The Original Catholic Worker’s deliberate Alternative to Communism

“May the first…not be your last”. Catholic Worker 92 years old this month. The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, International Labor Day, on May 1, marked ninety-two years since Dorothy Day distributed 2,500 copies of The Catholic Worker in Union Square, boldly competing with the Communists’ The Daily Worker, and quickly edging it out in popularity, printing more… Read More The Original Catholic Worker’s deliberate Alternative to Communism

May 4, 2025May 4, 2025 SDHLeave a comment

Thoreau on “News” Media As the “Ruling Powers”

Cynical news media daily turn many a local story, especially calamities, into national or international stories for political and financial purposes. The media bosses reap all the profit by spreading fear and shattering nerves. Motives are often far from noble despite all the self-righteous pretense. Henry David Thoreau anticipated this and there is lesson in… Read More Thoreau on “News” Media As the “Ruling Powers”

March 22, 2025March 22, 2025 SDHLeave a comment

The Real Dorothy Day

“A major area of distress for [Dorothy Day] in the 1970’s was what seemed to her the erosion occurring in the spiritual life of her fellow Catholics, including those in the Catholic Worker movement. More than ever Catholics seemed attentive to social issues she had been raising for forty years, but they were increasingly neglectful… Read More The Real Dorothy Day

December 1, 2024November 29, 2025 SDHLeave a comment

Ross Douthat’s Horrific Account of Illness

Thinking of Fleeing to the Country to Beat the Crises of the Times? It would be wise to listen to Ross Douthat’s experiences first! Lyme Disease. (With Rod Dreher and Kale Zelden.) One must be prepared. And educated in country living. “In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the [Catholic] New York Times columnist tells the story of his… Read More Ross Douthat’s Horrific Account of Illness

July 26, 2024May 5, 2025 SDH

An Alternative to Trump-Biden-Harris. The American Solidarity Party.

The American Solidarity Party is based in the tradition of Christian democracy. We acknowledge the state should be pluralistic while upholding a vision of the common good of all and of each individual conscience informed by Christian tradition and acknowledging the primacy of religion in each person’s life. Our Principles 1. Sanctity of LifeHuman life… Read More An Alternative to Trump-Biden-Harris. The American Solidarity Party.

December 2, 2023November 4, 2024 SDH

The Dethronement of Truth

by Dietrich von Hildebrand. “Although the dethronement of truth manifests itself in the most drastic and radical way in Nazism and Bolshevism, unfortunately many symptoms of this spiritual disease are also to be found in democratic countries. In discussions we sometimes hear the following argument: “Why should your opinion be more valid than mine? We… Read More The Dethronement of Truth

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 SDH

Is Reading Fiction a Waste of Time?

How do we experience life? What is it to be human? How do we see? What is the relationship between reading and history, reading and science, metaphysics…empathy, philosophy, religion and art? …More. — How to Mark a Book by Mortimer Adler — The social disaster: Children who frequently check social media face significant brain changes

January 3, 2023January 4, 2023 SDH

On Personalism. Peter Maurin.

A stoneis not an individual.You can make little onesout of big ones. A treeis an individual.It comesfrom a germ.“Only Godcan make a tree,”says the poet. A horseis an individual.The horse is notan individualthe way the treeis an individual.It has animal life. Man is an individualand has animal lifelike the horse.Man has also reason.which the horse… Read More On Personalism. Peter Maurin.

December 10, 2022December 11, 2022 SDH

Are We “Personalists”?

The New Oxford Review. In our October [1987] symposium, Thomas Molnar, an authority on all things French, threw out the intriguing morsel that the New Oxford Review seems to be following in the footsteps of Esprit, the French Catholic review founded in 1932 by Emmanuel Mounier (who lived from 1905 to 1950). Although we would… Read More Are We “Personalists”?

October 19, 2022November 27, 2022 SDH

The Image of God in Our Turning Techno-logical Moment

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to… Read More The Image of God in Our Turning Techno-logical Moment

April 27, 2022April 27, 2022 SDH

7 Reasons Why Henry David Thoreau Still Matters Today

By Laura Dassow Walls | Jul 21, 2017Publishers Weekly Laura Dassow Walls’s definitive biography, Henry David Thoreau: A Life, is an amazing achievement, a merger of comprehensiveness in content with pleasure in reading, following Thoreau’s progress as a writer and also as a reader, as well as his social and political involvements and scientific pursuits.… Read More 7 Reasons Why Henry David Thoreau Still Matters Today

December 29, 2021February 18, 2024 SDH

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Category: Personalism