Is Dorothy Day Canonizable?

Every day I pray to Dorothy Day: I ask her (along with Catherine Doherty and St. Mother Teresa) to help me to receive the presence of Christ in the very least. I am morally certain she is in heaven. But is she canonizable? That is up to God, of course, as he grants the miracles. But it is at the same time a prudential judgement of the Church: that this person is exemplary and will inspire and direct us in the right way. The life of Day presents three serious impediments: her early life, her family legacy, and her political ideology. She famously had a number of passionate non-marital affairs as well as an abortion. In my view this enhances her case for sainthood. She follows in the steps of sinners-turned-saints like St. Mary Magdallen, St. Augustine, St. Mary of the desert and others. She lived out most of her life in chastity and was firmaly assertive of the Catholic sexual ethic. The abortion is an even greater asset as she would be (to my knowledge) the first post-abortive saint and would be an immense comfort and encouragement to those who have erred in this painful way. More serious is her family legacy. Kate Hennesey's biography of her grandmother "The World Will Be Saved By Beauty" is a most tender, intimate, affectionate and yet heart-breaking (for a Catholic) account. Her daughter Tamar suffered a kind of neglect as Dorothy was so consummed with her work and it seems that the eight grandchildren do not practice the faith in a consistent way. There was tons of love and lots of wonderful values but also hurts and wounds. We Catholics concern ourselves with "state in life": marriage and family or the religious or priestly state. For a parent, the most important goal is to pass on our faith, the salvation of the souls of our children. Dorothy was an outlier, an exception, an eccentric: neither married nor consecrated. Yet, she combined sublimely aspects of both. Her lover refused to marry her but they remainded close throughout their lives including in the care of the grandchildren. She was passionately devoted to and close to Tamar and the children. Even as she lived a life of poverty that would put most religious to shame. Since I have been reading a lot of Heather King who so appreciates the eccentric, wounded, interesting, disorderly, chaotic, holy ones I will argue that this also is strangely an asset for canonization. Many of us, perhaps most, do not fulfill so neatly the paradigm of spousal or evangelical life: uncommitted, divorced, ex-priests, and so forth. But the Heather King sensibility sees that holiness flourishes even in the messy, chaotic, troubling conditions of life. Dorothy would be the patron saint as well of the eccentics, the unsuccessful, the strange and weird! More significant for me is her political ideology. She was a militant, assertive pacifist and anarchist. Militant! Everybody knows this about her: she resisted World War II; she would not pay taxes; she distrusted the police and would not call them for help; she disparaged capitalism, government, even unions. She wanted everyone to go off to Catholic Worker farms and live simply and peacefully off the land, reading good books and going to daily mass. She was a utopian, a dreamer, and an idealist. Now this is not itself sinful or wrong. Catholic social teaching is open to a range of political philosophies. (But not those that contradict basic values: Nazisim, Communism, pro-abortion Democrats). At the Eucharist libertarians, socialists, anarchists, globalists and partiots gather to celebrate a union that is deeper than political views. But clearly there was an imbalance in Dorothy. Her's was a fierce feminine, maternal psyche that was never balanced by a masculine, paternal influence. There was tension with her father, her lovers abandoned her, her mentorpartner Peter Maurin was himself a brilliant and holy but idealistic and dreamy intelletual, and the priest who influenced her in spiritual direction presented a kind of repressive Janseenist Catholicsm that seemed to damage her vulnerable daughter's faith. So she demonstrated an inordinate aversion to the distinctively masculine and paternal: police, government, military, business enterprise, and structures of discipline and authority. Catholic Worker communities are notorious for the disorder and chaos of real anarchy. However...and this is BIG...she was deep in her soul absolutely a daugher of the Church (filial, obedient, trusting) and a bride of Christ (virginal, pure, chaste). So, at the deepest level...below ideology and politics...she is a saint. Here again she could be the patron saint of those ... on the right and left...who feel left out of the industrial, technological, meritocratic, hierarchical, bureaucratic order. She has a special place in heaven and the Church, as heaven on earth. It doesn't matter to me if she is canonized as I will pray to her until I die and hopefully go to join her. But if God has a Heather King sensibility (and I am morally certain that he does), he will throw a few miracles her way!