The Eucharist as a Source of Political Action: Dorothy Day as a living example of Johann Baptist Metz’s “Dangerous Memory”

Attending Mass and helping the suffering are not two separate things. In Christian life, the former should directly lead to the latter. In order to clarify this deep connection, first I will turn to Johann Baptist Metz, especially the centrality of the concept of anamnesis in his theology and hence how his political theology is deeply linked with or actually grounded in the Eucharist and liturgy, for which anamnesis is an essential concept. Metz points out the centrality of the “dangerous” memory of the crucified Lord for the Christian faith and suggests that when we remember the suffering of Christ we also remember all of the victims of history. Further, this memory of accumulated suffering should prepare us for socially emancipatory action. Thus, through the concept of anamnesis, we can see how participating in Mass should directly lead to political action on behalf of the suffering. As a concrete example of this connection realized, I will look at Dorothy Day in the second half of the paper. The Eucharist was central to her conversion, her spirituality, and her Catholic Worker Movement. In her, we can see a concrete example of the living memory of the suffering constantly nourished by the Eucharist and realized as a socially emancipatory action. Thus, by looking at Day through the lens provided by Metz with a focus on the living memory of suffering, I will stress that the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life,” is the key to bring theology into action.

Inaugurating a “Bold Cultural Revolution” through Prayer and Work

This chapter explores traditions within U.S. Catholicism that exemplify working alternatives proposed by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’. The first part of the chapter presents resources that emerge within Dorothy Day’s and Peter Maurin’s Catholic Worker newspaper, with special attention to the perspectives of John Hugo and Paul Hanly Furfey on Catholic farming communes in the 1940s and Thomas Merton’s view on the emerging U.S. ecological movement in the 1960s. The second part of the chapter examines the ways in which contemporary communities of religious women and their lay collaborators pursue ecological justice in the early twenty-first century. Taken together, a long-standing tradition of Catholic working alternatives emerges that emphasizes the combination of prayer and work thus presenting a significant alternative to a cultural and political-economic system that denigrates human dignity and imperils natural ecology by rupturing the divine-human relationship.

The social origins of Christian democracy: rural–urban migration, interest group preemption, and the rise of the Catholic workers’ movement

Despite the importance of Christian democracy for economic and social policies throughout the 20th century, we know very little about the incorporation of labor interests into Catholic parties. Existing accounts claim that the formation of Catholic worker organizations is rooted in the process of industrialization and reforms of Catholic social teachings. In contrast, I argue that the integration of the workers’ wing was dependent on the position of farmers’ and business associations within Catholic parties and the integrative capacities of local religious institutions. The migration of Catholics from peripheral to industrialized areas put pressure on Catholic elites in urban centers to integrate workers via class-based associations. In contrast, entrenched interest groups of farmers and businesses, as well as clerical associations, fend off the creation of workers’ associations in rural regions in which industrialization took place. My argument is supported by newly collected district-level and survey data.

Mysticism of the Social Life

Famous for its contribution to ecclesiology, the 1943 encyclical of Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi also marks a landmark in mystical theology both by affirming spiritual developments in Catholic Action organizations, which fostered an ideal of holiness accessible to the laity, and by opposing the ‘false mysticism’ of the mass movements (Fascism, Communism, Nazism, nationalism, global capitalism) of the day. Taking up a favourite theme in the ‘French School’ of saints and mystics, the idea of the ‘Mystical Body of Christ’ inspired new communities and ecclesial movements (Focolare, Catholic Worker, Schoenstatt), whose founders anticipated, read, and responded to Mystici Corporis amidst wartime suffering, while taking an apophatic and resistant approach to dominant social formations.

Peace, Nonviolence, and Disarmament

This chapter explores the pacifism of the early Christian church and how the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century led to the development of the just war doctrine. At the conclusion of World War II, the advent of the nuclear arms race rendered some aspects of the just war doctrine obsolete. Pope John XXIII addressed these concerns in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, released in 1963. Numerous Catholic peace groups thought that the Vatican did not take a strong enough stance on war, militarism, and nuclear weapons. The Catholic Worker movement called for a return to pacifism and introduced the techniques of nonviolent noncooperation with civil defense drills in the 1950s. The chapter covers other Catholic peace movements and organizations, including Pax Christi, the Catholic Left that opposed the Vietnam War through draft card burnings and draft board raids, and the Plowshares movement, whose members damaged nuclear weapons to obstruct the nuclear arms race. Eventually, the US Catholic Bishops released the pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace, which condemned nuclear weapons and called for disarmament.