What the Catholic Worker Believes

Peter Maurin was a co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. He came from French peasant stock to become an intellectual kindred spirit to Dorothy Day, who called him a modern-day Saint Francis. His “Easy Essays” — droll philosophical nuggets of wisdom — laid down much of the movement’s ideological foundation. Here, for example, he summarizes quite nicely What the Catholic Worker Believes.

1. The Catholic Worker believes
	    in the gentle personalism
	    of traditional Catholicism.
	2. The Catholic Worker believes
	    in the personal obligation
	    of looking after
	    the needs of our brother.
	3. The Catholic Worker believes
	    in the daily practice 
	    of the Works of Mercy.
	4. The Catholic Worker believes 
	    in Houses of Hospitality 
	    for the immediate relief 
	    of those who are in need.
	5. The Catholic Worker believes 
	    in the establishment 
	    of Farming Communes 
	    where each one works 
	    according to his ability 
	    and gets according to his need.
	6. The Catholic Worker believes 
	    in creating a new society 
	    within the shell of the old 
	    with the philosophy of the new, 
	    which is not a new philosophy 
	    but a very old philosophy, 
	    a philosophy so old 
	    that it looks like new.

From the website CatholicWorker.org