Below is a newly surfaced account of a brief conversation that Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and longtime peace activist now being considered for canonization, had with Daniel Marshall, a longtime member of the Catholic Worker movement, around 1977, a few years before her death. It is the first time that this conversation about her abortion is being shared publicly. (I received this as part of a group email, and asked Mr. Marshall for permission to print it, which he has given).
When contacted, Robert Ellsberg, who worked for several years with Dorothy Day, and is today publisher of Orbis Books as well as editor of Dorothy Day’s diaries and letters, said Mr. Marshall’s account rings true. “It’s clear from her private writings,” Mr. Ellsberg told me, "that Dorothy was very concerned about abortion, but she didn’t want to appear judgmental, partially because of her own experiences. Nor did she want to sound preachy, because she was very private about her abortion, and she didn’t share that part of her life. But she did speak about with some people, including myself. In that case, a woman had just told her that she justified her own decision to have an abortion because Dorothy did, which may explain why Dorothy was so uncomfortable about talking about it. Overall, Mr. Marshall’s story sounds like a credible account of a conversation with Dorothy.” Ellsberg also pointed to one letter in the collection All the Way to Heaven, where (dated Feb. 6, 1973) where she writes to a woman considering and abortion and describes her experience. “I am praying very hard for you,” she writes.
By way of background, Mr. Marshall describes his work with Dorothy: “During the five years between mid-1972 and mid-1977, I lived, in two stretches, for two-and-a-half years at the Catholic Worker Farm in Tivoli, N.Y. I had earlier founded a short-lived CW house in Berkeley, became a military conscientious objector, traveled from community to community in this country and Europe, and homesteaded in New Hampshire….Dorothy called me 'my theologian,' maybe because I had been to Holy Cross, as Tom Cornell had been to Fairfield, but it shows the real poverty of Dorothy that she had to rely on such as me for theological discussion, though she was in correspondence with such as Thomas Merton and Dan Berrigan for tough questions and more extended reflections."
Marshall’s story of his brief conversation with Dorothy Day follows. My only edit was to add a parenthetical note into the story, which was provided by Mr. Marshall, about a potentially confusing comment made by Dorothy:
I want to contribute a reflection and some information that Dorothy entrusted to me. Dorothy did not ask me to keep what she said secret, but I took it in the context as a trust to be conveyed to history after she died.
One day, I found myself at a rare moment alone with Dorothy at the Tivoli Catholic Worker farm. We were in the yard beside the old former boarding house and summer camp, at a bench beside the wire fence that guarded the spot at which our ravine went underground, the front end of the yard.
I seized the opportunity to ask Dorothy to write in the paper about abortion as possibly the central moral issue of our time. She paused and gently answered, "I don't like to push young people into their sins."
Then after another pause, she spoke about the problem of writing about others: "I believe in memoir," she said. "I want to write my memoir. You know, The Long Loneliness was not an autobiography. What do you think of writing about others involved in one's life?" I thought of her brother, who was still alive at the time, not to mention Forster Batterham [Dorothy’s common-law husband with whom she later had a child] whom Dorothy visited regularly until she died, or at least until she could no longer travel, and whom I met, along with Dan Berrigan, at her wake--another story. "I believe that he will accept faith before he dies," she had said to me one day. I may have offered some stumbling thoughts. She said, "I think that maybe one should wait until fifty years after a person dies before publishing anything about him."
(As to what Dorothy meant by saying that The Long Loneliness was not an autobiography, I take it that she wrote the book at a particular time to a specific end: to tell the story of the slow workings of God in the soul of a most unlikely lover, first to attract her and then to lead her to Peter Maurin and to fulfillment in becoming the spiritual mother of a major Catholic movement for peace and justice. Half the book consists of reflections and stories about the essential aspects of a Catholic Worker vision.)
Then Dorothy said, "You know, I had an abortion. The doctor was fat, dirty and furtive. He left hastily after it was accomplished, leaving me bleeding. The daughter of the landlords assisted me and never said a word of it. He was Emma Goldman's lover; that's why I have never had any use for Emma."
I hung on every word that she said, not only because she was Dorothy, but because, although I had heard a rumor that she had an abortion, I was aware that few people knew of it from her.
I understood from Dorothy that she was asking me to comprehend what the consequences would be of a public statement from her on abortion and also that the public consequences might be a distraction from the issue and the cause. What she thought of abortion was clear as a bell from what she said.
James Martin, SJ
It does not make any difference to the merits of her life and her road to canonization. Perhaps, it makes her more like many women who, for different and complex life reasons, had an abortion or considered one. It calls for compassion without "our" judgement.
Her life of giving of herself with passion and love for social justice canot be canceled out by this personal revelation.
God is the only one who can see inside our hearts and will judge with love and justice.
It is clear to me that she had a conversion experience that changed her deeply and permanently. She was led by, and trusted, a deep certainty. And she relied on the Catholic Church to keep her "held" within this certainty. As Jim Forest says, she was a "dinasaur Catholic", going to Mass daily, Confession every week, and saying the rosary.
I have no doubt but that she is a "saint", but I also wonder about those who are not graced with the certainty of Dorothy Day. Even her daughter could not sustain the piety of her mother.
Is the purpose of sainthood to lead people to the Church, or to lead them to God? (or are these goals supposed to be the same?) I just hate to see Dorothy used as a pawn in the political struggle surrounding abortion.
One thing it probably adds to her biographical record is the identity of the doctor who performed her abortion. Wikipedia notes that Emma Goldman had more than one significant lover during her life, but one of them gets this description: ''In the spring of 1908, Goldman met and fell in love with Ben Reitman, the so-called 'Hobo doctor'. Having grown up in Chicago's tenderloin district, Reitman spent several years as a drifter before attaining a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. As a doctor, he attended to people suffering from poverty and illness, particularly venereal diseases. He and Goldman began an affair; they shared a commitment to free love, but whereas Reitman took a variety of lovers, Goldman did not. She tried to reconcile her feelings of jealousy with a belief in freedom of the heart, but found it difficult.''
Not surprising that someone called ''the Hobo doctor'' might be described by someone else, having gone through an unpleasant experience with him, as ''dirty'' (as Dorothy spoke of her doctor). Reitman has his own Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Reitman
We all know and can empathize with awful stories of borderline cases and anguished decisions.
However, we still have to deal with:
- the first response that Dorothy made, "I don't like to push young people into their sins."
- grief, remorse, and guilt experienced by many mothers such as Dorothy who have had abortions. Anyone who has had or knows someone who has had a miscarriage can empathize with a woman who has brought one on by her own choice, and usually she has no one to affirm the validity of her feelings, adding to her sense of isolation;
- personhood of the baby aborted. If we don't acknowledge it, then we're into having someone assign personhood at some juncture before or after birth, and then anything is possible, because what is assigned can be rescinded.
- agenda of the pro-abortion movement;
I believe that when two factions are deadlocked, talking past each other, they are missing the real issue. Everyone believes in choice, life, and respect for mothers under pressure. The issue being missed or ignored here is personhood. Nothing essential is added or subtracted from the fertilized ovum. When is it a person?
Whether continual war produces a milieu conducive to abortion or vice versa, there is a streak of hardheartedness and distraction that has infected a generous-hearted American people. We could re-orient by disengaging from consumerism and insisting on sources of reliable information.
However pastoral, however much a “dinosaur Catholic” Dorothy was, she was not nieve about problems of church or society.
Can't quite grasp that 'feelings about the experience' is not a valid consideration in making a moral decision, taking a moral stance. It seems to me, that the head and heart cannot be separated from each other. Sounds like that Kohlberg/Gilligan split.
And it seems that compassion - to suffer with - is a critical element in such decernment. Took her a long time, and some struggle (two suicide attempts) to find compassion for herself, and then extend it to others faced with the same situation.
Like I said, I'm not really much of a moral theologian.
I just meant to point out that the comments Dorothy made about her abortion to Mr. Marshall only suggest it was a terribly unpleasant experience for her. The comments don't make obvious (to me) that she thought it was a mistake or a sin, or that she thought abortion is an immortal choice in general.
Given my understanding of her Catholic faith and her moral convictions, I'm pretty sure she did think it's wrong, for her and for others. It's just not clear from these particular comments of hers.
So far I have not heard of any virtue called Regret . Didn't Jesus come to set us free from regret ? King David expressed his guilt and went on to rejoice in the Lord's mercy .
If in our ardor to fight against abortion we commit violence of another sort what is accomplished ?
Long ago (when I was a high school girl ) Dorothy Day , a contemporary of my parents was my hero . She still is .
That's a grave disservice to those women, to uncharitably imply they are merely pawns of the prolife movement. Have you not read any of their personal testimony?
http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/
The concern to me is the statement that a woman decided to get an abortion specifically because Dorothy Day had gotten one. Unless more definitive statements from Day can be found in regard to MORAL regret for her abortion, it would not seem to be wise to canonize her. If this woman detgermined that because Day had an abortion it was OK for her, too, then how many more might conculde from her being made a SAINT that having an abortion was OK?
Canonization is not only an acknowledgement that somene is in heaven, but that they are worthy to put forth as a model for emulation in our spiritual life. For all her other good works, if Day can be seen (even if imprecisely) as a model for justifying abortion, her canonization would be a huge mistake.
She upheld the Church's ancient teaching on both abortion and birth control.
I'm reading the latest biography of St. Francis of Assisi ("The Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi" by Donald Spoto). Spoto quotes a contemporary of Francis describing his early life as having been raised "indulgently and carelessly ...
Interesting that Francis, like Dorothy, spawned a new social movement.
[Francis'] early life as having been raised "indulgently and carelessely ...
Francis was raised "indulgently and carelessly and was taught shameful and detestable things full of excess and lewdness. He boiled in teh sins of youthful heat and was steeped in every kind of debauchery."
( I left out all of the ...'s)
The abortion and common law marriage occured before Day's conversion to Catholocism. After her conversion, it appears that she lived a very saintly life, intensely spiritual and dedicated to serving the poor. We can agree or disagree with her politics, just as we can agree or disagree with the politics of politically active saints who were more conservative, but the important thing to keep in mind is how Day and others who are under consideration for canonization bore witness to true Christian discipleship once they made the commitment to the Christian way of life.
I continue to hope these women are not being used .
Saints give testimony to God at work in their lives , not to personal perfection . They tell us to let God in to our lives now , not to become carbon copies of them . They give us hope to see God can and does work with anybody .
We celebrate Augustine of Hippo and never worry that someone will go out ruining orchards , womanizing , make a baby with a mistress and practice heresy as he did .
Day's radical Christianity was a thorn in the side of a few in church leadership ... just like Jesus ???
There is a transcript of a lengthy interview with Dorothy here:
http://dorothydaytranscripts.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/do-not-be-conquered-by-evil-but-conquer-evil-with-good/
Search ''abortion'' and you will see her describing abortion as a from of genocide.
The 10-minute segment of the interview in which she speaks about abortion is on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR_6miCs7FA&feature=player_embedded
Jim Forest
June 28, 1974
The Catholic Peace Fellowship Statement on Abortion
The January 22, 1973 Supreme Court decision on abortion deprives all unborn human beings of any protection whatever against incursions upon their right to life and has thus created a situation we find morally intolerable, and one which we feel obliged to protest.
In issuing this statement in the name of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, we wish to make it clear that we do not speak for the Fellowship of Reconciliation with which we are affiliated. The FOR has not to this point taken an official position.
From the point of view of biological science the fetus is an individual human life. The social sciences may attempt to define "fully human" in a variety of ways, but their findings are inconclusive and, at best, tentative and certainly supply no basis for determining who is or who is not to enjoy the gift of life. No one has the right to choose life or death for another; to assume such power has always been recognized as the ultimate form of oppression.
A primary obligation of civil society is to protect the innocent. A legal situation such as now exists in the United States, making abortion available upon demand, is an abdication of the state's responsibility to protect the most basic of rights, the right to life.
We make this statement to protest a policy and a practice, not to condemn any individual for a tragic decision she or he may have felt forced to make, just as in our protest against war and its destruction of human life we pass no judgment upon the individual who acts in good conscience.
But just as we urge our leaders to institute policies that will put an end to the constant threat of war, so we call upon them, in particular our legislatures and courts, to undertake a prudent and thorough reassessment of the abortion issue in all its ramifications and to develop a policy that will extend the rights and protections afforded by the Constitution, and inherent by nature, to the unborn, and at the same time to provide every support and assistance to those who might otherwise be driven to consider abortion as a solution to real and demanding personal problems.
We reject categorically the Supreme Court's argument that abortion is an exclusively private matter to be decided by the prospective mother and her physician. We protest the thoroughly logical and perhaps inevitable extension of a practice which, though first argued in a personal context, has rapidly become a social policy involving publicly funded clinics and supportive agencies.
This is not a "Catholic issue," and to dismiss it as such is to deny the dedication and the contribution of those of other religions and of none. Nor is this simply a matter of one group of citizens imposing its own morality upon others, any more so than our conscientious resistance to the war in Viet Nam, to conscription, etc. Indeed, we insist that these positions are all of one piece, stemming from what Albert Schweitzer called, "reverence for life," and the consequent obligation to oppose any policy or practice which would give one human being the right to determine whether or not another shall be permitted to live.
For many years we have urged upon our spiritual leaders the inter-relatedness of the life issues, war, capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia and economic exploitation. We welcome the energetic leadership our bishops are giving in the abortion controversy and we are proud to join our voices with theirs. At the same time we must point out that, ultimately, the sincerity of our words and theirs on any of these issues will be measured by our readiness to recognize and deal with the underlying social problems which turn many people to these deadly alternatives, to condemn all forms of social and economic injustice and to work for their elimination and the establishment of a social order in which all may find it easier to be "fully human."
(signed)
Dorothy Day
Eileen Egan
Hermene Evans
Joseph Evans, M.D.
Thomas C. Cornell
James H. Forest
Gordon C. Zahn
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