Community, Resistance & the Catholic Worker
Community, Resistance & the Catholic Worker
Talk & discussion with Catholic Workers Mark Colville & Martha Hennessy (granddaughter of Dorothy Day)
Sunday, September 20
2 p.m.
Southside Presbyterian Church Kiva, 317 W. 23rd St., Tucson
Through their talks around the country, Mark and Martha are seeking to renew a collective understanding of the Catholic Worker charism, as Catholic Worker houses of hospitality across the country interface locally with the present-day realities of christo-fascism, the criminalization of homelessness in their neighborhoods and municipalities, and the Catholic Church’s effort to canonize Dorothy Day.
They write: Our purpose is to incite a movement-wide discernment over these and other themes, using the “Aims And Means” as a starting point. (Note: “The Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker” which was originally penned by Dorothy in 1940, is commonly identified as a sort of mission statement or manifesto for the movement, yet it has not been substantially updated since the late 1980s.) Through engaging in our traditional practice of “the clarification of thought through roundtable discussions”, we wish to lift up the wisdom of those who are presently engaged in this holy work of hospitality and nonviolence, including their allies and networks of support, as collectively we consider what God and the times are inviting us to embrace… and to resist.
Sponsored by Casa Maria Catholic Worker and the Nuclear Resister
Martha Hennessy, seventh grandchild of Dorothy Day, divides her time between the family farm in Vermont and practicing the works of mercy at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City.
She is 71, a retired occupational therapist, and grandmother of nine. She has been imprisoned for protesting war and nuclear power/weapons, the use of drones, and the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo and US prisons. Martha travels and speaks on the current topics of her Catholic faith, her grandmother Dorothy Day’s life, work in community, Catholic Social Teaching, war and peace, nuclear abolition, and peacemaking efforts in the tradition of the Catholic Worker movement.
Mark Colville is a resident member (since 1994) of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Connecticut. He currently spends a good deal of time doing leadership development and community organizing, both in the streets of New Haven and on its margins, with the Unhoused Activist Community Team (U-ACT). Along with his partner, Luz Catarineau, Mark is also a co-creator of Rosette Neighborhood Village, an autonomous backyard encampment and tiny homes village for unhoused neighbors located on the grounds of the Amistad house of hospitality (watch the pbs documentary here: https://www.pbs.org/show/where-then-shall-we-go/).