Catholic Understanding Of Human Dignity In Pacifism By Dorothy Day

The catholic understanding of human dignity draws upon the principle that human life is the foundation of the vision of our society. Nonetheless, anything that threatens this principle (which in simpler terms states that all human life is valuable) is therefore a failure in our execution of not only this principle but also in maintaining human dignity. In her denunciation of war and call to pacifism, Dorothy Day’s short essays help to draw upon the Catholic understanding of human dignity not only by emphasizing the value of each individual human, but also by advocating for a different approach to promoting peace which incorporated a level of hospitality as portrayed in the Catholic Worker Movement which she helped to start. In various sections of her short essay Pacifism, Day emphasizes the value of human life. For example, when describing her (the Catholic Worker) position on war, Day states “we will not

Day’s approach to peace based on hospitality was far different from that of Gandhi’s around the same time in which the latter resorted to a form of protesting and creating a visible conflict in order to bring out the truth. Thus, while Day’s approach was much visible to the public, it was still rather effective. In her short essay “Our country passes from undeclared war to declared war”, Day described her approach to hospitality as one which involved, “taking care for the sick and wounded, growing food for the hungry, continuing all works of mercy in houses and farms”. This approach to hospitality included not telling people what they should do which made it even more appealing to have a part in this community. This allowed for people who would have generally been unseen to now be seen and was one of the first proofs that we could achieve a desegregated