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Over the past week I’ve been reading up on the Catholic Worker Movement. The “movement” began back in the 30′s during the lowest points of the great depression. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded the movement with Day crediting Maurin for the underlying philosophy.

I finished up “Apostle to the World” which is Day’s biography of Peter Maurin. What intrigues me about Maurin’s philosophy are his keen predictions on the potential problems capitalism could bring. Maurin believed the only true economic solution rests with sustainable land and craft based communities focused on the use of goods as opposed to profit. Many modern readers would perhaps write him off as a crazy cook ranting against modernity and the materialistic joys that capitalism brings but Maurin to his defense proposed an alternative rather than just being a cultural critic. His call for the first “green revolution” were decades ahead of his time.

Maurin profoundly observed the dangers capitalism posed to the ecology of the Earth by the default view that natural resources and raw inputs could continue being devoured at an extraordinary pace without creating lasting damage. Keep in mind Maurin is writing in the 1930′s this was before the “oil crisis” of the 70′s and threats of global warming. He anticipated hyper globalization and the growing divide between the haves and the have nots.

Many Catholic Worker Houses continue in the States regardless of the fact that the movement was highly marginalized during World War II. The strictly pacifist approach of the popular “Catholic Worker” newspaper set the movement at odds with popular sentiment. This stance placed the movement at the fringe of society and lessened its impact on Catholic thought.

Maurin in many ways emulated St. Francis. He lived in voluntary poverty and devoted the latter half of his life towards service of others. He criticized the religious right as secularists who though comfortable with their prayers and piety failed to live out their faith. Catholic thought should always be followed with Catholic action. To rob thought of action is to half-ass the Gospel. This dualism afflicts many a modern bourgeois Catholic. I’d throw myself in with that lot. The challenge of the Gospel is always there. The response to Christ’s love calls us out of and beyond our own wants and desires. This message turned the world upside down 2,000 years ago and led to a new social order. The lived Gospel has the power to do the same today …. but do we have the courage to embrace it?

What if Catholics in large numbers embraced a more simple way of living: less consumerism, more authentic community, and the downgrading of the profit motive? In some ways it feels as if this movement is rising to the surface challenging the comfortable mostly affluent Catholic population to embrace more fully the Gospel. There is a new and growing attraction to the profound and often forgotten social teachings of the Church. Perhaps our minds and hearts have been opened by the current economic crisis.

If Peter were roaming the streets today he would probably offer many of the same criticisms. He was irritated most by the indifference to the Gospel he found amongst those who were materially blessed. Perhaps our affluence and wealth has produced a new dualism where we like our religion on Sunday but not if it threatens to upend our lifestyle. Our sloth to study and the blatant disregard in the west for the latest encyclical would trouble Maurin. But alas the grace of God continues to do it’s work.

Below is a little video I’ve always enjoyed I think Maurin would have approved of its message.