"In an era of active 'red menace' hatred, she [Dorothy Day] openly declared, 'I can say with warmth that I loved the Communists. I worked with and learned much from them. They helped me to find God in His poor, in His abandoned ones, as I had not found Him in the Christian churches.'
"She was probably the first devout Catholic to join the picket line at Cardinal Spellman's chancery. Their relationship continued to be tumultuous as he supported the Vietnam War, and she pointed out the irony of 'sprinkling holy water on scrap metal to be used for obliteration bombing.'
"She knew that the church was a harlot, but also our mother. She wrote, 'As a convert, I never expected much of the bishops. In all history popes and bishops and father abbots seem to have been blind and power hungry and greedy. I never expected leadership from them. It is the saints who keep appearing all through history, who keep things going.' She found so much richness in Catholic mysticism and spirituality, she didn't waste time lamenting the shortcomings of a human institution. Never did she glorify community, but, in a eulogy for a difficult resident, described 'the heart rending and soul searing experiences we have in living together.'
"Dorothy's clear-eyed pragmatism speaks to the twenty-first century. When a priest encouraged her to write more about the 'joys of poverty,' Dorothy could think only of a neighbor, widowed with nine children. The five-year-old had TB, from too much winter cold and too little food. Dorothy couldn't call that anything but grim endurance."
