Some Day . . .

The Archdiocese of New York is seriously looking into recommending Catholic Worker Dorothy Day for sainthood ("
Group Formed to Promote Canonization of Dorothy Day"). This is extremely exciting. Nobody can argue with Dorothy Day's worth in what she was: a radical advocate for the poor and for peace, someone who inhabited her message thoroughly, living with the poor she served until the end of her life. Her sainthood would be a worthy message to the church also, though not foremost, because of the things she was not: a virgin, a nun or a married-person-living-continently (for Pete's sake), like the overwhelming majority of JPII's new saints. Dorothy Day was a single mother with a troubled moral history which she had the integrity not to hide. After her conversion to Catholicism, her writings reflected both a humble awareness of human frailty and a quiet confidence in God's grace. She never allowed herself to believe that even a former Communist who had had an abortion might not have a radically Christian purpose to live out in life.

I liked Cardinal O'Connor's motivation for pursuing the canonization: "I don't want to have on my conscience that I didn't do something that God wanted done." Worthy to strive for: maybe none of us have a perfect record in that regard, but an omission that serious would be tough to live with indeed.