Report from the Conference: Dorothy Day: A Saint for Our Time

Geoffrey B. Gneuhs • March 20, 2014

Guild Executive Committee member Geoffrey B. Gneuhs provides us with a report of his experience at the recent conference  "Dorothy Day: A Saint for Our Time":

What we would like to do is change the world...by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world."
---Dorothy Day

St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida, hosted a conference on "Dorothy Day: A Saint for Our Time" March 7-8. Dr. Francis Sicius, a history professor at STU and a biographer of Peter Maurin, organized the convocation. Those of us from northern climes were quite delighted with the beautiful campus, the hospitality of the students, and the wonderful warm, sunny weather.


Attended by nearly one hundred people, over the two days, from across the country, the university and the Miami area, the conference was a gathering of scholars and workers as Peter Maurin would have wished. There were 25 papers and talks delivered by college professors and a high school teacher, as well as from representatives of several Catholic Worker communities.


Discussions ranged from Dorothy's spirituality and the influence of the Fr. Lacouture/Fr. Hugo retreat, to her prayer life, to what her understanding of being a radical in the Christian sense meant, as well as to her spiritual and practical understanding of pacificism. One paper by Harry Murray of the Rochester CW confirmed that Peter Maurin was not a pacifist, as he registered for the Selective Service in 1942---and gave Dorothy Day as his contact person!


Other talks discussed Dorothy's deep faith centered on the Mass and her commitment to the Church as well as her unique way of living a life of holiness while dedicated to justice. There were also presentations about life in various Catholic Worker communities.


The conference discussed how to make Dorothy and her saintly life better known to more Catholics and others, including this new website and other social media, through teaching in schools and colleges, as well as at the parish level.


On Friday night, three students, a pianist, soprano, and tenor, gave a superb concert of arias in recognition of Dorothy's love of opera

Lance Richey announced that the University of St. Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana, will host a conference next year May 13-15, 2015, on "Dorothy Day and the Church: Past, Present, and Future."


The meeting concluded with a Mass in the light-filled, pastel, adobe-like chapel, with an outdoor reception afterward.


There was a great spirit, vitality, and camaraderie during the two days that reflected a renewed commitment to the inspiration and example of Dorothy, thirty-three years after her death.



- Geoffrey B. Gneuhs


Archived Comments

cecutddhba@gmail.com says:

February 1, 2016  at 5:43 am

I do enjoy the manner in which you have framed this specific problem plus it does indeed provide me personally a lot of fodder for thought. On the other hand, coming from what I have seen, I simply just trust when other comments pile on that people stay on point and not get started on a soap box regarding the news du jour. All the same, thank you for this exceptional piece and while I do not really go along with this in totality, I value your standpoint.

Helene Garcia says:

November 17, 2014 at 7:01 pm

I have been reaching out all over the Catholic community I prayed to Dorothy Day for someone and she delivered, what are the next steps?

Sandra Montalbano says:

August 4, 2014 at 5:15 pm

Peter Maurin was dutiful; had a sense of duty, as well as right and wrong. Who can tell what is in a man’s heart, when he knows he has a sense of duty?

Tom Cornell says:

March 29, 2014 at 4:43 pm

Peter Maurin registered for the draft in WW II. I have a copy of his registration certificate. That does NOT mean that Peter was not a pacifist. ALL conscientious objectors recognized as such by Selective Serve HAD to register for the draft. Peter held to nonviolence but would not have stressed pacifism as WW II approached, Dorothy reported, saying that “men are not ready to hear….”

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Monica Cornell, 1942-2025: A Worker for the Lay Apostolate and Friend of Dorothy Day

By Casey Mullaney • August 16, 2025
Dear Friends, All of us at the Guild were saddened to learn of the death of Monica Ribar Cornell , founding member of and advisor to the Dorothy Day Guild, on Friday, August 8th.

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By Casey Mullaney • August 5, 2025
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By Casey Mullaney • July 8, 2025
Dear members and friends of the Dorothy Day Guild, Greetings on what for many of us in North America is already shaping up to be another hot, sticky summer day! We hope that those of you in hot climates are staying cool and are finding creative ways to support those in your towns and cities who are unsheltered from the elements. Emma, a member of our Catholic Worker community in South Bend, washes out empty milk jugs, fills them halfway with clean water, and freezes them overnight. In the morning, she fills them the rest of the way and hands them out to guests at our drop-in center to help them stay cool and hydrated throughout the afternoon. If you regularly walk or drive past homeless community members on your commute, we encourage you to pack an extra sealed bottle of water to give away on days like this. Here in the United States, we just celebrated the Fourth of July, a holiday which admittedly doesn’t mean very much to many of those who admire Dorothy and seek to follow Christ as she did. Dorothy practiced a very different kind of revolution than the kind which is celebrated by military parades and fireworks displays. In 1940, she wrote , “we consider the spiritual and corporal Works of Mercy and the following of Christ to be the best revolutionary technique and a means of changing the social order rather than perpetuating it. Did not the thousands of monasteries, with their hospitality change the entire social pattern of their day?” To all those who undertake the responsibility of sheltering the homeless, giving drink to the thirsty, and all works of mercy in the heat, thank you for these revolutionary acts! Summer events: Our Guild’s online and in-person summer programming is in full swing as of this week! As a reminder, we are running TWO book clubs this summer, one in English and one in Spanish. Our English-language club is reading The Long Loneliness and has already had two meetings, but it’s not too late to sign up!
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