Pray the Work: Working towards the Social Good at the New York Catholic Worker

• In Event: 114 - Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Thicker Concepts in Altruism and Social Solidarity Research

Abstract

Maryhouse is one of two Catholic Worker houses of hospitality located in New York City's East Village. Run and staffed by volunteers, many of whom live in the community, Maryhouse continues to do the work of its co-founders, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, who sought to address issues of poverty and isolation in New York City using a philosophy of personalism as their basis. Functioning as a soup kitchen, intentional lay community, newspaper publication site, Catholic chapel, and provider of a number of social services, the Catholic Worker house is a space of tensions among the convergence of religion, the social good, and community. Understanding the Catholic Worker as a community can offer insights into an alternative model of social service engagement -- one that is intentionally horizontal in its mission and places personal dignity at the center of their practice. This paper draws on seven months of participant observation at the New York Catholic Worker and interviews with long-term and recent volunteers to offer a case study of alternative forms of social arrangements and social service provision, in particular one oriented towards and deeply committed to community and solidarity.

Author

• Samantha Nicole Jaroszewski, Princeton University