Bearing Witness: Catherine de Hueck Doherty and the "Gospel of Dorothy Day"

Abstract

Catherine de Hueck Doherty, like her far more famous contemporary Dorothy Day, contributed mightily development of lay activism in 1930s and 1940s, with important consequences not only for U.S. Catholicism but also for nation's democratic process. Indeed, lives and works of these two visionary women inspired countless lay Catholics?particularly young women?to live out Gospel values, in process taking on responsibilities unusual both for lay Catholics and for women at that time. The power of these two spiritual sojourners derived, paradoxically, in large part from a radical witness in solidarity with the least: an attempt, as Catherine de Hueck Doherty put it, to live Gospel without Compromise. Not that two women always agreed. Indeed, their personalities and some of their perspectives contrasted markedly. Such differences, however, serve throw into stark relief important synergies between two movements. Even though Catherine de Hueck Doherty's Friendship House would largely fade from scene, it would have important consequences for U.S. Catholicism, if not as obviously as with Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker. Meanwhile, two movements?somewhat in concert?indirectly influenced democratic system, in sense that they helped inspire a kind of neighborhood organizing that empowers ordinary citizens in face of a political process increasingly beholden financial interests. Like Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty belonged generation forged during World War I, but two women experienced this cataclysm in contrasting