Peter Maurin
What the Catholic Worker Believes
The Catholic Worker believes
in the gentle personalism
of traditional Catholicism.
The Catholic Worker believes
in the personal obligation
of looking after the needs of our brother.
The Catholic Worker believes
in the daily practice
of the Works of Mercy.
The Catholic Worker believes
in Houses of Hospitality
for the immediate relief
of those who are in need.
The Catholic Worker believes
in the establishment
of Farming Communes
where each one works
according to his ability
and gets according to his needs.
The Catholic Worker believes
in creating a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new,
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy,
a philosophy
so old that it looks like new.
The Law of Holiness
“No man can serve two masters,
God and Mammon.”
“Be perfect
as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
“If you want to be perfect
sell all you have, give it to the poor
and follow Me.”
• New Testament
“These are hard words,”
says Robert Louis Stevenson,
“but the hard words of a book
were the only reason
why the book was written.”
In his encyclical on St. Francis de Sales
the Holy Father says:
“We cannot accept the belief
that this command of Christ
concerns only
a select and privileged group,
and that all others
may consider themselves
pleasing to Him
if they have attained
a lesser degree of holiness.
Quite the contrary is true,
as appears from the generality of His words.
The law of holiness
embraces all men
and admits of no exception.”
Counsels of the Gospel
Someone said
that The Catholic Worker
is taking monasticism
out of the monasteries.
The Counsels of the Gospel
are for everybody,
not only for monks.
Franciscans and Jesuits are not monks.
Franciscans are Friars,
and the world is their monastery.
Jesuits are the storm troops
of the Catholic Church,
and ready to be sent
where the Holy Father
wishes to send them.
The Counsels of the Gospel
are for everybody,
and if everybody tried to live up to it
we would bring order out of chaos,
and Chesterton
would not have said
that the Christian ideal
has been left untried.
Works of Mercy
In the first centuries of Christianity
pagans said about Christians:
“See how they love each other.”
The love for God and neighbor
was the characteristic
of the first Christians.
This love was expressed
through the daily practice
of the Works of Mercy.
To feed the hungry,
to clothe the naked,
to shelter the homeless,
to instruct the ignorant
at a personal sacrifice
was considered
by the first Christians
as the right thing to do.
Surplus goods were considered
to be superfluous,
and therefore to be used
to help the needy members
of the Mystical Body.
Feeding the Poor – At a Sacrifice
In the first centuries
of Christianity
the hungry were fed
at a personal sacrifice,
the naked were clothed
at a personal sacrifice,
the homeless were sheltered
at a personal sacrifice.
And because the poor were fed,
clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans used to say
about the Christians
“See how they love each other.”
In our own day
the poor are no longer fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
but at the expense of the taxpayers.
And because the poor are no longer
fed, clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans say about the Christians
“See how they pass the buck.”
Tradition or Catholic Action
The central act of devotional life
in the Catholic Church
is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Sacrifice of the Mass
is the unbloody repetition
of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
On the Cross of Calvary
Christ gave His life
to redeem the world.
The life of Christ
was a life of sacrifice.
We cannot imitate
the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary
by trying to get all we can.
We can only imitate
the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary
by trying to give all we can.
Laborare et Orare
The motto of St. Benedict was
Laborare et Orare, Labor and Prayer.
Labor and prayer ought to be combined;
labor ought to be a prayer.
The liturgy of the Church
is the prayer of the Church.
People ought to pray with the Church
and to work with the Church.
The religious life of the people
and the economic life of the people
ought to be one.
St. Francis of Assisi
According to Johannes Jorgensen,
a Danish convert living in Assisi,
St. Francis desired
that men should give up
superfluous possessions.
St. Francis desired
that men should work with their hands.
St. Francis desired
that men should offer their their services
as a gift.
St. Francis desired
that men should ask other people for help
when work failed them.
St. Francis desired
that men should live as free as birds.
St. Francis desired
that men should go through life
giving thanks to God for His gifts.
A New Society
To be radically right
is to go to the roots
by fostering a society
based on creed,
systematic unselfishness
and gentle personalism.
To foster a society
based on creed instead of greed,
on systematic unselfishness
instead of systematic selfishness,
on gentle personalism
instead of rugged individualism,
is to create a new society
within the shell of the old.
Tawney’s Book
When in 1891 Pope Leo XIII
wrote in his encyclical
on the condition of labor
he emphasized
the lack of ethics in modern society.
When in 1899 Thorstein Veblen
wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class
he emphasized the same thing.
R. H. Tawney, then an Oxford student,
learned that when the Canon Law,
that is to say the Law of the Church,
was the law of the land
there were high ethics in society.
So R. H. Tawney decided to study
how society has passed down
from the high ethics of the Canon Law
to the no ethics of today.
What R. H. Tawney found out
about the history of ethics
of the last five hundred years
is embodied in his book
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
Five Books
If you want to know
what industrialism has done to man,
read Man the Unknown ,
by Dr. Alexis Carrel.
If you want to know how we got that way,
read A Guildman’s Interpretation of History,
by Arthur Penty.
If you want to know
what it is to be a bourgeois,
read The Bourgeois Mind ,
by Nicholas Berdyaev.
If you want to know
what religion has to do with culture,
read Enquiries Into Religion and Culture
by Christopher Dawson.
If you want to know
what to do with freedom,
read Freedom in the Modern World
by Jacques Maritain.
A New Movement
The Nazis, the Fascists and the Bolsheviks
are Totalitarians.
The Catholic Worker
is Communitarian.
The principles of Communitarianism
are expounded every month
in the French magazine Esprit (the Spirit).
Emmanuel Mounier,
editor of the magazine,
has a book entitled
La Revolution Personnaliste et Communitaire .
Emmanuel Mounier
wrote a book entitled
A Personalist Manifesto.
Emmanuel Mounier
has been influenced by Charley Péguy.
Charles Péguy once said:
“There are two things in the world:
politics and mysticism.”
For Charles Péguy as well as Mounier,
politics is the struggle for power
while mysticism
is the realism of the spirit.
For the man-of-the-street
politics is just politics
and mysticism is the right spirit.
In his Personalist Manifesto
Mounier tries to explain
what the man-of-the street
calls “the right spirit.”
The Personalist Communitarian
A personalist is a go-giver,
not a go-getter.
He tries to give what he has,
and does not try to get
what the other fellow has.
He tries to be good
by doing good to the other fellow.
He is altro-centered not self-centered.
He has a social doctrine of the common good.
He spreads the social doctrine of the common good
through words and deeds as well as words,
for he knows that deeds speak louder than words.
Through words and deeds
he brings into existence a common unity,
the common unity of the community.
They and We
People say:
“They don’t do this,
they don’t do that,
they ought to do this,
they ought to do that.”
Always “They” and never “I.”
People should say:
“They are crazy for doing this
and not doing that
but I don’t need to be crazy
the way they are crazy.”
The Communitarian Revolution
is basically a personal revolution.
It starts with I, not with They.
One I plus one I makes two I’s
and two I’s make We.
We is a community
while “they” is a crowd.
Economics
Kropotkin says:
The economic problem
is not an economic problem.
It is an ethical problem.
The Irish Monks and the Reconstruction of the Social Order
The Holy Father and the Bishops
ask us to reconstruct the social order.
The social order was once constructed
through dynamic Catholic Action.
When the barbarians
invaded the decaying Roman Empire
Irish missionaries went all over Europe
and laid the foundations of medieval Europe.
Through the establishment of cultural centers,
that is to say, Round-Table Discussions,
they brought thought to the people.
Through free guest houses that is to say,
Houses of Hospitality,
they popularized the divine virtue of charity.
Through farming communes,
that is to say, Agronomic Universities,
they emphasized voluntary poverty.
It was on the basis of
personal charity and voluntary poverty
that Irish missionaries
laid the foundations of the social order.
Scholars and Workers
The Holy Father
asks us to reconstruct the social order.
The social order was once reconstructed
after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Irish scholars
were the leaders
in the reconstruction of the social order
after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Through Round-Table Discussions
scattered all over Europe
as far as Constantinople
the Irish scholars brought thought to the people.
Through Houses of Hospitality
the Irish scholars exemplified Christian charity.
Through Farming Communes
the Irish scholars
made workers out of scholars
and scholars out of workers.
Share Your Wealth
What we give to the poor
for Christ’s sake
is what we carry with us when we die.
As Jean Jacques Rousseau says:
“When man dies
he carries in his clutched hands
only that which he has given away.”
Fighting Communism
The Catholic Worker
proposes fighting Communism
the way the first Christians
fought pagan Romanism,
through the Works of Mercy.
The Catholic Worker
proposes fighting Communism
the way the Irish scholars
fought pagan feudalism,
through Round-Table Discussions,
Houses of Hospitality,
Farming Communes.
The Common Good
The doctrine of the Common Good
of St. Thomas Aquinas
is still a Catholic doctrine.
We don’t need a new doctrine,
we need an old technique
of the first Christians and the Irish scholars.
What was good
for the first Christians and the Irish scholars
ought to be good enough for us.
What was practical for them
ought to be practical for us.
Usurers Not Gentlemen
The Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
forbid lending money at interest.
Lending money at interest
is called usury
by the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
Usurers were not considered
to be Gentlemen
when people used to listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
When people used to listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
they could not see anything gentle
in trying to live
on the sweat of somebody else’s brow
by lending money at interest.
Out of the Temple
Christ drove the money changers
out of the Temple.
But today nobody dares
to drive the money lenders out of the Temple.
And nobody dares
to drive the money lenders out of the Temple
because the money lenders
have taken a mortgage on the Temple.
When church builders
build churches
with money borrowed from money lenders
they increase the prestige
of the money lenders.
But increasing the prestige
of the money lenders
does not increase the prestige
of the Church.
Which makes Archbishop McNicholas say:
“We have been guilty of encouraging
tyranny in the financial world
until it has become a veritable octopus
strangling the life of our people.”
Better and Better Off
The world would be better off
if people tried to become better.
And people would become better
if they stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become better off
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everybody is better off.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be
what he ought to be
if everybody tried to be
what he wants the other fellow to be.
Christianity has nothing to do
with either modern capitalism
or modern Communism
for Christianity
has a capitalism of its own.
Modern capitalism
is based on property without responsibility,
while Christian capitalism
is based on property with responsibility.
Modern Communism
is based on poverty through force
while Christian communism
is based on poverty through choice.
For a Christian,
voluntary poverty is the ideal
as exemplified by St. Francis of Assisi.
while private property is not an absolute right,
but a gift which as such can not be wasted,
but must be administered for the benefit of God’s children.
Rich and Poor
There is a rub
between the rich who like to richer
and the poor who don’t like to get poorer.
The rich,who like to get richer
turn to the Church
to save them from the poor
who don’t like to get poorer.
But the Church can only tell
the rich who like to get richer,
“Woe to you rich,
who like to get richer,
if you don’t help the poor
who don’t like to get poorer.”
Utilitarian Philosophers
After a century of Protestantism,
England and Scotland
saw the coming out of a philosophical thought
known in history as Utilitarian Philosophy.
While Luther and Calvin
discarded the authority of the Church
the Utilitarian Philosophers
discarded the authority of Divine Revelation.
They tried to convince themselves
and convince other people
that the Church and the Bible
were a handicap,
rather than a help,
in man’s striving towards the good life.
Futilitarian Economists
The Utilitarian Philosophers,
Hobbes, Locke, Hume,
were followed by the Futilitarian Economists.
Adam Smith, Ricardo.
The Futilitarian Economists
thought that religion
had nothing to do with business.
They thought that everything
would be lovely
if everybody took in each other’s washing.
They thought
that everybody should try to sell what he has
to sell to the highest bidder.
Cult, Culture, and Cultivation
When the Irish scholars
decided to lay the foundations of medieval Europe,
they established:
Centers of Thought in all the cities of Europe
as far as Constantinople,
where people could look for thought
so they could have light.
Houses of Hospitality
where Christian charity were exemplified.
Agricultural Centers
where they combined
(a) Cult—that is to say Liturgy
(b) with Culture— that is to say Literature
(c) with Cultivation— that is to say Agriculture.
Unpopular Front
The Unpopular Front
is a front composed of:
Humanists,
who try to be human to man;
Theists,
who believe that God wants us to be
our brother’s keeper;
Christians,
who believe in the Sermon on the Mount
as well as the Ten Commandments;
Catholics,
who believe in the Thomistic Doctrine of the Common Good.
Barbarians and Civilized
We call barbarians
people living on the other side of the border.
We call civilized
people living on this side of the border.
We civilized, living on this side of the border,
are not ashamed to arm ourselves to the teeth
so as to protect ourselves
against the barbarians living on the other side.
And when the barbarians
born on the other side of the border invade us,
we do not hesitate to kill them
before we have tried to civilize them.
So we civilized exterminate barbarians
without civilizing them.
And we persist in calling ourselves civilized.
War is Hell (Pie in the Sky)
Bourgeois capitalists
don’t want their pie in the sky when they die.
They want their pie here and now.
To get their pie here and now
bourgeois capitalists
give us better and bigger commercial wars
for the sake of markets and raw materials.
But as Sherman says,
“War is hell.”
So we get hell here and now
because bourgeois capitalists
don’t want their pie in the sky when they die,
but want their pie here and now.
Bolshevist Socialists,
like bourgeois capitalists,
don’t want their pie in the sky when they die.
They want their pie here and now.
To get their pie here and now,
Bolshevik Socialists
give us better and bigger class wars
for the sake of capturing the control
of the means of production and distribution,
But war is hell,
whether it is a commercial war or a class war.
So we get hell here and now
because Bolshevist Socialists
don’t want their pie in the sky when they die,
but want their pie here and now.
Bolshevist Socialists
as well as bourgeois capitalists
give us hell here and now
without leaving us the hope
of getting our pie in the sky when we die.
We just get hell.
Catholic Communionism
leaves us the hope
of getting our pie in the sky when we die
without giving us hell here and now.
1600—Banker
Before John Calvin
people were not allowed
to lend money at interest.
John Calvin
decided to legalize money lending at interest
in spite of the teachings
of the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
Protestant countries
tried to keep up with John Calvin
and money-lending at interest
became the general practice.
And money ceased to be
a means of exchange
and began to be a means to make money.
So people lent money on time
and started to think of time in terms of money
and said to each other, “Time is money.”
Blowing the Dynamite of the Church
Writing about the Catholic Church,
a radical writer says:
“Rome will have to do more
than to play a waiting game;
she will have to use some of the dynamite
inherent in her message.”
To blow the dynamite of a message
is the only way
to make the message dynamic.
If the Catholic Church
is not today the dominant social dynamic force,
it is because Catholic scholars
have failed to blow t
he dynamite of the Church.
Catholic scholars
have taken the dynamite of the Church,
have wrapped it up in nice phraseology,
placed it in an hermetic container
and sat on the lid.
It is about time
to blow the lid off
o the Catholic Church may again become
the dominant social dynamic force.
Ambassadors of God
What we give to the poor for Christ’s sake
is what we carry with us when we die.
Pagan Greeks used to say
that the poor “are the ambassadors of the gods.”
To become poor is to become an Ambassador of God.
A Modern Plague
Catholic laymen and women
commit the great modern error
of separating the spiritual from the material.
This great modern error,
known under the name of secularism,
is called a “modern plague” by Pope Pius XI.
The Money-Lenders’ Dole
There were no money lenders
on the payroll in Palestine and Ireland
because the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
forbid lending money at interest.
But Uncle Sam does not listen t
o the Prophets of Israel
or the Fathers of the Church.
We Need Parish Homes As Well as Parish Domes
Bossuet says
that the poor
are the first children of the Church,
so the poor should come first.
People with homes
should have a room of hospitality
so as to give shelter
to the needy members of the parish.
The remaining needy members of the parish
should be given shelter in a Parish Home.
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXVI, No. 3, May-June 2006.
