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Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan both came to Kelly Commons to celebrate the grand opening of the Dorothy Day Center for the Study and Promotion of Social Catholicism.
MARY HALEY/ THE QUADRANGLE

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By Mary Haley, asst. features editor/social media editor

Manhattan College further reaffirmed the legacy of Dorothy Day through the grand opening of the Dorothy Day Center for the Study and Promotion of Social Catholicism, which included a blessing from the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.   

The college welcomed His Eminence, Timothy Dolan, for a prayer ceremony in the room dedicated to Dorothy Day and her mission of social action in the Social Action Suite. 

Dorothy Day was a social activist, journalist and a co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement founded in 1933, along with Peter Maurin. The organization has expanded and still strives for peace in its efforts to speak up for the poor through charity work and demonstrations for justice. 

The movement started with a newspaper, titled “Catholic Worker”, that Day herself would work on, which connected Catholic social teaching to society and the outreach that could be done to promote peace and justice in society. 

Although Day was neither born nor raised Catholic, she converted to Catholicism after having a spiritual awakening. She is now being considered for canonization of sainthood through the efforts of the Dorothy Day Guild and its co-chair Deirdre Cornell and Ignatian volunteer Jodee Fink. 

“What I’ve been working on with another volunteer is keeping track of people who report either a special grace, or a favor, or even approaching a miracle because they pray to Dorothy Day,” Fink said. “A lot of people have very profound experiences after they prayed for her, but we haven’t really found anything yet that fits all the criteria for a miracle that we can send to the people in Rome [the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints] who are moving her case along.”

In order to be considered for sainthood, there are three main stages one must pass through: the deceased must be deemed “venerable,” “blessed” and finally “saint.” 

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “venerable” is given to an individual who is “recognized formally by the pope as having lived a heroically virtuous life or offered their life.” The individual then advances to “blessed,” meaning they are “beatified and accorded limited liturgical veneration.” The title of “saint” is given when they have “been formally canonized by the Church as sharing eternal life with God, and therefore offered for public veneration and imitation.” 

Deirdre Cornell was raised by Catholic worker parents in New York City, where she knew Day personally until her death in 1980. 

Cornell explained to The Quadrangle that during the COVID-19 pandemic, while working with her husband to help undocumented people and farmers she felt called to revisit the original vision of Day: to be direct and personal to those who need help.

Cornell also recalled how after praying to Day during the height of the pandemic, she was reminded of how Day also lived through a pandemic as a nurse during the Spanish flu. 

“[The Spanish flu] was so similar to COVID, and [Day] was looking for her vocation, looking for what to do, looking for how to help,” Cornell said. “I see her not only as this older woman who really had it all put together, but I also thought a lot about her days of struggle and trying to figure out ‘what does God want me to do?’. I identified with that during COVID, but from more of a contemplative prayer side… we need her witness in a special way now.”

Cardinal Dolan has had a long-lasting relationship with the college after he received an honorary doctorate from MC in 2012 and also attended the grand opening of the Kelly Student Commons in 2014. 

He felt especially honored to come back for the commemoration of Dorothy Day and to officiate the opening of the center as he feels Manhattan College symbolizes the true values that were presented in Day’s life and the impact she has made after her death. 

“Dorothy, a strong advocate of Catholic social justice, believed very much in what we call the principle of subsidiarity, which means the smaller [the] sub is, the more effective it is, and this is true here at Manhattan College,” Cardinal Dolan said. “This isn’t a huge college. This doesn’t have a massive endowment, but it’s effective. It’s gritty. It’s realistic. It’s true to its principles.” 

James Boyle, an attendee of the ceremony who helped create an annual lecture at the college, spoke about his experience as a student at the college hearing Day speak at the all-male campus at the time. 

“In 1960, Dorothy Day was here to deliver a lecture to us,” Boyle said. “We were [an] all-male [school] at that time. After the lecture, a few of us had a private meeting with Dorothy that was an unforgettable experience. You immediately knew you were in the presence of a very special person. Dorothy told us you had to do more for the poor and to not only think of ourselves.” 

Boyle specified the work that will be done through the Dorothy Day Center at the college, explaining how an administrative base will be implemented to “strengthen the forward momentum of our program for Dorothy Day’s center.” The center will be a place of work done through benefactors from the Archdiocese of New York and Manhattan College.

Kevin Ahern, Ph.D., director of peace studies and professor of religious studies, has worked over the past two years to bring the work of the Dorothy Day Guild to MC’s community. He hopes its presence on campus will inspire students to get involved with social justice. Ahern also implements the teachings and values of Dorothy Day into his classes at the college. 

“I try to bring Dorothy Day into almost all of my classes,” Ahern said. “[Day’s] pacifism and non-violence is a major factor in my class on social justice this semester. My religion and social justice class taught in the spring gives students the opportunity to actually go down as volunteers in a community-engaged learning event with the Catholic Worker.” 

Following the center’s blessing, alumni Mark Coville ‘85, Thomas Dobbins ‘86 and Alannah Boyle ‘18 all sat at a roundtable panel to discuss how they are keeping the spark of Day alive in their professional careers and keeping Day’s core values at the heart of their work.

Coville founded the Amistad Catholic Worker location in New Haven, Connecticut to decriminalize homelessness and model Day’s virtue of hospitality through temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness. Despite facing legal challenges, the community has grown to around 25 people, with six living in tiny homes. 

Along with these efforts, Coville also has a close relationship with Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Dorothy Day. Following in the footsteps of her grandmother, she is a peace activist who also served as a state senator for New Hampshire from 2016 to 2020. 

Coville and Hennessy, along with Carmen Trotta, all spent months in jail after being found guilty of direct actions of symbolic disarmament at military bases for their efforts to protest against nuclear weapons and war. 

Coville did not accept the opportunity for bail and realized through Catholic social teaching that the imprisonment of people in the county jail was a form of idolatry and human sacrifice. 

“It became very prominent in my own spirit that these folks I was living with there in that county jail, are the victims of idolatry,” Coville said. “Idolatry always has victims in the Bible. It is rooted in human sacrifice. That is essentially what war has become in this country. It’s child sacrifice and human sacrifice that we consent to as a nation and a community.”

Martha Hennessy ended the event off with recognizing that the work is not over, and the need to stay true to Day’s vision. 

“It was a beautiful event,” Hennessy said. “What’s on my mind right now is Rafah and Gaza. I’ve heard about all these countries where this suffering is going on, so let’s not forget what she [Day] was about.”