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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Opposed to All Dictatorships

Day's words on communism (emphasis mine);

In the case of the Bremen picketing, since both Catholics and Communists were picketing and giving out literature, and some of the Communist literature was addressed to the Catholics, we felt it necessary to make clear our position, that there was a fundamental opposition between us, that we regarded their dictatorship of the proletariat as a bad means, that we were opposed to all dictatorships in trying to uphold the dignity of man, the son of God, and his liberty in Christ. They made attempts to join us in our picket lines. There were invitations for us of the Catholic Worker to join them, in accordance with their outstretched hand policy of the day. We always pointed out our oppositions, since they were saying in their literature that Catholics and Communists were together when they were not. On Pilgrimage - July-August 1949" By Dorothy Day


This entire article can be found on the Catholic Worker website. It responded to critics of the movement who labeled Day and the Workers communists. While Day sometimes found herself on the same side as the communists, she was quick to point out the differences between her and them. She goes on to quote Pope Pius XII "The greatest danger to the Church is that the working people know nothing, absolutely nothing, of the social doctrine of the Church.The greatest danger is not communism. That is but a consequence. The greater danger is the ignorance of working people who need the truth and who need the apostles of this truth." She knew, like the Pope, that if blue collar, hard working Catholics understood the churches teachings, they would not turn to the communist party for an answer to their labor problems. I wonder if working people today are any more knowledgeable on the Church's social doctrine that they were 50 years ago?

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