Reflections on the Catholic Worker Movement IV

The Catholic Worker Movement seems to have imitated the Apostolic Church well in its desire to “share all things in common” (Acts 2:44). While it is not altogether apparent that those who lived within the Houses of Hospitality nor the Communitarian Farms shared every possession in common, it does appear that there was a sense of willingness to share what they did possess, and it is even more explicit that they expected such behavior of those people who were able to give from their abundance. Thus, for instance, the Houses of Hospitality were able to procure and distribute clothing for the needy; those who had outgrown or had grown tired of their clothes passed them on to the more needy through the able hands of the Catholic Workers. Likewise, the produce raised by the Communitarian Farms was used for the sake of distributing among not only the farm workers themselves, but the needy within the cities. Further, the fact that the Catholic Workers provided bread for the hungry during the long cold years of the Great Depression goes far to suggest their desire to share, in a communal sort of way, the food and other daily necessities with which God blessed them. While these characteristics do not strictly adhere to the model presented Luke's Apostolic Church, they do seem to reflect a certain sense of communal living that was part and parcel of the Catholic Worker Movement's daily life.