A Radical's Search for Meaning The Story of Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day was a radical journalist who shocked the conscience of many a patriotic American. She opposed the entry of the US into both world wars and wrote blistering columns about nuclear arms and American foreign policy. But it wasn't just her writing but her acts of nonviolence. She was arrested eight times for marching on picket lines and the FBI had her high on the list of those accused of sedition.

After converting to Catholicism, she initiated a network of dining rooms that provides food and shelter for the poor. Her radical views never changed, however. Her canonization is now in the hands of the Vatican, and those who promote her cause are haunted by the same issues she was: the blight of homelessness, the sin of racism, the insanity of war, the worship of money, the futility of life without religious faith. Those questions are as relevant today as they were in the last century. If anything more so.

Monsignor James Murphy of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, has served as editor of the diocesan newspaper, "The Catholic Herald," diocesan director of communications, pastor of three bilingual parishes, rector to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and vicar general of the diocese. He hold a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and is author of "Saints and Sinners in the Cristero War: Stories of Martyrdom from Mexico" and "Beauty and Horror in a Concentration Camp: The Story of Etty Hillesum."