Founder Finds Grace, Gratitude as CW House Closes
Plus: A Black Catholic CW pioneer; canonization update; summer internships; Maurin's "personalist communitarian"; and a reader survey.
Staying Open to Personal Transformation
We had planned to bring you part four of our series, “The Catholic Worker in Africa,” this week with a look at the Kenya Catholic Worker, where a group of people suffering from mental illness have banded together to provide much-needed help to hundreds of other Kenyans suffering from severe mental illness. I’m going to hold that piece in order to do some more reporting, so look forward to that next week.
In the meantime, one of the highlights of this issue is Zak Sather’s interview with Fr. Thomas Lumpkin, founder of Detroit’s Day House Catholic Worker. After nearly 48 years, Day House announced its closing this week.
As sad as this news is, it is striking how Lumpkin has chosen to view this moment through the lens of grace and gratitude. Last week, I asked how we might ritualize the closing of a Catholic Worker community; maybe Lumpkin points us toward the beginning of an answer.
Another hopeful element of this story is Lumpkin’s testimony to how the work transformed and enriched him. The need to remain open to personal transformation, even as we work for the transformation of the world, was also the subject of a great essay by Matt Harper in the February issue of the Catholic Agitator. You’ll find an excerpt below.
Warmly,
Jerry Windley-Daoust
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NEWS
As Detroit’s Day House Closes, Founder Finds Grace and Gratitude
Members of the Detroit Catholic Worker have announced the closure of Day House Catholic Worker as of December 2023 due to declining worker interest, community capacity, and financial resources, according to a letter by Day House community members. While the details are still up in the air, the house itself will likely be transferred to another “socially minded Detroit-based housing cooperative,” the community said, and plans are being made to celebrate the community and its history.
The community was founded in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood in 1976 by Fr. Thomas Lumpkin and four other individuals. The diocese formally assigned Lumpkin to the Catholic Worker in 1978, making him perhaps the only priest in the world whose pastoral assignment was a Catholic Worker house rather than a parish. The assignment was meant to be temporary, but he ended up living in the house for 40 years.
“It’s a vocation you need to submit yourself to, but it’s been a grace in helping me realize how much I was given,” Lumpkin told the Roundtable newsletter’s Zak Sather. “I would like to pay back a little bit by extending love and concern to people who are homeless, but I’ll never give back the extent to what I was given.”
Under his stewardship, the 10-bedroom house at 2640 Trumbull Ave. served as a transitional home for those experiencing housing instability, especially women and children. Day House provided “general services like showers, laundry, mail, meeting space for activist organizations, and a weekly community mass and dinner,” according to the community’s listing on CatholicWorker.org. The community also founded the Manna Meal soup kitchen in a church just a few blocks away; that ministry will continue, Day House members said.
Day House also has a history of peace activism; Lumpkin says he has been arrested perhaps a dozen times for various acts of civil disobedience. He was already familiar with the county jail, having been assigned by the diocese to say Mass there every week.
A new generation of workers offered to take over leadership of the house in 2019. By that time, Lumpkin was in his early 80s.
“I thought, well, this is the Lord telling me I should get out, and so I did,” he said. Lumpkin didn’t stray far, moving only a few blocks away as he continued to be involved with Day House and the Manna Meal soup kitchen.
Unfortunately, in recent years Day House has struggled to find resident community members.
“We’re not seeing that coming and going like we did before, and there’s no one person that wants to make it their lifelong vocation,” Lumpkin told Roundtable. He attributes part of the problem to student debt: “So many young people now graduate with big debt and they need to pay (it) off, they can’t do volunteer work. It wasn’t like that in the past.”
The number of live-in community members has dwindled to almost zero, he added.
Largely because of this dearth, 2460 Trumbull Ave. will close its doors as a Catholic Worker House. Yet Lumpkin says he doesn’t harbor any sadness. Instead, he focuses on the present, and the grace he found in his work.
Living at the house helped him to appreciate “that the incarnation goes deep into the core of reality,” Lumpkin said. “For a long time, I thought if you wanted to find God in other people, the only place you would look was in people who were loving, because God is love. I never dreamed I would find him in mentally and emotionally ill people that no one wanted to live with.
“Living in that fact…broadened my spirituality. I really found grace in that.”
You can read the Detroit CW’s letter to the wider Catholic Worker community and get links to profiles of Fr. Tom Lumpkin at CatholicWorker.org.
Dr. Falls Opened the Way for Black Catholics–and the First CW in Chicago
Dr. Arthur Falls (1901-2000) was a pioneer in the Black Catholic community in the United States–and opened the first Catholic Worker in Chicago, according to Lincoln Rice, Ph.D.
Rice, a Catholic Worker at Casa Maria House in Milwaukee, spoke about Dr. Falls at Chicago’s Canterbury House during a roundtable discussion on January 25. Rice’s talk on “Dr. Arthur Falls and the Mystical Body of Christ in Action,” was covered by Nate Tinner-Williams of the Black Catholic Messenger, who was a guest at Canterbury House that week and wrote a summary of the evening.
Rice is the author of Healing the Racial Divide: A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls, which draws, in large part, on an unpublished memoir Falls wrote and his niece recovered.
After Peter Maurin gave a talk at Chicago’s St. Ignatius High School in the summer of 1936, a group led by Dr. Falls held weekly meetings in the basement of what is now known as Old St. Patrick’s in Chicago. They continued meeting every Sunday even after they moved out of the basement and Falls opened a stand-alone house at 1841 W Taylor Avenue (now in the middle of the Rush and University of Illinois hospital complexes).
Dr. Falls was clear that he wasn’t starting a house of hospitality, Rice said; instead, he focused on the first pillar of Peter Maurin’s program, clarity of thought. The house hosted readings of French personalists like Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier, held weekly meetings and offered dinners.
Originally from Louisiana, Dr. Falls came north to Chicago to practice medicine. He would go on to sue Chicago hospitals–including the Catholic ones–to give Black doctors and patients the freedom to practice and receive medicine in any facility of their choice.
Incidentally, Falls wrote a letter to Dorothy Day that prompted her to add a Black laborer to the paper’s masthead, which had originally featured two white workers, in December 1933.
Falls died in 2000, and his funeral was held at an integrated suburban parish, St. John of the Cross, which Falls and his wife Lillian helped found in 1960.
Although Falls’ legacy has been mostly lost to time, “like many unsung figures of Black history,” writes Tinner-Williams, he, like Rice, believes Falls’ life is a source of inspiration worthy of remembrance.
“I still have hope that Arthur Falls will gain wider traction,” Rice said, adding that it is possible that Dr. Arthur Falls could be St. Arthur Falls one day.
Read Tinner-Williams’ full story at the Black Catholic Messenger.
Dietrich Recalls L.A. CW’s Work on Skid Row
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Jeff Dietrich reflects on more than fifty years working on Los Angeles’ Skid Row in an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir that appeared in the National Catholic Reporter recently.
Dietrich’s account begins with his arrival at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker in September 1970. At that time, Skid Row was characterized by its population of mostly white, older alcoholics, and featured bars, single-room-occupancy hotels, and missions.
Unlike the missions, the Catholic Worker focused on radical social change, engaging in actions such as organizing a blood strike for better compensation and healthcare for donors. That action had the “unfortunate” consequence of prompting the legislature to close the blood banks, Dietrich writes. But it also led to his appointment to the Citizens Advisory Board for the Community Redevelopment Agency, where the L.A. Catholic Worker successfully proposed an alternative development plan that included saving Skid Row housing and creating parks, jobs, and a Skid Row Development Corporation. Previously, the agency had been focused on the wholesale demolition of the entire area.
Over the years, the L.A. Catholic Worker campaigned to secure the basic rights of the homeless population. The community launched a years-long campaign to bring portable toilets to Skid Row, for instance, and protested police harassment of people pushing shopping carts by buying one hundred shopping carts and holding a press conference in front of police headquarters. (The L.A. Catholic Worker has subsequently distributed more than 100,000 shopping carts to people living on the street.) With the help of a civil rights attorney, the community also successfully sued to win the right of homeless people to “security in their property and possessions” and to not be jailed for the “crime” of sleeping on the street.
“Shopping carts, blood strikes, port-a-potties,” Dietrich writes. “These are but a handful of efforts over the years that represent the spirit of the Catholic Worker community working to impact the social environment of Skid Row. But the core of our work has always been the soup kitchen: feeding hungry people, creating a sense of welcome, conviviality, dignity and listening to their stories in our beautiful dining garden.”
Read the full excerpt at the National Catholic Reporter.
What Good Is a Prophet Who Is Not Open to Change?
The February issue of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker’s Catholic Agitator is out, and it leads with an essay by editor Matt Harper on the need for “prophets” to be open to continual change:
We can all identify the ways the Spirit has helped us “see the light,” helping transform us from who we were then to who we are now, but how often do we move with the recognition that the Spirit is never done weaving through our lives? How often do we live with an openness to whatever shifts She has planned next for us? Catholic Workers are very good at pursuing change in others, in seeking the growth of those people out there.
It is often the “wrong” values and behaviors of other institutions, structures, communities, belief systems, and people that become the focus of our work: “An end to this filthy, rotten, corrupt, immoral, and evil system,” as our dear Mike reminds us each week.
Some of us (and other social change activists) go to city council meetings because we believe making a public comment could change the minds of policymakers. Some of us cross artificial lines at military bases because we believe our witness—through God’s spirit and grace—can transform the conscience and lives of the career soldiers stationed there (and maybe the whole military industrial complex). Some people voluntarily choose jail time, believing the chance to put our rationale on record offers the opportunity not only to transform judges, prosecutors, and prison staff but also to set precedence for future legal battles.
We block streets and freeways and inconvenience drivers because we believe that the seduction of capitalism has so hypnotized people that only a serious discombobulating jolt will be able to awaken them from their slumber. We hold signs on street corners because we believe if individuals are confronted by a kernel of truth or an incising question that forces them to face things they (and our systems) have been working hard to conceal, they might find their way back.
But there is something particularly intriguing about the desire to change hearts and systems, or the desire for “history” to remember we stood against the dehumanization of the systems around us: too often, it seems like the commitment to change is only a one-way street.
You can read the whole essay in the Agitator or at CatholicWorker.org.
BRIEFLY
The joys and challenges of raising kids in a Catholic Worker setting were explored in the second panel in the Los Angeles Catholic Worker’s “Committed Together” series last week. A recording of the panel is available here; see the first panel, featuring people who grew up in Catholic Worker communities, here.
The Dicastery for Saints in Rome has appointed a relator for Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization, according to an update written by Casey Mullaney, coordinator for the Dorothy Day Guild, in the Houston Catholic Worker newspaper. The relator is responsible for “ensuring that the process of canonization is thorough, fair, and in accordance with the established procedures of the Dicastery,” wrote Mullaney. The most important task is compiling a positio, which is a thorough and painstaking account of the saint’s life, her virtues, and what makes her holy. “In order to put this document together, the relator is responsible for analyzing the results of the diocesan inquiry,” Mullaney said. The diocesan inquiry ended in December 2021, when 50,000 pages of evidence were shipped to Rome for review by the Dicastery.
The Benedict Labre House (Montreal, Quebec) plans to open a new center for those experiencing homelessness and struggling with addiction. The center will provide 36 studio housing units, meals, medical care, and social activities, as well as two supervised consumption cubicles to mitigate health risks for those struggling with illicit substance addiction. The center aims to “offer people whose substance use has become a way of life a truly comprehensive solution to regain control of their lives.” Learn more about the new center at the Benedict Labre House website.
Two founders of Chicago’s Su Casa Catholic Worker have launched a new initiative to aid newly arrived migrants, according to an article in the Beverly Review, a Chicago weekly newspaper. Sisters of Mercy Pat Murphy and JoAnn Persch launched Catherine’s Caring Cause to assist newly arrived migrants with housing, education, healthcare, and employment, following the guiding principles of hospitality, mercy, and love inspired by Venerable Catherine McAuley. The organization, supported by volunteers and funded through donations, aims to provide six months of intensive support to asylum-seeking families to help them achieve independence in the United States, including covering the costs of work permits and legal fees. Connect with the organization at its website.
The Hartford Catholic Worker (Hartford, Connecticut) has re-opened its “Green House,” which serves neighborhood kids with a variety of programs, following a renovation project that installed new floors and a new kitchen. See the community’s 23-minute video explaining its ministry here.
Fr. James J. King, SJ, who was involved in the founding of the Catholic Worker Community of Akron (Ohio), has died. He is best known for his role as a teacher at Walsh Jesuit High School but was also committed to peace and justice issues. “He co-founded the Justice League at Walsh Jesuit, helped start the Catholic Worker shelter in Akron, fed the homeless in the Labre Society, and built homes for Habitat for Humanity,” according to his obituary. He also made many mission trips to Central America with students.
Dorothy Day’s daily participation in the liturgy of the Church was more than a pro forma activity, Carmina Chapp (Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm, Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania) writes in the latest issue of Adoremus magazine. Her practice of praying the breviary, attending daily Mass, and becoming an Oblate of St. Benedict highlights the potential for laypeople to lead a life of holiness and active ministry in modern times, Chapp writes. Read Dorothy Day: Faithful Daughter of the Church—Faithful to the Prayer of the Church at Adoremus magazine.
APPEALS
Haley House (Boston) Seeks Summer Volunteers (March 1 application deadline)
Friends of longtime Catholic Worker Ciarin O’Reilly are raising funds to help him continue his vigil in solidarity with Julian Assange.
The Uganda Catholic Worker continues to seek $50,000 for the purchase of a house in Kampala.
St. Louis Catholic Worker continues to raise funds to purchase a house.
For a longer list of Catholic Worker communities appealing for financial support, visit the Appeals page at CatholicWorker.org. Looking to become a Catholic Worker? Check out active calls for volunteers.
CALENDAR
February 15 | Virtual event sponsored by Simone Weil Catholic Worker
Agronomic University Online
February 16 – February 18 | Platteville, Wisconsin
National Biennial Catholic Worker Farmer Gathering
February 20 | Virtual event sponsored by Maurin Academy
Growing, Fermenting, Canning & Why
March 3 | Virtual event sponsored by the Dorothy Day Guild
Dorothy Day Guild Book Study
March 13 - March 24 | Scotland
Martha Hennessy Events in Scotland
March 23 - March 29 | Nevada
Sacred Peace Walk (Nevada Desert Experience)
April 12 - April 15 | Kansas City, Missouri
Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat
A FEW GOOD WORDS
The Personalist Communitarian
By Peter Maurin
in The Catholic Worker, August 1936
A personalist
is a go-giver,
not a go-getter.
He tries to give
what he has,
and does not
try to get
what the other fellow has.He tries to be good
by doing good
to the other fellow.
He is altro-centered,
not self-centered.He has a social doctrine
of the common good.
He spreads the social doctrine
of the common good
through words and deeds.He speaks through deeds
as well as words,
for he knows that deeds
speak louder than words.Through words and deeds
he brings into existence
a common unity,
the common unity
of a community.
Read all of Peter Maurin’s Easy Essays compiled in “The Forgotten Radical,” by Lincoln Rice
Don’t forget to take the reader survey!
Thanks to Renee Roden, Zak Sather, and Rosalie Riegle for their help with this week’s newsletter. Thanks also to the National Catholic Worker E-mail List team, whose work provides the leads for many of our items.