Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.
An early radical, Day became a socialist, dropped out of college, married and had an abortion before converting to Catholicism as an adult. As this article by Andrew Hamilton says, Dorothy's was "a gospel with teeth." She founded Catholic Worker Houses that helped (and still help) the poor--alcoholics, drug addicts and street people.
Her theology was all about pacifism, hospitality and human dignity. The poor who came to her were treated with dignity and non-violence--the first many had ever known. Even when involved in political passive resistance (think, Gandhi and Martin Luther King) the innate human dignity of one's opponent was at the forefront.
*This* is Christianity. This is what Jesus wants us to do.
