Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story (2020)

This 57-minute documentary aired in March of 2020 to coincide with the release of a new biography about Dorothy Day (1897–1980) by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph, Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century (2020). If you can't read that definitive biography, or the family memoir Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty; An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother (2017) by Kate Hennessy, this film is a good proxy. It captures the inspiration and many complexities of the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Day was an adult convert to Catholicism from a bohemian background. An anarchist who embraced the hierarchical Catholic Church. An ardent pacifist, peace maker, and advocate for the poor. She paid local taxes but refused to pay federal taxes, and was on Hoover's FBI watch list as a "dangerous American." She was an orthodox Catholic and a political radical who was nonetheless profoundly at odds with both secular and religious institutions. She never voted, never registered as a socialist, and despite many accusations, was never part of the Communist Party. She protested the Vietnam war but opposed the excesses of the counter culture of that day. One person described Day as an "autocratic ascetic." Her failures as a mother to her only child Tamar were well known and much discussed by those who knew her, not to mention a source of profound grief to Day herself. The chaos of the CW houses of hospitality was legendary. Nonetheless, in the year 2000 the Catholic Church began its official process for the canonization of Dorothy Day as a saint.  

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net