The Need to Belong to Someone, Somewhere, Somehow

The Catholic Worker 1934

The Long Loneliness

Dorothy Day autobiographical history of the origins of the Catholic Worker Movement
Ecclesial Movements, class discussion 5 November 2015
Participants: Augostine Ekeno, Sebastine Bulla, Michael Trimble

Augostine, Sebastine and Mike

Reading assignment: 

Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day. Introduction by Robert Coles; illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. 3rd reprint ed. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2009 [ISBN: 978-006061751]

Discussion

Historical influences and realities shape people’s growth and development and their vision of life. 20th century development and growth in America shaped Dorothy Day’s perspective on life, human relationship and religion. The collective human response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake had a great impact on her life. All these historical realities brought the best out of her. This however has not been the case for many people who have gone through suchlike experiences. In parts of Africa where people are born in war and poverty stricken areas, it is common to find people with maladjusted vision of the world and God and can’t trust God or humanity. Yet Dorothy Day overcame all these odds and emerged with a great sense of sensitivity to injustices and human suffering and trust in human beings.

    Community as a way of life meant so much for Dorothy Day. Embedded in all human beings is a need to belong to a group, someone, somewhere or something. Dorothy Day realized this aspiration and thus sought to build a community where people share values and principles needed to build an ideal human family. Everything she did was always defined by members of her community especially the poor who are often pushed to the periphery. During that time in America, there was still a great sense of community and family. Emergence of industrial cities at the end of the 20th century erased cultural and traditional values on which community was founded. This reality has continued to be more real as years went by. Development and technological advancement in America has given birth to various forms of distraction and sense of indifference to human suffering and injustice. There is still a great sense of community and sharing among people in rural parts of Africa where there is less distraction. Notwithstanding the value of community, there are possibilities of exclusion within communities especially those which are not truly grounded in the gospel values.

     Great ideas from talks and conversations molded Dorothy Day and sharpened her eyes to see clearly evils of her time. Discussions enabled her to see the world from a much broader perspective and she came to understand that a real community has power to change the social order. These conversations represented the voice of the poor workers that was not being heard. Workers were alienated from forums where policies were being formulated. No one wanted to hear their grievances. Today’s worst cause of alienation is technology and capitalist multinational companies enjoying monopoly. While communication has been made faster in the developed world, warm and close human relationships have been dampened by technology that has made closer those who are far and distant those who are near. This is different in most parts of Africa where communication is not so much advanced and people still value banter as a way of socialization and building community.

Dorothy Day, Easton Farm 1938

     Good education is a pillar for an integral human development. Dorothy Day read and listened to the voices of reason around her. She read Russian literature and the Bible and many other books. This equipped her with a methodology of social analysis that enabled her to develop actions that transformed the social order. American and western academic culture is by far best placed to produce critical minds like that of Dorothy Day because of the influence of Western and American philosophical traditions. A reading culture and introduction to critical education is still alien to African education system. African educational traditions don’t emphasise on critical analysis since the aim of education is to pass information from one generation to another. Elders are unquestionable and thus young people and sadly women have to just listen.

     There was a great sense of catholic identity at the time of Dorothy day. Catholic formation at the time aimed at creating this identity perhaps because of the growing Protestantism and evangelical movements and other social movements that offered alternative worldviews.  Faith was considered as an essential part of identity formation. This mentality fostered the laity’s commitment both inside and outside the church. In contemporary America people don’t seem to see faith as something that has to inform and shape their identities. Ideas of multiculturalism seem to have permeated today’s faith-community that now views association with only Catholicism and its teachings as an hindrance to the move towards a 21st century multicultural man or woman. Influence of cultural beliefs and practices in Africa, continue to shape people’s identities and sense of community. That is why there is a lot of complaint about hybrid identity among Christians in Africa, which is being seen as overshadowing the Christian identity.

    Dorothy Day understood holiness of the faithful as something that should push Christians outside the church to help the poor. The Laity in America seem to see their role as one that involves ‘some’ participation inside the church. More and more lay people want to serve as ministers and parish administrators than taking up apostolates that involve going outside the church.  Today’s lay people don’t seem to have or feel a great sense of responsibility as we see in the life of Dorothy Day. In Africa, lay people seem to be contented with going to church and spend time reciting rosary in small Christian communities with very little involvement in issues of social justice. To desire only sanctimonious behavior as the end of Christian life hinders actualization of a true Christian community. Notwithstanding the problem of identity lay people and movements or associations need formation and accompaniment by the clergy, Bishops and religious men and women in order to be effective.

Summary by Augostine Ekeno