Here at Roundtable, we aim to cover the Catholic Worker Movement with news from CW communities, media mentions, writing reprinted from CW publications, and excerpts from the writing of the movement’s founders. As time allows, we also do original reporting and interviews.

We publish two editions:

• Our Sunday Roundtable edition is a weekly digest of news from around the movement, plus an excerpt from the writing of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, or another prominent figure from the movement’s past.

• Our CW Reads edition comes out on Thursdays, with occasional bonus issues appearing in your inbox from time to time on other days. As the name suggests, CW Reads highlights one or two extended pieces of writing reprinted from recent Catholic Worker newspapers, podcasts, and other media.

Every issue of Roundtable is free to all. Free subscriptions include everything paid subscribers receive.

That said, we couldn’t do all this without the support of our paid subscribers. Paid subscriptions help support not only the Roundtable newsletter, but CatholicWorker.org, one of the leading sources for information about the Catholic Worker Movement on the Internet. Proceeds from paid subscriptions go toward:

• Expenses such as website hosting and maintenance (for CW.org), transcription services, and travel expenses.

• Stipends for our editors in consideration of the time they spend compiling each issue.

• Stipends for Catholic Worker artists who allow us to use their work.

• Occasional donations to Catholic Worker communities or causes.

We encourage readers to support local Catholic Worker communities by finding one to support on the Catholic Worker community directory or on the Community Appeals page.

Why “Roundtable”?

The title of this newsletter is a reference to the roundtable discussions “for the clarification of thought” that are a central activity of most Catholic Worker communities. These small, informal discussions don’t usually happen around round tables, but the image points to the values governing the discussion: everyone has a place at the table; everyone has a voice.

It’s our hope that this newsletter evokes the spirit of a good roundtable discussion, bringing many and varied voices to the table.

Our Purpose

Something like 180 different local Catholic Worker communities make up the movement; each embodies a unique expression of the work that Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, and their collaborators first proposed in 1933: namely, fashioning a “world where it is easier to be good.” By doing the works of mercy and pursuing justice without resorting to violence, these communities attempt to live out the radical promise of the Gospel.

Catholic Workers often practice a self-deprecating honesty about the shortcomings of their communities; still, at their best, they serve as a prophetic witness and a light in the darkness.

Unfortunately, the good work these communities do—along with their prophetic challenge—often isn’t well known.

In the inaugural issue of The Catholic Worker newspaper, Dorothy wrote that it was printed “in an attempt to popularize and make known the encyclicals of the Popes in regard to social justice and the program put forth by the Church for the ‘reconstruction of the social order’….”

This newsletter aspires to carry on that mission by making known to “those who think that there is no hope for the future” that there are people deeply committed to the works of mercy and the work of justice.

The Catholic Worker Movement is a Christian anarchist movement that emphasizes each person’s responsibility to personally live out the Gospel. As such, it has no headquarters, no governing body, and no official publication (although the original New York paper is still widely regarded as having special status). Each community operates independently, although Catholic Workers do occasionally gather regionally and sometimes collaborate with one another.

All of which is to say: Roundtable cannot speak for the wider Catholic Worker Movement. Instead, we hope to elevate and amplify the activities of Catholic Worker communities, in all their diversity.

In doing so, we hope that we will inspire our readers to live out the Gospel more fully in their own lives, and so bring us that much closer to a world in which it is indeed easier for people to be good.

What Is the Catholic Worker Movement?

The Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Rooted in the Gospel and the social teachings of the Catholic Church, the movement focuses on living out the works of mercy described in Matthew 25 in order to recreate the social order. The Movement began with The Catholic Worker newspaper, first distributed in New York City’s Union Square on May 1, 1933. Houses of hospitality soon followed, and within a decade, the Movement had spread to dozens of communities across the United States.

Today, approximately 180 Catholic Worker communities on every continent continue the work of mercy and justice in a variety of ways.

The closest thing to an official charter for the Movement is the “Aims and Means” published by the New York Catholic Worker every May. In its current form, this document begins:

The aim of the Catholic Worker movement is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ. . . . This aim requires us to begin living in a different way. We recall the words of our founders, Dorothy Day who said, ‘God meant things to be much easier than we have made them,’ and Peter Maurin who wanted to build a society “where it is easier for people to be good.”

You can read the Aims and Means in their entirety and learn more about the beginnings of the Catholic Worker Movement at CatholicWorker.org.