of North America. I will responsibility to work for the common mention just four examples. The good, which springs from these other Association of Catholic Trade Unions two elements, and it is from this sense (ACTU), a small but influential group, of responsibility that specific personal was founded by John Coy in 1937, a vocations may arise. However, it is former Catholic Worker. The magazine important to be aware of the order in Commonweal, one of the most which these three factors come, in parti- respected voices among Catholics in cular that it is not simply a chronolo- the USA had as its editors between gical order, but is also a theological and 1949 and 1984 two Workers from political one. This is what we have Chicago, John Cogley and James described as the politics of the O’Gara. Dorothy Day herself wrote Incarnation, the politics of Eschatology more than thirty articles for this and the politics of Creation.

22 3. AN INTEGRATED PROPOSAL

In this third part,15 we will be putting forward an integrated proposal in three steps, as a means of applying and fulfilling the insights of Dorothy Day in our own context. This is also important because some interpre- tations of the Catholic Worker movement can tend towards a sectarian view, without taking into account the political implications of withdrawing from the public arena. In my opinion, it is right to criticise the Constantinian model of understanding power (a dominant model, which can be seen as both misguided and dangerous). It is a meaningful cri- ticism from a Gospel perspective, and also agrees with some recent discussions from left-wing alternative groups, which propose changing the world without being in power.16 However, while this is a sensible and necessary viewpoint, it is also true that it sometimes appears to forget that in withdrawing from a nation’s political arena, the whole situation may in fact worsen, particularly in relation to the poor. In my opinion, dif- ferent elements and different contexts need to be considered at the same time, each requiring a different focus pertaining to each individual situation.

3.1. A proposal in three steps to raise, but this is why I believe this first point to be the most important and In order to clarify my point of view, I most urgent of them all. will be putting forward a proposal for Christian contribution to social transfor- 1) Political imagination. Our current mation divided into three steps, which situation shows a clear need for ob- exposes the “political thinking of Doro- taining real and radical alternatives to thy Day” and applies it to our situation. the oppressive system of global capita- In my opinion, as Christians living in lism. As Christians we should show that the modern world, we often forget the it is possible to do without a culture that first of these three points that I am going is characterised by the ownership of

23 private property and the presence of liberal attacks. In my opinion, this is the armies, and replace it with a real form most common approach of Christians of non-violent socialism. We need to who become involved in socio-political show through our own lives that this issues. Nevertheless, in accordance with other world is possible. Every Christian the discussion followed up to this point, individual and community, without this step is not the most important one, exception, needs to become involved in and should only be considered as a this task. It should not be seen as some- conclusion of the first two steps. Some thing optional or superfluous: instead it Christians with a high level of technical should be about remaining faithful to a training should be responsible for particular way of life, and this is the putting forward proposals which would most important contribution that Chris- spring from alternative suggestions tians can make to our world. In the first offered by the whole community (as we place, this lifestyle will create oppor- explained in the first step). tunities for social resistance against the If we look more deeply at this system and secondly, it can create an proposal, we can see that it is actually alternative to the global system. just an adaptation of the classic 2) Non-violent . On principle of subsidiarity of the social some occasions, Christians need to say doctrine of the Church. Everything that a clear and absolute “no” to certain small communities and local bodies can decisions taken by States, governments do at their level, they should. It is an or companies. In these cases, it is injustice and an unnecessary hassle to possible that some form of action, assign responsibilities to large associa- whether it be non-cooperation or civil tions when smaller organisations can disobedience, may be necessary. Al- carry them out just as well. This should though only a few Christians may feel be the main emphasis, particularly at a personally called to carry out this type time when we tend to ignore such of radical action, the Church as an issues. But at the same time, this institution and its respective commu- principle of subsidiarity also makes it nities should support these persons di- clear that greater and more influential rectly. socio-political bodies (national states or 3) The common good and the international institutions), need to Welfare State. In the meantime, Chris- effectively and adequately carry out all tian churches should not ignore daily the tasks within their area of political life or legislative processes, responsibility, because they are actually given that many important decisions are the only ones capable of carrying them taken in this area, (decisions which have out. It is also worth bearing in mind a great influence on the lives of the however, that in keeping with this poor). For example, it is very important principle, such initiatives should not to struggle in order to maintain the wait on the ecclesiastical hierarchy, if (limited) social conquests of the Wel- certain proposals can be put in motion fare State against modern-day neo- among smaller Christian communities.

24 3.2. From proposal to action: contributed to the creation of alterna- three examples tives to violence, but in fact, no meaningful and global alternative has These principles should be lived out in been offered by the Church. For the daily life of Christian communities. example, what would happen if the In our socio-political actions, it often same number of Christians who at this happens that we expect answers from time work as military chaplains (in the hierarchy to matters in which we Spain, there are over 150, according to ourselves are actually the social and figures for 2004), dedicated all their ecclesiastical point of reference (which time to the study, development and is yet another example of how we live planning of alternative methods of non- trapped and restricted within a hierar- violent defence for the next fifty years? chical model of political actions that What would happen if all the parishes seeks to influence us from above, as in, and Church movements carried out a from a position of power). Sometimes training programme in active non- we look for specific answers in Papal violence for all their members? I believe encyclicals, without realising that by that this would be the best contribution their very nature they are supposed to be that the Church could and should make general in character, and yet we do not in order to attain world peace. But in the put in the energy and creativity required meantime, should the Church remain to embody imaginative alternatives in silent in the face of war, military the daily life of our own ecclesiastical research, arms trafficking, and other communities. Or we may feel dis- such issues? No: I am fully convinced appointed when the Bishops’ Confe- that it should raise its voice so that it can rence lacks the desired force in its public be heard clearly, forcefully and statements, without realising that the meaningfully. And finally, as the third ecclesial base did not provide them with step, these Christians who feel called to the creative scope they needed in order participate in direct actions of civil to offer a strong alternative. This is why disobedience should continue to follow I will now go on to illustrate my their calling, because their actions will proposal with a few simple examples in be much more significant and powerful relation to the political, cultural and in the context that I am proposing. economic arena. My second example relates to the In the first place, let us consider the socio-economic arena and deals with moral position of Christians on the possibility of socialism. The most violence, power, war and peace. In the common stance among Christian twentieth century, although we have socialists is that of trying to influence a seen much progress and (limited) party’s politics so that the decisions success in the domain of political non- taken are as progressive as possible in violence, there has been no significant relation to social welfare, taxes, public improvement in relation to the abolition services, social care, civil rights, and so of armies as a way of resolving interna- on. Under normal circumstances, I tional conflicts. As Christians we have 25 would agree with such proposals and creating a real community of “natio- would not have any problem with this nals” and immigrants (with or without argument (except for the fact that the legal documents), regardless of their discussions needed to make these origin, language, economic status or decisions can be so sophisticated from cultural baggage. Our most important a technical point of view, that when it political contribution in the area of comes to actually influencing a specific immigration would be in demonstrating issue, the Christian influence may have that it is possible to achieve an by that stage waned or dispersed). In integrated community without any type any case, what I will say with certainty of division. This would involve a totally is that the most important contribution different way of understanding integra- of Christian socialists is not in the tion, education, health, working condi- domain of taking very sophisticated tions, legal status, Church worship, political decisions, but instead is in the community relations, the State and area of creating real and public alterna- citizenship: in other words, a real alter- tives to capitalism. In other words, we native way of life. It would of course be should insist in living daily practices of desirable that some Christians would be shared property, in creating institutions able to make more sophisticated that break with the logic of the markets, suggestions in this area in order to im- or in developing imaginative experi- prove and regulate immigration laws ments that show that it is possible to live and international relations; and that another way. Furthermore, such indi- other Christians would join the struggle viduals or groups would be occasionally in a more active way, by opposing required to say a clear “no” to capitalism unjust laws or by becoming involved in by using certain public methods of non- campaigns of civil disobedience. In any cooperation, such as boycotts. case, I would like to insist upon the fact The socio-cultural example is linked that only a real and radical Christian to the issue of immigration. In keeping alternative way of life would provide with the type of proposal that I am the necessary context in which our putting forward, the Christian stance on proposals and actions would be this issue should be to move towards meaningful and coherent.

26 CONCLUSION. THE BODY OF CHRIST AS RADICAL ECCLESIOLOGY

To conclude, I would like to return to that image of the Body of Christ, so loved and so often recalled by Dorothy Day, because it seems to me that it offers a practical means by which we can bring together different suggestions and different fragmented communities, providing them with a real alternative to the capitalist system.

These days, particularly in the Fourth work, which is both embodied and World and on matters of exclusion,17 we powerful, and which is capable of do not have a People capable of directly confronting the injustices we “obtaining” their integrated freedom. It face on a daily basis. seems that the People, as a collective The Body of Christ speaks clearly subject powerful enough to change and plainly on the subject of torture, history, has lost its focus. What we are domestic violence towards women, finding now, particularly in the Fourth death corridors, the sexual abuse of World, is that a great number of people minors, abortion, anorexia, bulimia, are suffering what can only be described teenage pregnancy, rape. The Body of as dehumanisation, to such a degree that Christ embraces the junkies who drag they would find it difficult to consider their Aids-stricken bodies through the themselves as members of any streets of many big cities, children revolution. The risk faced is that of whose bellies are bloated due to star- leaning towards or re- vation and thirst, bodies crippled by treating into a form of spiritual privacy. bombs or mines, injured bodies of un- This is why I believe that the term the insured workers, bodies of beggars ly- Body of Christ offers a realistic frame- ing on street benches, dead bodies of

27 those trying to cross the Rio Grande losophers from the anarchist tradition. Border, bodies of prisoners in solitary Toni Negri and write: confinement or packed into cells. In the “Globalization must be met with a words of the “Aims and Objectives” of counter-globalization, Empire with a the Catholic Worker Movement in 1940: counter-Empire. In this regard we might “This teaching, the doctrine of the take inspiration from Augustine’s Mystical Body of Christ, involves today vision of a project to contest the deca- the issue of unions (where men call each dent Roman Empire. No limited com- other brothers); it involves the racial munity could succeed and provide an question; it involves cooperatives, alternative to imperial rule; only a uni- credit unions, crafts; it involves Houses versal, catholic community bringing of Hospitality and farming communes. together all populations and all langua- It is with all these means that we can live ges in a common journey could accom- as though we believed indeed that we plish this. The divine city is a universal are all members one of another, city of aliens, coming together, coope- knowing that when ‘the health of one rating, communicating”.19 member suffers, the health of the whole And these authors finish their book body is lowered’”.18 with the following words: “Militancy The Body of Christ speaks of a today is a positive, constructive, and communion, of inclusive relations, an innovative activity. This is the form in unconditional welcome, of union in the which we and all those who revolt midst of difference, of belonging to a against the rule of capital recognize shared world. The Body of Christ ourselves as militants today. Militants speaks of the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus resist imperial command in a creative and His miracle cures, the Cosmic way.… This militancy makes resistance Christ and the final resurrection of all into counterpower and makes rebellion people, all touches, embraces and tears into a project of love.”20 of human history. The Body of Christ In the same vein of Dorothy Day and builds up the Church as a real and the Catholic Worker, radical Christian visible alternative to the dominant communities could be our way of em- system. The Body of Christ shows that bodying this loving plan of God in an another world really is possible. authentic anti-Empire, the Body of This Christian and theological notion Christ. We are called to live out a path has therefore got political implications of radical descent with revolutionary of a revolutionary nature. Let us hear the consequences, in order to be able to set words of two contemporary phi- in motion a real kenotic revolution.

28 APPENDIX: PETER MAURIN, KENOSIS AND REVOLUTION

Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Ca- Dorothy recalled the importance of tholic Worker, died in 1949. In his obi- this episode in their lives: “This, then, is tuary, Dorothy wrote: “Peter was the perfect joy. How often that has been poor man of his day. He was another used around the Catholic Worker, Saint Francis of modern times”.21 She making us laugh for joy at the sudden herself used these words again in The light and perspective given to our Long Loneliness: problems”.22 Perfect happiness is not at “Peter had been insulted and odds with the notion of suffering, on the misunderstood in his life as well as contrary, it often springs from the loved. He had been taken for a plumber lifestyle of voluntary poverty. and left to sit in the basement when he Peter Maurin embodied the ideal of had been invited for dinner and an the Catholic Worker, in that he brought evening of conversation. He had been together intellectuals and workers. He thrown out of a was a learned man who used his lap as meeting. One pastor who invited him to a writing desk, and his pockets as speak demanded his money back which drawers: he was a very humble man he had sent to Peter for carfare to his who always refused any social position upstate , because, he said, we had or acknowledgement which was not in sent him a Bowery bum, and not the keeping with a life of poverty. His speaker he expected. “This then is the whole life was a form of radical descent. perfect joy”, Peter could say, quoting As Dorothy used to say, “He had the words of St. Francis to Leo stripped himself, but there remained when he was teaching him where work for God to do (...) God did it for perfect joy was to be found” (LL, 287). him” (LL, 281). God seized Peter’s 29 mind, his ability to think, to write, and nary consequences, because it placed to argue. He was ill for more than five him among the poor, as part of a move- years, and during that time, despite the ment from which there was no return. fact that he had been a brilliant orator he Maurin often used the former slogan of was unable to speak. If Peter’s life could the International Workers of the World be seen as a clear example of active and its notion of “building a new world purification by following Jesus Christ, from the remnants of the old” in order his latter years were equally demonstra- to verbalise his revolutionary plan. But tive of the effects of passive purifica- again, we need to understand that Pe- tion, to use a phrase of St. John of the ter’s revolution was a kenotic upside- Cross. The following reflections written down one. It was not a revolution based by Dorothy Day in another context, on efficiently organizing influential could be directly applied to Peter: “The leaders, but was instead based on true anarchist asks nothing for himself. offering humility and service to the He is self-disciplined, abnegated, and poor, and with the poor. It was not a accepts the Cross without asking for revolution that sought to take power, but compassion, without complaining” was instead an “im-potent” revolution, (AIG, 141). What can be learned from which renounced power. It was a Peter Maurin in relation to the link revolution in reverse, a revolution between “revolutionary descent” and which (like Mary in the Magnificat), “kenotic revolution”? turned the status quo upside down. Peter’s life, his illness and death In summary then, the type of were a clear embodiment of the conse- spirituality that brings about identifying quences of this radical descent, which as oneself personally with the kenotic Christians, we know as “kenosis”. By Christ has political consequences, following Jesus Christ, Peter Maurin because it leads to a radical alternative “made himself nothing, …he humbled way of life that revolutionises the himself and became obedient to death” dominant system, an alternative way of (cf. Phil 2: 7-8). And it was precisely life that may not be very appealing, but this kenotic descent that had revolutio- that will be profoundly revolutionary.

30 NOTES

1. Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness. Introduction by 11. DD, “On Pilgrimage”: The Catholic Worker (May Robert Coles (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 39. 1974). http://www.worker.org/dorothyday,doc.# 540. It will hereafter be referred to as LL. 12. “Our Stand on Strikes”: The Catholic Worker (July 2. William D. Miller, All is Grace: The Spirituality of 1936). Edited by Robert ElLSberg (ed.), Dorothy Dorothy Day (Garden City, NY: Dobleday & Co., Day: Selected Writings (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 1987), 191. This work is actually a collection of spi- Books, 1992), 241. ritual notes of Dorothy Day. Hereafter it will be refer- 13. “Of Justice and Breadlines”: The Catholic Worker red to with the initials AIG. This particular quotation (January 1972). Edited by ElLSberg (ed.), Dorothy comes from a letter to her friend Nina Polcyn, Day: Selected Writings, 252. December 8th 1975. 14. Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage”: The Catholic Worker 3. During a spiritual retreat she writes in her notes: “From (March-April 1975). Cited at http://www.catholic- her retreat notes: “Perhaps hagiographers were too worker.org/dorothyday, doc. # 548. prone to wallow in vomit, pus, sputum –the utterly 15. Here I refer to part of my article “De la liberación a la repulsive– all to make their ‘point’, as Peter [Maurin] resistencia. Una mirada a la teología de la liberación would say, showing how the rose above the desde el corazón del imperio”: Revista de Fomento natural, the human, and became supernatural, super- Social 59 (2004) 521-551. (Tr: From liberation to human, in their love” (AIG, 105). Dorothy never felt resistance. A look at liberation theology from the the need to abandon this harsh human reality, and heart of the empire). The dialogue between myself instead found this supernatural love right in the mid- and Ildefonso Camacho can be seen in this issue, and dle of this same human misery. my response can be seen in the following issue. 4. Dorothy Day, “Why Do the Members of Christ Tear 16. See John Holloway, Cambiar el mundo sin tomar el One Another?”: The Catholic Worker (February poder. El significado de la revolución hoy (Mataró: 1942). Cited at http:// www. catholicworker.org/do- Ediciones de Intervención Cultural, 2003). (Original rothyday, doc. # 390. version in English: Change the world without taking 5. Ibidem. power. The meaning of revolution today). 6. Dorothy Day, “Dorothy Day Writes from Jail”: The 17. See A. Rodríguez Teso (coord.), Preñados de espe- Catholic Worker (July-August 1957). Ellsberg, o. c., ranza. Sentir, pensar y gozar a Dios desde la exclu- 281. During a 1948 retreat she wrote: “The city has sión (Madrid: Cáritas Española, 2001) (Tr: Filled been so full of noise lately. (…) Noise has been one with hope. Feeling, thinking and enjoying God from of the things that oppresses me” (AIG, 132). the perspective of exclusion), and José Laguna, ¿De 7. Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage”: The Catholic Worker la liberación a la inclusión? (Barcelona: (October 1965). Cited at http://www.catholicwor- Cristianisme i Justicia, 2004), (Tr: From liberation ker.org/dorothyday, doc. # 832. For a presentation on to inclusion?). the general theme of “faith and the senses” in her 18. Dorothy Day, “Aims and Purposes of the Catholic own spiritual diaries, see AIG, 65-74. Worker Movement”: The Catholic Worker (February 8. Dorothy Day, “Bread for the Hungry”: The Catholic 1940). Cited at http: // www.catholicworker.org/do- Worker (September 1976). Cited at http://- rothyday, doc. # 182. www.catholicworker.org /dorothyday, doc. # 258. 19. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire 9. Dorothy Day, Loaves and Fishes (New York: Harper (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 207. and Row, 1963), 79. Hereafter, all references to this 20. Ibid., 413. book will be with the initials LF. 21. Dorothy Day, “The Story of Three Deaths”: The 10. Ignacio Ellacuría, “Utopía y profetismo desde Catholic Worker (June 1949). Cited at http://www.- América Latina. Un ensayo de soteriología histórica” catholicworker.org/dorothyday, doc. # 495. (Utopia and Prophecy in Latin America) in Estudios 22. Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage”: The Catholic Worker Teológicos, vol. II (UCA Editores, San Salvador (May 1976). Cited at http:// www.catholicworker.- 2000), LF. 233-293; here, 252-3. org/dorothyday, doc. #569. 31 QUESTIONNAIRE

1. The title of this booklet may be a little surprising and even "countercultural". In the modern world, we don't often talk about social descent, revolution, or about being at the lower end of society...

– What did you feel on reading the title of this booklet, and reading about the synthesis that existed in Dorothy's life?

2. The first part of this booklet demonstrates how, in making the choice to live her everyday life among the poor, this changed, authenticated, blended and radicalised the spiritual and political vision of DD.

– What can we learn from this and what consequences can this bring about in our own lives?

3. We have seen how it is not easy to categorise or put a label on the political vision of DD: "I refuse to accept that politics ought to necessarily lead to success or victory".

– What solutions does this provide for our own complex social reality? – How can we merge a life of service with political commitment?

4. "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community" says DD.

– What new paths are open to us in our own particular communities following the reading of this booklet? – How can we combine within these communities the commitment to the issues of hospitality, and immigration?

5. Finally, the ecclesiology of the Body of Christ is put forward as an alternative to the dominant system. This idea "has political implications of a revolutionary character".

– Can faith be considered as a form of alienation? – Do you think that faith and justice are inseparable? – How do you believe this should be lived out as followers of Jesus?

32