Catholic Workers rely on grace, guts, luck in 80-year-old mission

[rug]

In 1990, Gary Palmatier painted the “Jesus of the Bread Line” mural, an interpretation of a etching by Fritz Eichenberg, on a wall of the Catholic Worker soup kitchen in Los Angeles.

by Jeff Dietrich | Sep. 14, 2013

This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Catholic Worker movement and the 43rd anniversary of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker. Just a few months after we opened our doors, Ammon Hennacy died. With the closing of his Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City, the newborn Catholic Worker in Los Angeles, Ammon Hennacy House, became the oldest Catholic Worker west of the Mississippi -- in fact, in 1970, the only Catholic Worker west of the Mississippi.

We have been here for a long time now, and we are still the oldest Catholic Worker west of the Mississippi. One would think that we would have lots of wisdom about how to run a successful Catholic Worker. Actually, there is no such thing as a successful Catholic Worker: The life of the Catholic Worker is a life of struggle and disappointment that strips away your illusions but never achieves your expectations, much less your hopes. It is a never-ending learning process fraught with pitfalls and foibles. Anyone can serve soup, and many people put their bodies in places of social distress, but to live in community or to try to hold a community together over the years is seemingly impossible. It is a journey that begs for a providential combination of grace, guts and luck.

When I came to the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, I was just a 24-year-old idealistic draft resister. Like most of the young people who are attracted to the Worker, I was anti-authoritarian. And like all the young people who continue to be attracted to the Catholic Worker movement, I wanted to do good things and fight against authoritarian figures who oppress the poor and make life miserable for the world's have-nots. Energy, idealism and willingness to struggle -- these are all great attributes as long as they are focused on the outside world. The problems come, though, when we try to live together in a community filled with other anti-authoritarians.

After my first two years at the Worker, our founders, Dan and Chris Delany, left. Their exit came on the heels of some months of community conflict between the young people and the old people. (In retrospect, the Delanys were not so very old then, but the young people were very, very young.) This difficult struggle set the motif for a pattern of community conflict that would periodically appear between the old people and the young people, between authority figures and anti-authority figures.

http://ncronline.org/news/peace-justice/catholic-workers-rely-grace-guts-luck-80-year-old-mission

http://www.catholicworker.org/

An anniversary to be celebrated.

[IrishAyes]

1. A great anniversary indeed.

And a great article. Thanks for the OP. You know I have a special interest in the group, more than ever for my later years. I don't know how anyone could try to turn my place into a hospitality house after I'm gone and manage financially unless they were truly blessed trust fund (older) babies able to do what they chose instead of what they had to do. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. My life path never allowed me much participation in the past, so I'm doubly anxious to help on my way out, so to speak. Basically I want to make sure I don't wind up in a nursing home or assisted living if I should become unable to remain fully independent - so I'd probably be looking for some middle aged couple still strong enough to help out a little before they inherited and not quite so young that we might get on each other's nerves. Although as I've said before, I delight in young people - that still doesn't mean we'd make a good long term up close and personal team.

[rug]

2. I can't think of a better group to support.

Don't worry about it. You've got a lot of fight left.

[IrishAyes]

3. I wrote Jeff Dietrich a good-length email

Explaining my situation, personality, and health prospects. I have the DNA to become a hale and hearty centenarian. But who knows what might happen along the way, and I really do need to change my will soon for the possibility of sudden departure. I wanted to be upfront with them and explain I'm not looking for a caregiver yet! and may never need one, Lord willing. Still, I've always been sort of organized that way and want to get my affairs in order for any eventuality. One way or another, at one time or another, it would be great to have something to leave them so they could maybe open a sister house. I never knew before reading their website that they ever went into rural areas. Believe me, they'd get called worse than 'hippie' here - yet they could be just what this area needs to civilize the teabaggers a little! If the locals hate my politics, wait until they get a look at real Christian activists.