Paul Letsky’s funeral mass scheduled
It will be held Wednesday, October 2, 2019, 10AM at St. John’s Church in Worcester.
Bob Waldrop, 1952-2019
“We will not damn our souls to hell to satisfy corrupt politicians.”
Legendary Oklahoma Catholic Worker (and friend of this blog) Bob Waldrop has died at 67.
Bob was buried in his overalls.
Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday at Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church in Oklahoma City for the funeral Mass of Robert Max Augustine Waldrop, who served as the church’s director of music and liturgy, was a champion of the poor and started the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House.
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy hit by a car while running; “full recovery may take several months”
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, “Worcester’s most-traveled, most-jailed, and most notorious political radical since Abbie Hoffman” (Telegram & Gazette), was hit by a car while running Monday evening on Franklin Street.
He and his wife Claire fund their community and ministry to the homeless, the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker, in part by baking bread. Their son Patrick has set up an online fundraiser to help with expenses while Scott heals up.
How’s Donna Doing?
She’s indefatigable, that’s how Donna’s doing.
Long-time Mustard Seed soup kitchen director Donna Domiziano is back at her post-Mustard Seed apartment off Vernon Street in Worcester. She’s in a wheelchair, mostly healed up after a fall, now doing lots of physical therapy in hopes of being able to get into and out of the chair by herself. At that point, she’ll have an easier time riding in cars, and will get back to visiting soup kitchens and homeless shelters, helping out and cheering up the many down-and-out Worcesterites she befriended during her 30 years living and working at the Seed.
She’s drawing parallels between her current situation and other unexpected setbacks in her life, times when she refused to give up, instead praying for God’s grace and knowing that, sooner or later, she’d see a new way forward. Totally inspiring, this lady, you should pay her a visit.
This week’s notes on the Catholic clergy abuse crisis
Here’s a summary I wrote for this week’s radio show that I thought I’d post here.
This week we are seeing a historic meeting on clergy sex abuse, including some Worcester participants; expanded rights for victims of abuse; financial difficulties in the Diocese of Worcester; and even some relevant anecdotes from my own life as a faithful Catholic.
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Scott Schaeffer-Duffy’s Catholic Worker murder mystery: Murder on Mott Street
Longtime Worcester Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy has written a historical-fiction mystery in which “teen detective” Tamar Batterham (aka Dorothy Day’s daughter) teams up with Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin to solve a murder in the New York City of 1941.
Today the book launched at an event at Holy Cross.
I’ve only had time to read the first two chapters of Murder on Mott Street. My review so far: chapter one is a totally legit first chapter to a murder mystery. And I love how Scott closes it with a cliffhanger before devoting the 7 pages of the next chapter to a capsule history of the early Catholic Worker movement.
Worcester Catholic Worker community celebrates 30 years on Mason Street
Today we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Saints Francis and Thérèse Catholic Worker community.
Folks from far and wide packed the backyard at 52 Mason Street tonight for a mass marking the 30th anniversary of the Saints Francis and Thérèse Catholic Worker community. Mass was celebrated by Father Madden from St. John’s.
It was fantastic to see so many Central Massachusetts lay Catholic communities represented, as well as so many people from other communities of faith and action.
A Day of Dorothy Day, March 15, 2016
There will be a day-long conference on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement this week at Holy Cross College, in Worcester, Mass.
At 4:30pm at the Rehm Library is a public presentation by Robert Ellsberg and George Horton.
Mr. Ellsberg was managing editor of the Catholic Worker newspaper during the last years of Dorothy Day’s life. As editor-in-chief and publisher at Orbis Books, he’s written extensively about her, and edited books of her diaries and letters.
Mr. Horton is a Holy Cross alum who serves as Catholic Charities New York Director of the Department of Social and Community Development. He is working on Dorothy Day’s sainthood cause on behalf of the New York Archdiocese.
“Building and Sustaining Nonviolent Communities” at Agape this Saturday
It’s time for the annual “Saint Francis Day” at the Agape Community in Ware, Massachusetts. This year the centerpiece is a talk on “Building and Sustaining Nonviolent Communities” by the great Mike Baxter.
Mike Baxter with an axe
Annual St. Francis Day at Agape Community: Saturday, October 3, 2015, 10am-evening * 2062 Greenwich Rd., Ware, MA 01082 * 413-967-9369
Please bring a brown-bag lunch and food to share for dinner.
Mike Baxter’s talk will be at 10:15am.
“Mike Baxter is a professor of Religious Studies at Regis University in Denver, CO. A co-founder of Catholic Worker houses in Phoenix, Arizona and South Bend, Indiana, Mr. Baxter also served as the national secretary of the Catholic Peace Fellowship.”
The Pope, To Congress, Namechecks Dorothy Day And The Catholic Worker
I follow everything Pope Francis does with interest, and so far his trip to the US has been a real treat. But I was not prepared for his address to Congress to include my great hero Dorothy Day as one of four great Americans. Nor was I prepared to hear him name the “Catholic Worker movement” that has so shaped my adult life. Via Rocco Palmo, here’s part of that speech. The mention is brief enough that I’d call it more of a namecheck than anything else.
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