In spite of criticism, isolation, and even imprisonment, she held fast to the truth of the non-violent Jesus. Often she cited the inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi. Fr. Stephen T. Krupa, S.J., (in Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: Centenary Essays , Marquette University Press, 2001), movingly records her testament. It reads like a litany prayed to strengthen us of more wavering convictions in the “law of love”:

Day attempted to render the law of love into countless situations of conflict.

When the nation and the Church sanctioned war, Day refused to abandon
her deep-seated pacifism.

When society and the Church ignored the lynching of black Americans in the  South, Day denounced the hangings and racial violence on the front page of  her newspaper.

When labor demonstrations grew violent, Day called for nonviolent tactics of  resistance and fed and housed striking workers.

When the secular press neglected to report the hiring by factory owners of
scabs to incite violence at strikes, Day reported on the brute tactics used by  management in industry.

When the nation and the Church overlooked the persecution of the Jews by  Hitler, Day denounced the German atrocities.

When the Church ignored or disowned Catholic conscientious objectors
during and after World War II, Day helped them to organize.

When the government consigned Japanese-Americans to internment camps  during World War II, Day was one of the few American newspaper editors to  criticize the injustice in print.

When President Truman delighted in the success of the atomic missions over  Japan, Day took him on in The Catholic Worker with a caustic commentary:  “Mr. Truman was jubilant. President Truman. True Man. What a strange  name, come to think of it. Jubilate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese.”

When the American masses in large cities ran for shelter during the Civil
Defense air raid drills of the 1950s and ‘60s, Day sat down in a New York City  park in protest of the government’s nuclear war propaganda and awaited  arrest for civil disobedience.

When the government and the Catholic Church refused to support  conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War, Day backed the young Americans  who burned their draft cards.

When the government and the Church disregarded the misery of non-
unionized farm workers, Day left a scheduled speaking engagement in San  Francisco in the summer of 1973 to join Cesar Chavez and striking farm  workers in a Fresno jail… her final jail sentence before her death in 1980.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus tells us. And blessed, we know, is Dorothy Day. Amen!

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