Works that Shaped the World: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement
In 2022, the HRC’s Works that Shaped the World public lecture series focuses on religion.
In his 2015 speech for the U.S. Congress, Pope Francis singled out four Americans who exemplified the best of the American tradition, including Dorothy Day (1897-1980). Day, whose cause of Catholic sainthood is moving forward, founded the Catholic Worker movement with Peter Maurin on May Day 1933. Day is largely known for her pacifist stance and starting the movement’s houses of hospitality, which provide shelter for the homeless. But she was also an anarchist, critic of capitalism, and advocate for a village economy. As a journalist, Day’s writings are extensive, but her most important work is her 1952 autobiography, The Long Loneliness.
In addition to discussing Day’s life, writings, and lasting impact, in this public lecture Dr Lincoln Rice will share the background of the Catholic Worker movement, the intellectual world of Dorothy Day and her associates, and share his own contemporary lived experiences as part of the Catholic Worker movement in the twenty-first century.
Note the special time of this public lecture, 12pm AEST (UTC+10)
Dr Lincoln Rice is a moral theologian who earned his PhD in social ethics from Marquette University in 2013. He has published books and articles on Catholic Worker social thought and U.S. black liberation theology. His latest book, The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin (Fordham University Press, 2020), collects the published and unpublished writings of Catholic Worker cofounder Peter Maurin and provides historical context for the modern reader. Lincoln has been a member of the Casa Maria Catholic Worker in Milwaukee since 1998.