New York City, N.Y., Mar 1, 2017 / 00:08 am
Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement whose cause for canonization has been opened, is the subject of a new book by her own granddaughter, Kate Hennessy.
"My grandmother and my mother really thought carefully and closely about some pretty basic things that I think we have lost sight of," Hennessy said. "One is: what am I meant to do, what is each of us meant to do, in terms of occupation and vocation? What skills can I offer the world? They both felt that that was so important."
Day was also captivated by "this idea that we each have a role to play, that each are capable of doing something," she said. "I think that's very, very hopeful. In these times people are unsure of what to do – I mean the problem seems so big. My grandmother was saying [that] what we can do is so little, but that is what we are given to do. That's only what we can do, so let's move forward and do what we each think that we can do. That's what I hope people will come away with from this story."
Hennessy is the youngest of Day's nine grandchildren, through her daughter Tamar. She spoke to CNA about her book Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty, a biography-memoir about her grandmother.