Easy Essays by Peter. Maurin

31st Annlversar~ Issue THE CATHOLIC WORKER Subacriptiona Vol. :XXX No. 10 MAY, 1964 25o Per Year Price le ---·--------------------------------------------""""---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Easy Essays by Peter. Maurin BLOWING THE DYNAMITE We heard about and hospitality .is still practiced Writing ab<>ut the Catholic Ohuroh, all kinds of empires, in Mahometan countries. including the British Emplre, But the duty of hospitality a radical writer says: but never about is neither taught nor praetlced "Rome will have to do more an Irish Empire, in Christian countries. than to play a waiting game1 because the Irish she will have to use did not bother ab<>ut emplrea HOUSES OF some of the dynamite when they were busy "CATHOLIC ACTION" inherent in her IJ1essage." doing good. To blow the dynamite Catholic Houses of Ho9Pltality The Irish scholars established should be more than free guest of a message agricultural centers houses is tJhe only way all over Europe to make the message dynamic. for the Catholla unemployed. where they combined They could be vocational tralnlni If the Catholic Chureh Cult- schools, is not today that fa to say, liturgy, the dominant social dynamic force, Including the trainlnf far the with Culture- priesthood, it h because Catholie scholars that is to say, literature, have failed to blow the dynamite as Father Corbett proposes. with Cultivatlon- They could be Oatholfo readln1 of the Church. that ls to say, agriculture. rooms, Catholic scholars And the word America as Father Mcsorley proposes. have taken the dynamite was for the 11.rst time They could be Catholic Instruction of the Church, printed on a map Schools, have wrapped it up in a town ln east France aa Father Cornelius Hayes in nice .phraseology, proposes. placed it in an hermetic container called Saint-Die where an Irish scho_lar They could be Round-Table and sat on the lid. Discussion Groups, It is about time to blow the lid off by the name Deodad founded an agricultural center. u Peter Maurin proposes. so the Catholic Church In a word, they could be may again become What was done the dominant social dynamic foree. by Irish missionaries Catholic Action Houses, after the fall where Catholic Thought of the Roman Empire Is combined with Catholic Action. IRISH CULTURE can be done today After the fall during and after the fall RECONSTRUCTING of the Roman Empire of modern empires. THE SOCIAL ORDER the scholars, The Holy Father arrd the BishoIHJ scattered all over THOUSAND YEARS AGO ask us the Roman Empire, to reconstruct the social order. looked for a refuge When the Irish were Irish. The social order was once and found a refuge a thousand years ago, constructed in Ireland, the Irish were scholars, through dynamic Catholic Action. where the Roman Empire and when the Irish were scholan When the barbarians invaded did not reach, the Irish were Greek scholani, the decaying Roman Empire and where the Teutonic barbarlana and when the Irish were Greet Irish missionaries went all over did not go. scholars Europe In Ireland , the Irish spoke Greek, and laid the foundations of the scholars formulated as well as Irish. medieval Europe. an intellectual synthesis And when the Irish spoke Greet Through the estaiblishment of and a technique of action. as well as Irish, cultural centers, Having formulated Greek was Irish, that is to say, Round-Table that intellectual synthesis to the Irish. · Discussions, and that technique of action, Greek was Irish they brought thought to the people. the scholars decided to lay to the Irish, Through free guest houses, The foundations of medieval and now Irish ls Greek that is to say, Houses of Europe to the Irish. Hospitality, In order to lay the foundations Now t-he Irish they popularized the divine of m'edieval Europe, shout with the Rotarians: virtue of charity. ~ the Irish scholars "Service for profits, Through farming colonies, established ·Salons de Culture Time is money, that is to say, Agronomic in all the cities of Europe, Cash and carry, Universities, as far as Constantinople, Keep smiling, they emphasized voluntary poverty. Business ls business, where people could look for It was on the basis of personal thought Watch your step, charity so they could have light. How's the rush? and voluntary poverty And it was How are you making out? that Irish missionaries in the so-called Dark Ages, How is the world treating you? of the social order. which were not so dark, The law of supply and demand. laid the foundations when the Irish Competition is tJhe life of trade, were the light. Your dollar is your best friend" BUILDING CHURCHES But now we are living So's your old man! Henry Adams tells us in his in a real Dark Age, . autobiography and one of the reasons why T,llE DUTY OF that he could not get an education the modern age HOSPITALITY in America, is so dark People who are in need because education implies is because· and are not afraid to beg PETER MAURIN 1877-1949 unity of thought too few Irish give to people not in need Peter was a short, stocky, sturdy Frenchman out of and there is no unity of have the light. the occasion fo do e<>od Languedoc, troubador country. He was one himself, a thought in America. The Irish scholars established for goodness' sake. So he went to England free guest houses Modern society calls the beggar prophetic one, chanting his Easy Essays on Union and found that England . all over Europe bum and panhandler Square soapboxes, in parish halls and college auditori was too much like America. to exemplify and gives him the bum's rush. ums. These essays called for a new order, one in which So he went to France Christian charity. But the Greeks used to 11ay men could find it easier to be good, for all would have and found that Fri.nee This made that people in need the proper sense of property. was too much like England and pagan Teutonic rulers are the-' ambassadors of the 1odl. His revolution was to be personalist and communi America. tell pagan Teutonic people: Although you may be called But in France he found the "The Irish are good people hums and panhandlers tarian, the first because in it men would find a place for Cathedral of Chartres busy doing good." you are in fact the ambassadoni their unique gift to society. They would find their "mis and from the Cathedral of And when the Irish of God. sion" in life. Communitarian because their individual Chartres he learned were good people As God's ambassadors needs would be met. more easily through cooperative that there was unity of thought busy doing good, you should be given food, community activity. in thirteenth-century France. they did not bother clothing and shelter He had grown up in communal life. His village was about empires. by those who are able to ~ve It. a commune called St. Julien. The communal shepherd People who bullt the Cathedral That is why we never heard Mahometan teachers tell us (Continued on page 12) of Chartres about an Irish Empire. that God commaOO. hospitality, (Continued on page ·12) Page Two THE CATHOLIC WORKE~ May, 1964 YoL XXX No. IO May, 1964 TO OVERCOME THE CONTRADICTION This year, for the first time, fleet, and even to some extent same evening and M. Roger Gar Catholic spokesmen, including two create, a climate: in this sense, its audy on a 1ubsequent evening', CATHOLIC~ WORKER priests, participated In the dis usefulness for a dialogue is indis took up this 1ame e:xpression? putable. But progress will be ex What do you understand by the PnbJlsbed Monthly September to June, Bl-monthly July-An1u11& cussions at the third "Week of tremely limited If we confine ·our OBGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT Marxist Thought," held recently in tenn? PETER !WAUltlN, fo'ounder Paris. Father A. M. Dubarle, O.P. selves to such debates. If we really A. To me, this expression in the participated in the session devoted take the idea of dialogue seriously, Associate Editors: first place has a negative 1ignifi to "Materialism, Matter and its we are confronted with an arduous CHARLES BUTTE RWORTH, THOMAS CORNELL, EDGAR FORAN D, cance. When I use it, I mean to JUDITH GREGORY, WALTER KERELL, KARL MEYER, DEANE Histozy;" Dr. Paul Chauchard in and time-consuming task. I believe say first of all that Marxists ~d MOWRER, ARTHUR SHEEHAN, ROBERT STEED, ANNE TAILLEFER. the meeting on "The Materialistic that this task can only be carried Christians ought to try to do away EDWARD TURNER, MARTIN CORBIN, HELEN C. RILEY, STANLEY Conception of Life," and Father out successfully by working groups, with all sterile oppositions. Each VISHNEWSKI, CLARE BEE. J. Yves Jolif, O.P., professor on of as representative a character as must abandon the practice of clap Managing Editor and f'ubliaher: DOROTHY DAY the Catholic faculty of Lyon, in a possible. ping a mask on the other in order 175 Chrystie St., New York City-2 lively debate on the quest.ion: "Is In the first place, an effort at to distort and conceal his features.. Telephone GR 3-5850 a Materialistic Morality Possible?" mutual - COmpi'ehension seems to When someone does not think as I Subacr1ptlon United States. 2Sc Yearly. Canada and Foreign 30c Yearly It was only in the course of this me obligatory. Each must know do, I would naturally rather not Subscription rate of one cent per copy plus postage applies to bundles of one last debate that a true dialogue what the other is talking about.

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