Welcome to our Thanksgiving edition. Forty years after her death, Dorothy Day is still seen by some as the seminal Catholic figure across the 20th century. During the pandemic, one NCR commentator writes about how she is finding peace by baking pies. And music for your Thanksgiving listening pleasure.
For 40 years now the Catholic Church, New York City, the hungry and homeless, the poor and walking wounded — indeed the whole world — have done without Dorothy Day.
But Dorothy Day's influence abides. So much so that some have seen her as the seminal Catholic figure across the 20th century. Her cause for sainthood has been initiated even in the wake of a lifetime that included allegiance to the Communist party, affairs, an abortion, divorce, an out-of-wedlock birth, two suicide attempts and a youth colored by excessive drinking, chain-smoking and a lurid vocabulary, as well as estrangement from her father and older brothers.
Her biographical details notwithstanding, Pope Francis told his Washington audience and millions of TV viewers during his September 2015 address to Congress that Dorothy Day and Trappist Monk Thomas Merton were for him exemplary Americans. Put them in the pantheon with Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, the pope's other picks, and these two Catholic figures, who knew each other through correspondence, form a twin set of sin and repentance.
You can read more about Dorothy Day's influence here.
With her family celebrating alone like many others are, Renée LaReau is planning on ordering takeout for this Thanksgiving. But she will still be baking a couple of fresh pies. It is what she does, she writes — during pandemic times, anyway.
"You see, since our city first went under lockdown in March, I have baked nearly 50 pies," LaReau writes in a commentary for NCR. "Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, I had baked three, maybe four. I blame Instagram for this madness — madness that has also brought extraordinary comfort, connection and meaning in the past seven months."
That's how it all began for LaReau, scrolling through Instagram, her eyes landing on an image of a beautiful cranberry-apple pie made by a baker in London.
"I haven't quit my day job and enjoy it too much to do so, but pie-baking has become my number-one spiritual practice," she writes. "In part this is because some of my usual means of praying — playing flute at Mass and reading spiritual books — are now inaccessible to me due to safety protocols and a compromised ability to concentrate (thanks, anxiety)."
You can read more and see photos of LaReau's pies here.
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Final thoughts
Each week, we pull together letters to the editor from readers like yourself. This week, we are publishing responses to Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez's announcement of a working group to examine President-elect Joe Biden's "confusing" stance on abortion. You can join in the conversation by following the guidelines here.
I won't have a newsletter tomorrow as NCR will be closed to celebrate the holiday with our families. But look for a newsletter with new weekend content Saturday.
Until Monday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
